What is a Last Mile opportunity?
Why should I post an opportunity here?
How do I search for an opportunity that is suitable for me?
Why should I answer an opportunity?
What kinds of opportunities can I upload?
What sorts of details should I include?
What sorts of people will answer my opportunity?
Can I put a time limit on my opportunity?
How do I upload an opportunity?
How should I organise my application?
Will I be able to get a job from this site?
How can I find more information to help me to answer the opportunity?
What questions should you ask about the opportunity?
Get to know your buyer or employer!
Who else can I contact for help?

A Last Mile opportunity could be a voluntary placement, a commission or freelance contract, a fixed-term contract or full- or part-time employment. Opportunities exist to help you to get your first step on the ladder and get real experience of the field in which you want to work.
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Many employers want to reap the proven benefits of recruiting from a diverse pool of talent, but most of the cultural and creative industries don?t yet have the infrastructure to easily locate suitable candidates. Posting an opportunity on the Last Mile web site guarantees that it will be looked at by diverse creatives that you may otherwise not have access to.
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You can search opportunities using keywords that relate to the area of work that you are interested in, or by location. For example, if you are looking for a break into video editing, you could enter the words ?video? and ?edit? into the search box. Relevant results will come up on the right-hand side of the screen, and you can click on the ones that interest you. You can also search by locations, which are arranged via a dropdown menu. This gives you a choice of locations in London, the North West, Yorkshire, Slough and the West Midlands, or if you are able to be flexible about where you work, you can choose to search all locations.
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You may be brilliant at what you do, but without experience, it?s unlikely that anyone is going to employ you. It?s a big catch ? you can?t get work without experience, and you can?t get experience because you?ve never worked. The Last Mile will help you break through that cycle by allowing you to apply for real projects that are actively recruiting diversely. Remember, your first opportunity may not be your dream job, but once you?ve got your foot in the door, you?ll find it much easier to work up towards where you really want to be.
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A Last Mile opportunity could be a voluntary placement, a commission or freelance contract, a fixed-term contract or full- or part-time employment. Opportunities exist to bridge the gap between new entrants to the creative industries and potential employers, to allow new creatives to gain experience in the field in which they want to work and to open up a new pool of talent to employers looking to recruit outside of their normal channels. Remember that, in most cases, you will be giving someone their first break into the industry, so think creatively about how you can provide useful experience for them while your organisation benefits from their different outlook and experiences.
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When writing your opportunity, you should include all the details that you would normally put in a job vacancy, such as: your name and contact details, the job description, experience required, the terms of employment (whether it is full-time or part-time, fixed term or permanent, paid or voluntary). Bear in mind that many applicants will not have much experience of reading and answering advertisements, and keep your language clear while being as informative as you can about the opportunity that you are offering.
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Last Mile opportunities are open to all registered users of The Last Mile web site. These users are new, diverse entrants to the creative and cultural industries who have a recognised talent and have completed some form of training in the field in which they wish to work.
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Yes, you should treat the opportunity as you would a normal job advertisement, and include any information that you need to secure an appointment within your timeframe.
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You need to be a registered user of the site to upload an opportunity. Once you are registered, click on the ?My Account? button, and this will take you into your personal section. Click on ?Opportunities? at the top of the page, and the ?Add? button will bring up a page of text entry boxes that allow you to add your opportunity. Make sure you include as much information as you can:

• the Title should describe the opportunity that you are offering clearly and concisely
• the Keywords will be used by creatives searching for opportunities, so make sure they are spelled correctly and relevant to your opportunity
• the Project should be your project title
• the Summary should be a short description of the opportunity that you are offering, giving key information without much detail
• enter the details of the opportunity in the Description box, making sure that you include as much information as possible while keeping your language clear and simple
• add any additional information in the Notes
• the Publish Date is the date on which your opportunity will be added to the Last Mile web site
• the Expiry Date is the date that we will remove your opportunity from the site
• you can add any supporting documents that applicants to your opportunity may find helpful by uploading them under ?More information?. This could be a company brochure or a description of a previous project. Insert the file name, using the 'Browse' facility to locate the file on your computer.

Click on the ?Preview? button to view your opportunity. Check through the details you have entered to make sure that you have included all the information that your applicants will need, and that your opportunity is as clear and informative as possible.

Once you are happy with the information, press ?Add? to upload your opportunity.

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The first thing to remember is don?t panic. Don?t rush your application and don?t send anything off until you?re ready ? but make sure you make the deadline.

Read and re-read and read again all the information you have from the person offering the opportunity.

Then leave this to settle a while in your head. Think about what they want and about what you have to offer.

Now try and talk to someone ? colleagues, friends, mentors ? about your thoughts. Use this to make sure you understand what the opportunity is asking for. If there?s something you want to know, write it down and ask the person who has put up the opportunity. Don?t be afraid to ask sensible questions ? being interested is a good sign ? but beware of bombarding a potential employer, this could put them off.

Write down everything you can possibly think of about you and about the opportunity. Don?t worry if it?s not in order, or if it doesn?t seem to make sense at this stage. Organising these thoughts is the next step.

Read the opportunity again and reread what you have written. Start to break down the opportunity into separate words or phrases and relate your talents and experience to each individual section that they are asking for. This will help you to organise your response, and make sure that you haven?t missed anything out.

Once you?ve finished, read it through a few times to make sure it makes sense. Sometimes it can help to read it out loud. Then check carefully for mistakes and correct any that you find. Lastly, make sure it is well presented.

When you?re happy that you?ve done everything you can, send it off and sit back and wait for a response.

Don't be afraid to ask questions if you're not successful - it can be helpful to know why you weren't chosen, in case it is for reasons that you can fix for next time. Good luck!

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The Last Mile is designed so that employers can search for your skills and look at your showcase, and you can use the opportunities to apply for jobs and experience in real projects. In the beginning, you may have to think creatively about what a ?job? means ? the opportunity offered may be long-term or it may be only for a single day, it may not be paid as well as you would like (though it should cover your expenses), it may not be exactly the role you are looking for. Think of these early opportunities as small stepping stones on the path to where you want to go, and you will find that lots of small projects add up to good, solid experience that will help you get to where you want to be.
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You are right to want to find out as much as you can before answering an opportunity: the more you know about the project, the easier it is to make your talents and experience fit with what they are looking for. Take time to research the company providing the opportunity. Search for them on the Internet. If they have a web site, visit it and have a good look around. If not, they may publish a brochure or other promotional material ? don?t be afraid to phone them and find out. The Last Mile Resources may contain links that will help you, and don?t forget to check out the Last Mile Courses to help you through every step of making the best of yourself.
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If you are making contact with an employer, or with someone who wants to buy your work, make sure that you sound positive and that you use the opportunity to your advantage.

The kinds of questions that you might ask should be:

• intelligent: try and impress them with what you already know
• directly relevant to the information supplied: don?t ask questions just to keep the conversation going
• helpful: for instance, find out if there is anybody else in their organisation you can talk to for more specific information on a particular topic
• showing some of your ideas: if you have some initial ideas about the project, do share them. This will give you an idea if they are right and will give the buyer confidence that you know what you are doing.

Try not to be too aggressive in your questioning. Many employers and buyers struggle to write a brief or provide the right information, and you don?t want to make them look like they don?t know what they are doing!

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A major part of winning any project is your relationship with the person who is buying the project, whether it is a job that is offered or someone wanting to buy your work.

People choose to work with individuals or companies both because they are good at what they do and also because they seem to be easy to work with.

In other words, you might be chosen for a job because of your abilities and creativity ? you can deliver the job and you can do it in an interesting and relevant way. But you might also be chosen because you get on with the person buying the work from you.

What this means is that at a major part of your efforts in winning a job should be getting to know the person who is buying the work. The problem is that this isn?t always easy. From a practical point of view, they may not be available or want to talk to you and you may not have the time or the inclination to force yourself on a stranger!

You need to find other ways of communicating with the buyer to make them feel comfortable that you will be reliable and good to work with.

One way of doing this is to ask questions about what they want, to clarify exactly what they are expecting and to create an ongoing dialogue with them around the answers and further questions.

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You may be surprised by how many people you already know can help you with this opportunity.

You may have all or any of the following:

• friends, teachers, tutors, mentors
• your college library and librarians, your careers adviser
• your Last Mile contacts.

These people are your network, and you should feel able make the most of their help. Some of them will ask you for help, too.

• someone who?s done the job you want to do
• someone who might have a completely different opinion to you.

Ask them to help you, too.

Once you start thinking about it, you will be surprised how many people are willing to help you to win a project!

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