Working at Watershed

Watershed people at Undershed

At Watershed, people are our priority

We are a cultural cinema, Café & Bar and research & development space (the Pervasive Media Studio).

We are welcoming, kind and adventurous. We support each of our people to bring their whole self to work and seek to be inclusive with our recruitment and across every area of our business.


Hear from our people

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The information in this video is also available as the Working at Watershed transcript with visual description below.

Current jobs

Head of Development. Closes

Benefits

As well as becoming part of our brilliant team, benefits of working for Watershed include:

  • Two free cinema tickets every week.
  • 50% staff discount on selected Café & Bar menu items whilst at work.
  • 30 days holiday, rising to 35 after two years’ service.
  • Taxi home if you finish work after 10.30pm.
  • Wellbeing support including a free 24 hour counselling and information service.
  • British Sign Language training for all employees.
  • Hybrid working in many non customer-facing roles.
  • 3% employer contribution to a workplace pension
  • City centre location on Bristol’s harbourside with great transport links.

Watershed values

 As a registered charity and social enterprise, Watershed has well established brand values. We worked with our staff, audiences and partners to update our values and behaviours to reflect the organisation we want to be, our values speak both to the organisation we are, and the one we aspire to be:

  • Inclusive
    We listen to and learn from our community, creating equity and addressing harm where it occurs
  • Transparent
    We share our approach openly and clearly, working at a pace which enables everyone to participate who wishes to
  • Responsible
    We use our resources generously and sustainably, considering our impact on future generations
  • Kind
    We are careful and caring with ourselves and with others
  • Hopeful
    We celebrate culture, creativity and wonder as paths to a better future

We apply our values in everything we do, and ask partners, suppliers, collaborators and audiences to do the same.

At Watershed, we are dedicated to tackling the climate emergency. We are committed to minimising the environmental impact of our activities, ensuring sustainability is a strategic priority so we can work towards a brighter, fairer future.

We believe our work will be stronger with greater diversity and particularly welcome applications to work at Watershed from those who bring balance to our team.

Watershed welcomes the whole person to work and we understand that each of us brings our experiences, our backgrounds and our own unique lens to what we do. Supporting our staff means they are not appointed to represent specific groups or organisations.

We actively encourage job applications from those who may not have worked in a cultural organisation before, or in an organisation like Watershed, by offering support to applicants from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the cultural sector (please see individual job descriptions for details).

Watershed wants all employees to have the opportunity to participate equally in the workplace and will make reasonable adjustments to support access needs.


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Join us

Keep an eye on our jobs page and social media channels to discover how you can be a part of our story. As well as our jobs, we also have a diverse range of other opportunities – such as talent development programmes, artist residencies and filmmaking competitions.

We also work with a variety of people on a wide range of other activities that enable audiences to discover, connect and be creative at Watershed.

Get in touch if you have an idea that you think we should know about.

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Working at Watershed transcript with visual description

Audio Visual
[Furaha] For me, it's been quite an eye-opening experience to join Watershed because this career change is unlike any that I have ever attempted before. Working at Watershed has given me the chance to finally indulge my inner creative that I feel I've had to suppress to get by in my career in the past. Watershed logo. View of the Watershed building from the harbourside. A staff member is seen at work on the Box Office desk. Quick cuts to kitchen staff and exterior shots of artwork on the building facade. A poster inside Watershed reads "I feel like it's a place where I belong."
[Kat] Working at Watershed just feels like a really accepting place, a place where I kind of can be myself, but also where I can learn and grow, and I think it's a place where you can step outside and think differently and take risks and I really appreciate that. A person is making notes on paper. People are having a brainstorming session, sharing ideas and writing their thoughts on a large sheet of paper.
[Lucy] It's the first job where I saw people who looked like me and I felt included. A chef finely chops vegetables and prepare food to be served.
[Tony] Watershed is really excited to try new things and to wear that on its sleeve a little bit. So some things work really well, some things maybe don't work so well, but there's a real kind of a group effort towards creating change, I think, and kinda seeing where change can come from and what that change can be. A cinema ticket is placed under a custom built scanning device. A group of people sit at a table having a meeting. People sitting down are focusing on a speaker.
[Ailsa] Our DMs are super supportive and really look after us, which is lovely, way more than in any other job that I've had. People participating in an exercise of play with much energy and cheering.
[Mark] For me, each day is different, it's dynamic and there's so much change and difference that happens in the organisation. Cinema 1 signage above an entrance. A staff member opens the door and we enter. Quick cuts of different events that have occurred in the cinema involving prominent artists and experts such as Edson Burton and Mark Kermode.
[Bernie] It's a beautiful building. It's light, it's airy. It's on the Harbourside in Bristol, which is one of my favourite spots in Bristol. What's not to like? The corridor to the cinemas at Watershed. The harbourside with the Watershed building in view.
[Marta] What I love the most about Watershed is the people. Well, not just the people that work for the organisation, but anyone that collaborates with us and clients and customers and everybody is just happy to be here. People sitting at a table outside enjoying Undershed, Watershed's harbourside cafe & bar. A greeting is translated in many different languages on signage in Watershed's stairwell. A close-up of plants and fairy lights in the cafe bar.
[David] It's not stuffy. That's definitely something I looked for in life, not a stuffy job. People sitting on bean bags while a small robot crawls around the floor. Two people share a moment as they laugh.
[Luke] I've been supported through some really difficult stuff and I'm still here and I still feel enabled to do my job. There can't be many places that can do that for people. Multiple screen devices displaying hundreds of thumbnail photographs while a person with a child walks past. Two people stand at a desk getting involved with a studio resident's project. Timelapse of passersby at the entrance to Watershed.
[Suki] If I was talking to myself about applying to Watershed, I wouldn't think about it, I would just go for it, because there's just so much to be gained from this Watershed experience from what it has to offer in growth, in personality, in meeting people, in everything it has currently and will have in the future. A barrister starts to make a coffee. A bar tender pours a pint, makes drinks, and pours a glass of champagne. The barrister expertly puts the finishing touches on a cappucino. Two pints are placed on a serving tray.
[Jon] There are other places where it's just, well, "I don't wanna go in today." "Oh, I didn't wanna go there." But I'm up and I'm out and I'd never feel like like that, which is quite good, I think. Watershed building exterior on the harbourside. Close-up of Watershed signage outside the entrance and of the signage on the stairs in the foyer. Someone skips up the stairs. Interior shots of the cafe and bar and the Pervasive Media Studio. Watershed staff in a Zoom meeting waving goodbye.
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