You may not have thought of it, given people's reservations about the commute and also the high cost of living, but London has been named in several recent surveys as the "best city to work in the world".
The capital claimed first place above the likes of Sydney and Amsterdam in the Global Finance report with London's "strength in culture, accessibility, and surprisingly strong population growth" pushing it above and beyond every other city in the world.
London also came top in a Glassdoor survey - named the UK's best city for job satisfaction. It beat the likes of Brighton, Bristol, and Oxford.
At Truffle HQ, we have been seeing a rise in some really exciting creative jobs in the capital, so we think now is as good a time as ever to drop our 5 reasons why you should work in the capital.
We're kicking things off with the commute. With fewer people on the tubes and overland trains, things are a lot less congested post-Covid than they were before.
According to the Financial Times this week, "travel via the Tube to the City of London is about half of what it was before coronavirus hit."
Sure, travel is still pricey, but at least you stand more chance of getting a seat and making it to work looking less like Worzel Gummidge.
London, despite Brexit, is still seen as the technology capital of Europe with hundreds of start-ups blossoming in the city and around 32 companies at unicorn status.
We can also assure you that employment is strong, given the number of jobs coming through. Staffing levels at Britain’s tech firms increased at the fastest rate on record in the last quarter of 2021 and three million people, or 9% of the UK workforce, are employed in the industry. Following a £13.5bn investment into UK tech in the first half of 2021, companies are hiring big time.
An obvious one, given the cost of living is higher, but the average Designer salary in London is £55,843. This is 22.8% more than the average national salary for Designer jobs. The average London Designer salary is 26.0% more than the average salary across London. As women founders, we know the pay gap for females still needs addressing, but women are still better paid in London than anywhere else in the UK. The Body Shop recently analysed 40 cities across the country to assess where women are paid the most, wages in London for women were by far the highest at an average of £45,500.
If you're working in London, chances are you're going to want to let your hair down and enjoy a night out or maybe go exploring during your lunch break. London is the place to do it with art and design playing an essential role in London’s incredibly unique cultural scene. According to Timeout mag, there are an estimated 1,500 permanent exhibition spaces in the capital, most of them free. So, whether you’re looking for contemporary or classical, modernism or old masters, there’s going to be something to spark your interest.
For example, if you head to the Design Museum you can catch the brilliant exhibition that's on right now called Football: Designing the Beautiful Game. There you will see more than 500 pieces from the world of football from films and interviews to boots and posters and can look at the design ideas behind the world's most famous football stadiums, kits and clubs, as told by some of the game's most famous names. Knock off work early and catch it before the final whistle blows.
Address: Football: Designing the Beautiful Game, The Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High Street, London W8 6AG
Website: designmuseum.org
Dates: until Monday 29 August 2022
This is probably our fave thing to do in London and us Trufflers have been known to have an extended working lunch as a team on quite a few occasions!
London is arguably one of the world’s most influential restaurant cities, and is now home to a slew of chefs who have been redefining food, not only that, but London boasts some of the best bars and coffee shops and after two devastating years for the hospitality industry, any excuse to raise a glass or eat some truffle laced steak is a welcome one. Indeed only this week GQ Magazine held their eighth annual Food & Drink Awards presented by Veuve Clicquot, where a record number of the public voted for their hospitality favourites. London-based restaurants and hospitality titans took home 13 of the 16 awards handed out, including Mayfair’s Indian restaurant BiBi which was crowned GQ’s Best Restaurant for 2022.
We truly believe this is another bonafide reason to work in the capital. The options are endless. Don't take our word for it, check out this great little run-down of some of the places to eat in the city: www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/best-restaurants-in-london.
So that's it, our 5 reasons to work in London. Now obviously, you're going to need a job first. So that's where we come in and we'll be glad to help. Head here to see all our latest jobs in design and creative in and around the wonderful capital that is London.
It might not come as a surprise to many that we're seeing more and more hybrid jobs being registered with us at Truffle Talent. In fact, almost all our live jobs right now require a degree of flexible hybrid working, whereas before creatives were traditionally expected to work in studios and be present 5 days a week in-house.
The change we're seeing is the same for permanent and freelance workers.
Indeed the effects of the pandemic have, in part, led to around 87% of UK businesses adopting hybrid working habits, and employees now value “work from anywhere” flexibility as much as a 10% pay raise, according to new research.
Whilst the issue of hybrid working has been questioned by some, citing productivity concerns and tactical issues around observing and coaching employees, all the signs so far suggest that hybrid working elevates productivity and doesn't hinder it.
Research by PwC that draws upon the views of almost 4,000 business and HR leaders from 26 countries and regions and 28 industry sectors shows that most companies have boosted workforce productivity and performance during and after the pandemic. The survey found that:
"Remote and hybrid working has provided a short-term productivity boost in most workplaces, with 57% of respondents saying their organisation performed better against workforce performance and productivity targets over the past 12 months, compared to a mere 4% saying their company performed significantly worse in that time."
Our research might be a little cruder... In a recent poll we conducted on our own Linkedin Page we asked people whether they were more productive at home, the office or in another space. The results? Drum roll...working from home.
There are a lot of compelling reasons for a shift to hybrid working. In a recent research study by Envoy, the biggest return-to-work deal-breakers are long or expensive commutes (35%), a disregard for Covid safety precautions (31%), no flexibility in work hours or days spent in the office (28%), and dealing with challenging or chatty coworkers (21%).
It would seem people are not so fussed about those water-cooler moments after all.
Of course, for the design industry, there's the whole question of how you stay creative as a team.
In a recent article by Creative Review co-founder of DixonBaxi, Simon Dixon revealed how his agency had embraced a hybrid working model and also implemented a 4-day working week while still putting creativity front and centre of what they do. He said: "We were honest with our team that while we were never going back to a five-day week, we believe being together is important. Creativity is tribal.”
DixonBaxi works flexibly on Mondays and Tuesdays and has face-to-face studio time on Wednesdays and Thursdays. They keep Friday mornings flexible and the studio closes at lunchtime so people can recharge. It's working for them.
Ultimately every organisation, agency, creative outfit, and this includes freelancers, are different. It's important we remain agile and open-minded about flexible working and embrace the benefits of it. Employee wellbeing is more important than ever, and employees expect employers to support their work-life balance.
We believe businesses need to recognise these changes and put in place the support that will encourage wellbeing among staff so that they can retain the best talent be that at home, the office or anywhere else for that matter.
The creative market is moving very fast, despite signs that the economy is slowing down, and now the expectations of creatives and designers are as high as ever. But help is at hand from us Trufflettes with our simple tips on how to stay relevant in the creative industry.
Learn New Skills
Get yourself onto a course, there is so much going on within strategy, development, user experience, product and service design, and so much to learn. There are online courses if you’re stuck for time and meatier 3-month quickfire courses like the ones at the General Assembly. We are also huge fans of Udemy and Treehouse which we know many of our candidates have used in the past - they will help you quickly acquire some extra UX/UI knowledge and take your skills to new levels.
Redesign Your Folio
Portfolios can fast look dated, make sure you’re always looking to improve and add to yours. Look to redesign the layout, look to re-platform your website, your folio is your shop front. You need to lure people in and keep them interested, make them want you. Take a look at other designers' portfolios who you admire; how are they doing it? What makes them stand out? Use your creative eye and always critique your work. You should be spending a couple of hours each week keeping your folio up to date. Start now.
Keep Connecting
While the word "networking" is slightly grating at times, there's something to be said for chatting to the right people in your field or attending local networking events. Following designers and creatives on social can also be useful, not only to inspire you but also for a spot of online mentoring. The wonderful Marcus Michaels on Instagram is great for that and often dishes out coding tips or answers questions from those looking for advice.
Embrace Change
You can't run from it or hide from it so you must embrace it! Don't be worried about failure, all the great entrepreneurs have made mistakes and fear should never hold you back. Change is good and is vital if you are to stay relevant in the creative industry. As Elbert Green Hubbard, the artist and philosopher once said: "The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one."
Good luck, and remember to visit our jobs board for all our latest roles: wordpress-545250-1747525.cloudwaysapps.com/jobs
Interviews for most people are pretty nerve-racking experiences, so being as prepared as you can is key. Of course, that's not exactly rocket science, it's just common sense - but it's easier said than done. Here are a few simple tips from us Trufflettes to help you along the way so you can nail the ultimate job in 2019...
01 | Be honest. If you don't know something admit it, don't try to BS your way through it. What a car crash that would be. Also, do tell them your expectations, and talk through what you're looking for. Tell them what you think of the brand, the role, where you excel, areas of improvement. Honesty is always a good thing. Straight talking works.
02 | Be yourself. As headhunters, we know that people hire people. The skill set and experience are, of course, important, but what sets you apart from the next person will be your personality. Get to know your interviewer, ask questions, be friendly. Try not to feel intimidated, we are all human.
03 | Research. Please research the role, the company and the people you are meeting. Why? When you feel well informed you will naturally relax into conservation. We've all had those casual interview chats where they blindsided us with something we could've known if we had only researched! Then it all went downhill from there.
04 | Wear something comfortable! What you wear has a big impact on how you feel, make sure you find the perfect balance of awesomeness and comfort. You do not want to be sitting there fidgeting uncomfortably or sweating away, or wincing because your pants are up your bum, even worse, all of that at the same time! You simply will not be the best version of yourself. Relax, feel good, and be amazing.
05 | Push the negatives aside. 60% of us have had bad jobs that we lose sleep over. That's most people. It knocks our confidence and makes us question our value, both inside and outside of work. Don't start your next chapter in the past. Focus on your own future, your gain, on you!
06 | Practice. You might prefer watching paint dry to running through a series of interview questions over and over again before the big day, but it pays dividends. Get a friend or your partner to be the interviewer firing questions your way. When the nerves kick in you'll have trained the brain to structure your answers and won't be rattling around inside your head seeking out case studies and the like. Sure, it's fine to inject a different kind of energy on the day so you're not giving canned responses but knowing what you're going to say and the examples you'll use will give you a 'power up' in the room.
07 | The 1st 5 Minutes. Like it or not, some research shows that employers make a decision on whether they should employ you or not in the first 5 minutes and then spend the rest of the interview looking for things to confirm that decision. While that sucks, give yourself the best chance of success by greeting the interviewer properly and come in with bags of enthusiasm so you stand out. We wouldn't advise practising your one-liners at this point! Be your lovely self.
So, good luck and don't forget we've lots of jobs to fill so if you're looking for perm or freelance roles, please take a look here and you might be putting these tips into practice for real!
It's that time of year when we all scratch our heads and wonder how on earth Christmas has come around again so quickly, and now the enormous task of finding the right gifts for all those special people in our lives.
Well, we’ve come up with 7 ideas for creative peeps that will have stockings filled quicker than a Bansky picture getting shredded...
01 Women Design Book
This book really does it for us. As two female bosses, we are moved by these inspirational designers from the world of architecture, product design and digital. It's a brilliant book and one to have out on the coffee table so when you need some magic in your life you can turn the pages and be utterly inspired.
Priced at £20 from Counter-Print.
02 Sakura Pigma Micron Blister Card Ink Pen Set
Who doesn't like a little doodle or a sketch every now and again? With these pens, your creative friend will be in safe hands. The online reviews are great and as the description says you'll "experience smooth, skip-free writing and crisp ink colours that leave consistent lettering and lines every time." It's on Truffle's Social Media Dad's list.
Priced at £1.65 a pen from Graff City.
03 Newby Teas
Every creative needs a nice strong cup of tea to keep them going, and the wonderful guys at Newby have "painstakingly sourced, blended and preserved" some of the world's finest teas. Our pick for Christmas is the Alpine Greeting Silken Pyramid Assortment which is the jewel of their gifting range.
Priced at £35.00 from Newby Teas.
04 Wall Art
The turning of a new year is the perfect excuse to subtly refresh someone's wall and East End Prints is our tip for show-stopping contemporary art. You'll also have the feel-good factor as everytime you buy a print they donate to the Cool Earth Charity. Our pick of the bunch is artist Oshe POP! aka Stu Watkin.
Prices £19.95 upwards from East End Prints.
05 Subscription to Posterzine
Posterzine is the only poster in the world that is registered with the British Library as a magazine. The idea is simple. They comission some of the world's leading visual artists and designers to create beautifully printed monograph magazines that fold out into a large format poster. Your creative friend is going to love getting one of these in the post every month.
Priced at £37 for 6 issues from Posterzine
06 BUBM Cable Bag
As recruiters, we know a thing or two about our creatives and one thing we're sure of is somewhere they'll have a drawer full of tangled cables for all their tech. That's where the Cable Tidy Bag comes in, it stores loads of stuff and can be carried easily in another bag. No more untangling needed, just more time being creative.
Priced at £7.99 from Amazon.
07 Minipresso Portable Espresso Machine
The Minipresso Portable Espresso Machine is genius and the perfect gift for the creative freelancer on the move. It doesn't even need batteries, so working remotely on the hoof, no problem. Simply keep it filled with hot water and coffee grounds and an espresso can be ready within minutes, wherever they chose to work.
Priced at £49.95 from CuckooLand.
By Truffle Talent's Adrian Larkin...
Some people might say the self-portrait I did for my GCSE art project was the scariest thing they've ever seen, it was certainly a horror show from start to finish. But taking a deeper delve into art and the dark-side of Instagram we've uncovered pieces that are equally if not more terrifying...brace yourselves art lovers.
Jamie Betts is a photographer from Virginia, USA who posts some quite spine-chilling photos on his Instagram. Many of the shots from abandoned buildings look like they belong in the upside-down world of Stranger Things. But all hail his brilliance for creating shots that ooze horror, leave the lights on when you leave.
Salvador Dali doesn't need much of an introduction. This painting; "The Face of War", was painted in California in 194o, between the end of the Spanish Civil War and beginning of WW2. Interestingly, Dali has stressed that it was the only work where one could see the true imprint of his hand on the canvas (at the lower right). Now we really are spooked.
Make sure the kids aren't looking over your shoulder when you explore the work of @Mothmeister on Instagram. This pair of artists craft what they describe as scenes from a “Wounderland” where grotesque, emotionally distraught and anonymous characters are accompanied by taxidermy animals. It might surprise you that they've actually amassed a huge following on the platform. They've even launched a book called Weird and Wonderful Post-Mortem Fairy Tales. It's not exactly bedtime reading for us parents.
You thought we'd pick "The Scream of Nature", didn't you? Well, Norwegian painter Edvard Munch had a few foreboding paintings. Renowned for his expressionism and symbolism, in this painting, "Death of Marat I" he shows the stoic murder of famous French Revolution thinker Jean-Paul Marat – confined nearly all day to a bath due to a skin disease. Not pretty.
Dariusz Zawadzki is a modern artist from Poland. His paintings and drawings are right out of the top drawer of a horror flick. From the surreal to the completely grotesque, the great thing about Dariusz is he is a self-taught talent and claims his work springs from dreams and visions. We recommend he takes a natural sleep remedy for that.
We don't know much about this next Instagram artist, Dusty Ray aka SloppJockey but that's probably a good thing. What we do know is, he is from Colorado, makes a living selling his art on Etsy and describes his work as "gouache and oil paint debris". We call it macabre but clever!
Lastly, when we say "Andy Warhol", you probably think pop art paintings and a gold Marilyn Monroe, but he had a dark side. The piece below is called, "The Big Electric Chair" and is based on a press photograph from 13 January 1953 of the death chamber at Sing Sing Prison in New York. It's where American citizens Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for giving information about the atomic bomb to Russia during the WW2. Warhol also played around with police photos of suicides and car fatalities. Right, we're getting the jitters and need to sit in a comfy chair that looks nothing like this one.
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Truffle is made up of experienced and trusted consultants with backgrounds in creative and digital recruitment from leading agencies. Our clients keep coming back to us because we're straight talking, proactive and in tune with our marketplace. We don’t believe in the ‘hard sell’ approach, we're organic in the way we work and this works well for our clients.
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