It’s a strange task, preparing a blog post on a spot of broadcast intern experience I recently undertook in Brighton: perhaps since so much of my opportunity arose from being in the right place at the right time.

The place was the Brighton Institute of Modern Music, where I trained as a vocalist on a one-year diploma, having completed my BA in Development Studies at the University of Sussex in June 2009. The time came when I muscled my way onto a work experience mailing list within the school, normally reserved for students on the degree programme. An unpaid radio broadcast assistant position was posted at Tony Marks’ New Music Show on local station Brighton Juice FM and looked like an exciting combination of music editorial and hands-on experience with bands in the studio. I applied immediately, and had my interview booked by the end of the day. Time to brush up and start listening to the show, huh?

My first task was to research and write up a nine-question interview for new LA band, Girls, before I’d even met Tony. That night I heard my own words crackle over the radio and felt the kind of excitement that’s recently pushed me towards finding work opportunities in the music industry, and world of media in general. Fast forward a few days: I’d managed to get through the interview and was in the studio for my evening shift. Each week I was responsible for setting up the main sound-bites for the show’s highlighted tracks, as well as for preparing interviews with bands on nights when I wouldn’t come in. Alongside great research and editorial experience I was given free gig tickets where I could blag them with friendly Brighton bands, and learned how to think fast and find solutions under the time pressure of the ever-ticking clock in-studio.

Right place, right time and a great insight into the world of small-scale radio broadcasting: so sums up my time at Juice.

Tshepo Mokoena

I was one of those people at university a couple of years ago that had it drummed into her that degrees mattered! If I’m being completely honest, in hindsight, and the mess that has been our economy for the last couple of years, I’m not sure that I would have tried so hard. But that aside, at that moment of refreshing your computer screen every five seconds in heart stopping nerves, I was thrilled to see that I had achieved the results that I wanted and worked so hard for. My mum obviously cried and then fought with my dad about not getting excited enough!

Anyway, I must admit that I was ecstatic! Not just about all those hours, coffees (and red bulls) in the library finally paying off, but the new slight sense of relief I was now experiencing in regards to my job hunt. The ‘it must be easy to get a great job doing exactly what I want’ vibe which my friends and I celebrated and relaxed in the knowledge of for the next week (well a month if I’m truthful).
In hindsight, the economy and headless suits slightly brought my reverie into a premature end.

All I wanted to do was travel when I left university, but I knew that at some point I would want to knuckle down and make something of myself. I didn’t know ‘exactly’ know what I wanted to do, but got stuck into various jobs to try my hand – in property, fashion and pr with a variety of corporate and start up businesses. I enjoyed my jobs and learnt invaluable skills along the way, but got slightly tiresome of being the bottom rung of the ladder, and not really knowing how long my job would be available for.

It was at this point after receiving through the daily vacancy email results and a recruitment company progress meeting scheduled for the following week that I found an advert for an internship at Ivy Lettings.

Now I had always fantasised about working in the travel industry as I think many graduates do these days; the idea of combining a serious career with the travel bug which never truly leaves your system. The internship was to work for a small company holding a niche position in the travel market – offering a ‘home from home’ experience in London for travellers. Having experience in marketing, properties and travel – I applied immediately!

I met Guy in the Westfield’s centre, (perhaps a secret shopaholic?!) and chatted through what I could bring to the company. Only then did I learn that by ‘small company’ it was just 1 person and it was a rare chance to get involved with an entrepreneurial company from its early stages with opportunities for growth all around. I was shocked to say the least but impressed! (And my first impressions were indeed correct with his eyes flickering towards the Mac store and our office now being the Mac showroom of Kensington!)

It is a very different thing working for a small business and even more so when on your first day you move into the new office and organise everything from phone lines and stationary to where the nearest coffee shops are as you haven’t got any kitchen supplies in yet. But without a doubt it allows you to feel part of something new and exciting from the very beginning, and even better, has given me such as diverse role that I don’t think I could ever go back to the corporate side of things.

Working in a small team can feel strange at first and the team meetings are granted a bit strange/pointless with just the two of us. But the over-riding advantage is the vast role variety and opportunities which only a small growing business can offer. No two days are the same, with meeting new clients, new properties, website management and marketing schemes as just a few, as well as business expansion ideas and strategies when you get the time. There are so many new avenues to explore that there is never a dull moment. I believe that business really does work to the motto that you reap what you sow, and just as it was the most satisfying moment seeing those percentage marks pop up on the computer screen a couple of years ok, it is rewarding to read rave reviews on the internet after your hard work and watching the business expand –we’ve just taken on a third colleague!

The best thing about small businesses also rings true with internships – the opportunity to get stuck in and try things! No one can ever be good at everything, but only by trying your hand at diverse tasks and inevitably doing things wrong at some point will teach you your strengths and being able to play to these is key with employers. Being thrown in at the deep end can be daunting, or rather IS daunting but only in hindsight will you realise how many skills you learn and perhaps discover that you never knew you had. Even often overlooked aspects such as the confidence you gain working with unfamiliar people and meeting new clients are invaluable skills which employers will look for (especially in that all important confident hand shake).

The willingness to try and get stuck in is what employers will be most impressed with and might be the deciding factor in turning an internship or opportunity into a full time position.

I think I originally thought it would all be very clear-cut. Finish university, have the summer off and then ‘Bang!’ – straight into the dream job I always wanted… Well it’s a year down the line and I’m afraid to say I’m still looking for it BUT I have spent the last 4 months doing something. Actually doing something every day, having something to get out of bed for and to make weekends feel like they are well-deserved! A friend of mine introduced me to WEXO and after a couple of interviews, I accepted a paid internship.

For the past 4 months, I have been working for new start-up, made.com, an online furniture company, backed by Brent Hoberman, that cuts out the middleman by ordering in bulk and thus delivers at affordable prices. Design or furniture was never something I thought I’d start having an interest in at all so it took a while for me to come round to the idea. My responsibilities here have been varied; I am first port of call for all customer and press enquiries (which can get pretty busy), I also write the design blog on our site and have started doing the copy for product pages. It is a varied role and although I am still trying to explore and pinpoint what I would ideally like to do as a career, it has been an enlightening experience. Working in a small start-up company is educational as you are exposed to all sorts of vocations and involved in many different decisions. Opinions count and working in a small team makes you feel like you’re really part of it.

Since starting here in April, our collection has tripled and we launch a new product every week. This means there is always something to do and with our first deliveries, lots of customers to deal with. This can be quite testing but it does teach you to be patient and deal with all sorts of angry, frustrated or sometimes even happy people!

Looking back over the past few months, this has been time well spent, as I had come to the end of my tether with temping agencies and tedious, unrewarding roles. I have now gained more hands-on experience, feel like a part of something and I’m still not entirely sure what I want to do but I’ve learnt a lot and it has undoubtedly been a good starting point.

Nicola Seagroatt

I’ve just been down at the 2010 Secret Garden Party wearing my other hat as manager of gypsy swing band, Mano de Dios. They blew away the Main Stage on Friday and the Gaia Soundscape Stage on Sunday. I’m not entirely sure what happened in between but bizarrely there was much talk of generals, the humidity and mead. We even found ourselves playing at a gig in Oxford on the Saturday night. What was interesting about going to the festival as a manager though was realising the amount of people involved behind the scenes and seeing how many vocations collaborate to make events like this happen.

I’ve met a lot of WEXO users recently interested in getting into the music industry and I’m lucky enough to share an office with a new era music company. The impression I get is that that most people looking to break into the industry still want to work in A&R – finding the next big band. But with traditional revenues at the major labels in decline due to free downloads etc there’s just not the same requirement or the same kind of job role as detailed in a very amusing way in the book Kill Your Friends (essential reading for an inside perspective on what life used to be like!).

But the thing is that there are plenty of other roles available in the music industry and it’s worth finding out more about jobs in the worlds of synchronisations and publishing or looking at working in the big revenue contributors of Live (e.g. Live Nation) or Merchandising (e.g. Brothers Entertainment Merchandising). We’ve got plenty of music companies on WEXO too.

We’ve got a long way to go but if you’re interested in management, I’d be delighted to speak to you and the most informative reading (if a little dry) I can recommend is The Music Management Bible. Otherwise the video above is me interviewing management maestro Terry McBride on why not to be a Civil Engineer, why to work in the industry and how he sees it changing…

2 weeks to recover and we’ll be back at The Big Chill and Standon Calling (reduced tickets here) on the 7th and 8th August. Hope to see some of you there.

Robin Kennedy
Co-Founder & CEO
WEXO

I have just finished a month-long internship at Carve Consulting, a digital engagement practice who advise clients how to successfully manage their social media strategy and online image.

I became interested in this internship after hearing Paul Harrison, managing partner at Carve, talk at a WEXO ambassadors meeting earlier in the year. His impressive presentation described the effect social media is having in changing the way companies think and operate and made me keen to learn more about what Carve do.

After doing my own research on their website and reading some articles about social media on the Internet, I applied to become a summer ‘twintern’ at Carve. Following an interview with Paul Harrison and Adelaide Harrison, I was offered to join the team for a month.

My experience at Carve has completely surpassed my expectations. Not only were the Carve team extremely welcoming, they have also taught me a great deal. What I loved about the internship was that I was immediately given useful work to do, with real clients to engage with. For instance, even after the first week at Carve I was accompanying the team to meet clients, taking part in devising strategies and helping to write proposals and presentations. I found being able to have this level of input and responsibility was invaluable as work experience.

Looking back on the following few weeks of the internship, I am amazed at how many different projects I was able to work on. In one month I worked on projects for music companies, wine companies, charities, banks and online video companies. What was exciting was that each company required a different strategy and approach, which brought a great deal of variety to the experience and kept it very fast-paced.

My internship at Carve has been a hugely rewarding experience and one that will undoubtedly help me in the future.

This experience has emphasised to me the value of real work experience, which may have a direct benefit for gaining employment in a similar area or provide an invaluable insight into employment opportunities you may have been unaware of to help your career choice.

It all started last summer. I was due to undertake a professional training year as part of my degree. I applied to over 35 different companies went to several interviews and struggled to get anywhere. The only response I kept getting was an email saying “Thank you for attending the interview, but sorry on this occasion your application has been unsuccessful.

Sound familiar….. then carry on reading.

After much consideration I still wanted to gain more experience related to my course International Hospitality & Tourism Management. I decided a bold decision, that if I couldn’t secure a placement, I would try to undertake as many smaller work experience placements as possible.

I found WEXO on my Universities Intranet site and browsed a couple of blogs and reviews then eventually decided to sign up. I thought “£10” that doesn’t sound that much in comparison to what I had already spent on train fares and previous interviews all I had to do was save £10 on a night out and it wouldn’t affect the bank balance.

From the word submit, I gained a couple of responses from companies that actually wanted me and eventually I landed my first job with Ecommo, a website development company for holiday accommodation providers. I was allowed to work from home as their offices were in Dundee and I lived in Southampton (bit of a long commute!). I worked on a marketing strategy project to gain as many new sales for business as possible. I combined this with my current job working three days a week at the golf club.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I did have the odd problem to overcome for example, when I made telephone calls through my Mobile. This is something to look out for.

From there I applied to STA Travel and with a bit of luck I eventually landed a role as a Marketing Assistant. Although this was an expenses only placement, I became part of a strong marketing team and my role included coordinating metro adverts and communicating with the 44 branch managers nationwide. Whilst working for STA I gained a number of important skills as well as meeting many new contacts. Luckily for me as a consequence of my networking skills I secured an internship with one of their Social Media agencies 1000 Heads.

I didn’t stop there. I had a few months before my internship was due to start so I managed to secure a job at the golf club where I worked as a Promotions Executive. I combined my duties behind the bar with gaining as many new golf days and function bookings for the club as possible. This again was a unpaid placement. I eventually went and worked for 1000 Heads where I have to say I gained a variety of skills in the Social Media field. I found it very useful. Although my superiors didn’t take much interest in what I was doing due to there very busy schedules. I decided to use my initiative and talk to other people in the business which eventually led me to do a number of roles for the company including writing a blog.

I am now currently working for Larch Computer Services as a Telemarketing Executive and broadening their social media presences, a skill I developed at 1000 Heads, which without STA Travel, which I applied through WEXO, I probably wouldn’t have achieved! Again this is an unpaid scheme but if my sales technique works then I will receive commission on my sales.

During this summer and I am going to be working for Macmillan Cancer Support another job highlighted on WEXO as a volunteer for the Worlds Biggest Coffee Morning.

You can probably see an underlying theme running through all of my placements – I didn’t get a buck for working for them, but it was the experience I was after and you can’t put a price on experience. It wasn’t all that bad though as I decided to fund my work experience through other means such as eBay (have built up a feedback rank of 50) and car boot sales. In total I have made about £1000.

I have gained a number of new skills too from my work including website design and have recently developed a website of my own and also websites for other clients too, putting into practice what I have learnt. I also enjoy trying out new things, and this summer I have launched a drinks catering service near where I live. I delivered 50 leaflets, offering to serve drinks etc at garden parties. So far I have 5 confirmed bookings. All of these skills have been built from my experiences and entrepreneurial spirit.

To this day I still think, Work Experience is somewhat of a grey area and in some instances it is over exploited by some companies as an opportunity to get in free labour.

I am due to go back to University this October. I have thoroughly enjoyed doing this last year. I have gained more experience than a typical 9 – 5 job would ever have done as I have been allowed to test out my strengths and weaknesses. In comparison to my peers on placement schemes I have done a lot more than just work for one company. I have worked for several different companies in a mixture of industries across a range of marketing roles.

Right that’s enough about me!

What advice would I give to any prospective student who is in my position this year, well yes I have been lucky, but not without instinct. The general perception of students in this day and age, is that we are lazy, this is certainly not true. If you actually can be bothered to motivate yourself then what I did can be achieved.

WEXO has been great for finding a stepping stone into the Industry. Would I say it is worth £10? Yes and No. Yes, as it is great stepping stone to showcase yourself, easy to use and find prospective jobs. No because I think it is unfair for students to have to pay to use it. In most case’s recruitment companies charge the company the fee, I guess it reduces competition amongst students as they will find alternative sources, but in total I think it is unfair that students have to bare the brunt of fee in most cases it is the other way round.

So WEXO is the first stage, once inside the company you have to show that you’re actually worth employing, have a positive attitude and never say no to anything. In addition don’t be afraid to network with as many people as you can, you never know what it might lead to, even if it is a just a beer, a chat or maybe even another job prospect it is well worth it. Without these skills and experience you probably won’t get very far amongst other competitive graduates.

THIS week saw the AGR (Association of Graduate Recruiters) speak about their ideas for unravelling the conundrum of graduate unemployment and recruitment. AND one of WEXO’s favouritest blogs, ‘Dude Where’s my (Career) Blog’ in its infinite braininess has assessed their plans with its usual clarity. We’re throwing our thoughts into the ring and want you to do the same.


SO… Here’s the thing. As Dude points out, the solutions put forward by the AGR’s crack team of 750 employers lack the wow factor, but they do raise some interesting discussion points. AGR solutions sound a little bit ‘me me me’.


FIRSTLY, at their summit this week one thing unanimously agreed upon was that Universities need extra cash from somewhere to stop British Unis rapidly falling off the map as some of the World’s best. But the feeling was that this would come from more top up fees – you know, the ones students up and down the country have already been campaigning against, sitting in tents on cold nights in protest against etc. Needless to say this will not be a popular move.


SECONDLY, there was a call to scrap the government push for 50% of people in this country to attend university. It’s a pretty controversial talking point and a lot of people feel we don’t really need all those graduates floating around a saturated graduate market. It’s a fair point. However, in the name of democratising access to high level jobs this is problematic, no? If only some people get to go uni, then it looks like social mobility may take a blow. In fact Higher Education Minister David Lammy has spoken out about how he feels lucky to have benefited from university despite his poor background, it’s apparently something he’s passionate about.


AND FINALLY, The point Dude picked up on is AGR’s call for universities to teach ‘employability skills’ in degree courses and for students to do more ‘high quality work experience before and after university. Companies are calling for graduates to arrive at their doors ready trained and rearing to go. Dude rightly asks the question:


‘Er, whatever happened to great companies being able to spot candidates’ potential? And training you up, on the job?’ – Dude


Good question. With the increase in top up fees, employers are asking students to pay for their own training, as well as their qualifications. Hmmm. But who can afford to pay for this training more I wonder… companies… or hugely indebted graduates? Given all the hard work many graduates put into companies through internships already, surely young graduate shoulders can’t take ALL the strain of the recession, merely because they don’t have a lot of choice in the matter.


HOWEVER, work experience whilst at uni, in the holidays for example (especially if it’s paid) we DO think is a good idea and can help bridge the gap between Uni and working world. But employability skills are something best taught by the people that require them, no?





That’s ours, what’s your two pence?


Decide for yourself and let us know below – get a bit more info here

Recruiters demand work-ready graduates – but isn’t that THEIR job?

Chloe Musgrave gives insider info on what it’s like as an intern for a charity organisation