The Ambassador’s Reception
WITH THEIR mere presence the ambassador’s were spoiling us on Friday. We invited all of the WEXO clan down to London for the afternoon – Emanuelle Ronez (at Durham), Ellie Dawkins (Bournemouth), Tiggy Grafton (Bournemouth), George Lumbers (Edinburgh), Philip Leonard (Edinburgh), Nell Fane (Exeter), Rosana Littleton (Exeter), Jack Roberts (UCL), Georgie Humphries (Leeds), Jenny Maguire (LSE), John De Graft Johnson (LSE), Olivia Flatley (Manchester) along with our original WEXO ambassador and organiser of the entire even, Emma Roberts (LSE).
We all met up at East London’s fave members club and were treated to a sort of ‘tomorrow’s world’ (anyone remember that program?!) of the way we communicate online. With plenty of food for thought we then carried our hungry tummies across to Pizza East, Shoreditch House’s sister restaurant to eat, drink and merrily chat about what we all want to do with our lives. Next was the big WEXO competition – they who cometh up with the best idea for WEXO shall inherriteth a bottle of Krug champers!. Very exciting stuff. The winning idea was to have a chat facility on WEXO so that people looking for an internship can have a natter on the site. Well done brainy Jack Roberts and look out for WEXO chat coming very soon!
Please feel free to discuss some of the other brilliant ideas from Friday, were always looking for ways to improve WEXO and who better to tell us that the people who use it!
Jack Receiving his bottle of Krug!
I cannot believe we gave away that bottle of Krug!!!! I really wanted that.. speaking to a French guy from the champagne region over the weekend and he nearly choked the moment I asked if he’d tried it “I ‘ope one day to try it” !!! Amazing.
Hi all,
Thanks again to Wexo for the whole day on Friday, which i thoroughly enjoyed and felt was a great experience, and the bottle of champagne was also a great souvenir.
Since Friday Wexo has been dominating my thoughts, mainly as due to my excitement to be a part of it, and has led me to some more ideas that I think could benefit the company:
Advertising:
· Advertising the on the big websites all university applicants find them self on. The pinnacle of which being http://www.ucas.co.uk- which every single university applicant must use. Sites such as http://www.yougo.co.uk and http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk, which are both huge student networking sites aimed at people who are trying to get the most out of university experience, would also be great sites to expose the company to the right sort of people. Although these sites would attract the viewing of students in the final school/college year, having just gone through the process myself, I believe the earlier you here about services such as wexo and the opportunities it offers, the more focussed you are to giving yourself the best chance of making the most of it (working harder at school, or taking on relevant jobs/work experience on a local basis). As the media continue to report the huge numbers of university graduates without jobs, and the increasingly number of university applicants, it appears merely attaining a degree from a well regarded university is no longer enough, and so being proactive while at university and getting work experience/internships is becoming vital to giving yourself the best opportunity of successful career as a post graduate.
Attracting younger members:
· While the opportunities on wexo may be designed for university students, by advertising wexo to students just one year younger than freshers, it gives them a year to ‘build’ their profile/cv on wexo, ready for their first year of university when employers registered at wexo will be looking for interns. This is where the ability to talk to other, older, wexo members would be great, as younger students with similar interests would be able to find out what others had done in terms of work/extra curricular activity while still in their final year to put them in a strong position when the reach university. I think the idea of ‘building’ a profile may be something worth promoting, helping wexo gain more members with stronger cvs by the time they reach university, and also helping wexo members have the best chance of getting the placements they want.
· Getting people to sign up before university also makes the £10 a much less intimidating prospect. From experience, I am more than happy to pay £10 now, while my own finances are less of a concern. However I expect that at a freshers fair where every stool is after your money, and money is a much greater concern, £10 suddenly becomes enough to cause students to have to ‘have a think about it and come back’.
Increasing what members get for their £10:
· In response to Robin’s question the other day regarding thoughts on the £10 fee, I think its key to keeping wexo as a ‘premium’ service, separating those ‘everyday’ applicants from ‘wexo applicants’. However in terms of adding to the service wexo offers, I thought some kind of feedback on a members CV when they sign up may be a unique and appealing selling point. Just a quick critique of strong areas of a persons CV, and what is in need of a rework, or perhaps what’s missing all together eg. Suggesting people try and take a role of responsibility at school/work to add to CV. For members ‘building’ their profile I think this would provide a short term benefit (as they may not be eligible for placements until the reach university). However, the man-force required to review and critique every CV strikes me as the most obvious problem with offering this.
Hopefully you find some of these ideas useful, and would be great to hear what other people think.
Jack Roberts
Hey,
I thought I would just share a quick idea with you all. It’s very simple and seemingly obvious but I think at this stage of WEXOs development it is important to just get people noticing and knowing about WEXO.
The context of the idea is:
1. If you type WEXO into google the first result is this site
2. Freshers (those in catered accommodation especially) walk the same route to lectures everyday.
Therefore, i thought that simply the introduction of putting stickers with the WEXO logo on them on lamposts, windows, walls, railing etc. that line the route to lectures and in the area where the main body of lecture theatres are.
Hopefully, this will intrigue people and prompt them to search for WEXO on google. Granted this will not make them sign up for WEXO directly but it at least gets the company known and talked about.
Furthermore, once interest has been established we could introduce leaflets with more detailed literature on the company and the benefits of joining it.
Therefore, we would be working with similar methods that clubs use to promote nights. A method i haven’t personally seen being used by recruitment and work experience companies.
Tell me what you think.
Phil
Guys thank you so much for your ideas. It’s so great to have your insight, I think some of the things you’ve suggested could really make a difference to WEXO and we’re looking into all of them more now. So thank you and keep them coming!
Emma
Great. Thanks team. Keep the ideas coming and we’ll compile them all and start putting a proper action plan together… Robin