By Tom Clark

I never know what to expect of our evenings. Last night’s talks with WEXO about “Recipes for Success” were no exception: four passionate professionals from different corners of the food world gathered in a Palladian church by Centre Point, on the first true autumn evening of the year.

Marco Pierre White, in particular, subverted our expectations. It began when we met him for lunch at his new pub, The Hansom Cab. He held up his hand to illustrate opportunism. ‘See this hand’ he had said, ‘You see it one way, but there are many ways to see it. You see a palm, I see four knuckles. You need awareness of mind to recognise your luck.’

Marco knows how to tell a story. He leant in close to the microphone and spoke as if a mariner over a table in a pub, with deliberate, authoritative pauses; he took us from his dream of achieving three Michelin stars and five red knives and forks to the realisation of that dream, presenting his path as the upshot of many good twists of fate. He told of how, by pure chance, he had come across Le Gavroche as he wandered through London after missing his bus. The next day, he walked in and asked for an interview. Albert Roux took him on.

The moral? Recognise your luck, then strive for perfection and be gutsy as hell.

Niamh Shield’s Eat Like a Girl blog, with its vivid photography and affable tone, gives such a strong impression of her character that I felt I had met her before. She was every bit as affable in the flesh, totally at ease with the ad-hoc format and chatting willingly in her gentle Irish lilt.

She began her blog after a foul day at work, and soon realised it was a natural progression: ‘I’d always loved cooking food for friends, and sharing my recipes with them (too forcefully sometimes!), so with my blog, I just carried on doing that, except now I was sharing with an online community.’ The spirit of the blog is to make recipes simple and accessible.

So why don’t more people cook at home, I asked. It is partly a matter of education: ‘Children aren’t taught to cook in school any more’ she complained. ‘They’re taught English and Maths and History, but not how to prepare food.’

We need to re-acquaint ourselves with the joy of preparation, she argues. I suggest Eat Like a Girl as a first port of call.

Daren Spence, the co-founder of We Are Tea, ‘really, really, really LOVES tea’. He hardly had to say it, such was his dynamic delivery. Would-be entrepreneurs are often advised to begin with a problem, and Spence had delineated his very clearly:

‘Tea had been forgotten. There was an influx – well, I mean an invasion – of the American-style coffee shop. My colleagues were returning to the office with more and more vulgar coffee-based drinks, with sprinkles on top and cream on the top – it was like watching someone going to the cinema with a pop-corn bucket. And all I could get was a tepid cup of crumby tea in a polystyrene cup. I felt left out. I wanted to be part of their gang […] And I was frustrated that the tea industry was just sitting there, resting on its 350-year-old laurels, not doing anything about it.’

Well, Spence isn’t sitting around, and We Are Tea are fighting the tea battle, winning Great Taste Awards (‘The Oscars of fine food’) and supplying such humble outfits as Harrods and Harvey Nichols.

Simon Prockter has just launched one of the most innovative things in food. He is co-founder of Housebites, ‘gourmet take-away, delivered to your door, cooked by a local, top chef.’ (an alternative to pizzas which taste like the boxes they came in). So, which niggling frustrations engendered this great idea?

‘When you think of take-away, do you think of it as a great experience? Do you know who is cooking your meal? [...] Wouldn’t it be great if you could see your chef on the high street, and say “Hey, that’s my chef, you cooked me a great meal the other day!” And that really doesn’t happen.’ Well, for what it’s worth a big thank you to the Housebites chef Andy Oliver (Masterchef finalist), who prepared those delicious nibbles for the interval.

Simon brought speed-dating into Europe with his company SpeedDater; fingers-crossed the matchmaking will continue in the world of food.

For the full story and more inspiring events visit: www.tomaxtalks.com

“Be passionate, be opinionated and always be a problem-solver“. So said our panel at last night’s filmed careers event and launch of WEXO TV, ‘How I Made it in Advertising‘. We were lucky enough to get an intimate and entertaining careers chat from five pros in the advertising world, jam-packed with practical advice and anecdotal lessons. The Tabernacle in Notting Hill hosted our evening in its beautiful and embellished theatre.

On the panel sat Julian Diment (Carphone Warehouse), Rebecca Robins (Interbrand), Nick Foster (T-Mobile), Tanya Hamilton-Smith (JWT) and Robin Garton (MBA). Collectively they’ve worked for and with the likes of Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis, Tesco, Orange, Andrex and Reuters. A pretty impressive but instantly likeable bunch, if we ever met one.

Our audience consisted of everyone from LSE undergraduates, Masters students and careers advisers for schoolchildren to keen WEXO members who’d travelled from as far as Cardiff! Needless to say the atmosphere in the Tabernacle was rather electric, with guests in the running to win a work’s week experience in advertising particularly excited. To begin, each of our speakers zipped us through their background, and how they found themselves on their current career paths. A few central themes arose, which anyone looking to delve into the advertising should consider noting. Pens at the ready:

1. Follow your instincts. When it comes to joining a team, go with people you instantly feel you can gel with. If you’re pretending to be someone you’re not, it’ll show in no time.
2. Relationships are key. Care about the people and brands you work for. Not in a sentimental sense, but in terms of genuinely wanting to push forward their agenda. Those relationships will form the core of your contact base in time.
3. Do your research. Know the brands or companies you aspire to work with, before you find yourself in that interview you worked so hard to nab. With LinkedIn, Facebook and Google at your disposal, any failure to read up will tend to reflect badly on your preparation.
4. Don’t be a slave to the numbers. When you’ve got an idea in a creative position, it’s vital to balance both your own gut feeling and the anticipated demand from market research. You’ll sell yourself short by only responding to one or the other.

After learning how each speaker ‘made it’ in advertising on their own paths we then enjoyed the Q&A session. While I tweeted furiously throughout, our audience came through with questions on the prevalence of social media, importance of corporate social responsibility and recommended academic paths to advertising jobs.

Some particular crackers included a question on whether the panel members would have handled the John Lewis ‘freezing dog’ Christmas ad differently and a personal question about why so few of the panel seemed to be on Twitter themselves! These two are in fact our winning questions for the event: in our promo we had advertised a week’s work experience and subscription (worth £800) to The Reel. We’re happy to announce that Debra Sherman and Lucy Hine are our two winners, and more details will be coming their way today. Well done!

As the Q&A went on, similar themes started to crop up while the panel used stories of their own experiences to illustrate their points. It was particularly interesting to hear about Garton’s adventurous approach to adverts when contrasted with Hamilton-Smith’s self-described ’safe’ angle. Knowing we were sat with one of the brains behind Orange Wednesdays (Diment) was also impressive and inspirational.

All in all, the gist seemed to be: use your skills, resources and creativity to push yourself towards the department you’d work best in. Although the advertising industry is so varied, finding oneself in the wrong area could be disastrous and personally unfulfilling.

WEXO Members can watch the entire event on WEXO TV here or break it down into clips of the Q&As.

Tshepo Mokoena

On Tuesday 8th February we’ll be holding the first of our ‘How I Made It’ official Q&A careers events intended to introduce students, graduates and young professionals to different opportunities and industries in the working world.

We’ll be kicking off with “How I Made It In Advertising: Brands, the Big 4 and beyond…” at 6.30pm on Tuesday 8th February at The Tabernacle in Notting Hill, London – where Jimi Hendrix played his last gig.

WEXO is all about privileged access and we will be featuring a panel of advertising executives who have spent time at the world’s four biggest advertising groups: WPP, Omnicom, Publicis and Interpublic as well as ITV, Orange and Dunhill.

It will follow a BBC Question Time format focusing on pre-polled questions including: “What impact is social media having on the advertising industry?”,“What opportunities are available?” and “Why have some campaigns been so successful?”. There will be a ‘money can’t buy’ prize for the best question which you can submit when you register…

We’re continually hearing that you don’t know enough about the working world to make informed decisions so we’re trying to give you the inside story direct from the people that hold the roles you might be best suited to. Watch this space for the next events, let us know what industries you’d like to hear about below or sign up for the event now.

The idea sprang from the “How I Made it in Fashion” event that WEXO co-hosted with the LSE Fashion Society in November 2010. It featured a panel including the Retail Editor of Vogue, Emily Zak, Chloe Lonsdale, Founder of MiH Jeans and the fashion journalist, Kinvara Balfour. The event was oversubscribed and substantiated the view that young people are seeking more pertinent careers advice. A recent Ofsted survey suggested that one in three schools are failing to give good advice to students about future career prospects. A report by Deloitte said that 95% of young people want employers to be more involved in providing guidance about careers citing that they feel ‘bewildered’ and ‘uninformed’ by the career choices on offer.

The problem we’re seeing daily is that students and graduates don’t always understand the roles on offer and so aren’t necessarily focusing on the ones that they’re best cut out for. This is only exaggerated by a difficult job market. For every 2 people we place there are 8 that we don’t. We’re trying to give all 10 of you the inside story direct from the people that hold the roles you might be best suited to.

There’s always been material available from careers advisers and universities but by filming these events we’re hoping to build up an interesting online archive of enlightening content that will help you understand the career you deserve.

Robin Kennedy

Photos courtesy of Chu Ting Ng at The Qualifiedblog.

It’s hard to believe that another year’s about to fly by, but it certainly won’t be wrapping up without a bit of drama. In case you hadn’t heard, Lord Young suffered as David Cameron’s first advisory resignation casualty two weeks ago. All the uproar centred around his comment that young people of today ‘have never had it so good’ in the current ’so-called recession’. Hmm. This is an interesting one, because the ex-enterprise adviser has been both defended and reviled in the press since.

On the one hand there is the sense that given current mortgage rates, people in the current recession do have a better deal than usual. On the other, we’ve got the prospect of soaring university fees and nearly unrivalled unemployment rates to contend with. So the plot thickens.

However, my goal isn’t to obsess over press speculation and controversy. Instead, it’s to remember the very sorts of ventures and advice that made Lord Young a candidate for his lost position. Check out the video below in which Lord Young talks to our own Robin Kennedy about opportunities for the youth. It’s great to see that he cares about, and believes in the relevance of youth employment. See the original post here too.

Tshepo Mokoena

AS YOU may have noticed, your WEXO profile asks if you want to upload a video. As much as we love to see all the weird and wonderful Youtube offerings you add to your profiles, having a video CV or merely an introduction to yourself on film can massively improve your chances of making a standout application and bagging your role.

But how?!

It’s super duper easy. All you will need is either a camera that records video (lots of mini digital cameras have them nawadays) or a web cam. Either way probably the easiest way to do it is to create an account on youtube if you don’t already have one and follow the simple instructions for uploading a video. [Still confused? Drop us a line on info@wexo.co.uk and we'll help with problems you might have]

What to say?

The thought of making a video of yourself might seem intimidating, but you would be surprised just how into it you find yourself getting. Here are a couple of guideline questions you might want to answer in your WEXO video CV, but remember to be yourself, they are just a guideline:

1) Who are you? – Tell us about yourself.. e.g where you went/go to university, how old you are and where you live etc.

2) What have you done so far? What previous jobs have you done or what experience have you had.

3) What do you want to do in the future? What is your ideal job, what would you like to learn more about etc.

4) Why do you want to do it? What drives you and what appeals to you about your chosen fields?

Here is the WEXO LSE ambassador on camera in her video CV. This might give you a bit of inspiration.

Things we thought were great about Emma’s video:

1) Visuals – If you can make it a bit more interesting… do, but don’t let it distract focus.

2) Examples – Make your point, explain it and then give an example.

3) There was no singing – save it for x factor auditions!

4) It showed planning – Plan what to say before you record it and make sure there’s enough memory on your camera (as WEXO CEO, Robin, kindly demonstrated… see his video CV on his profile here).

Tip to Improve your Profile even if you don’t have a camera or web cam:

1) Try and attach your normal CV to your profiles.
2) Make sure you also complete your WEXO profiles as fully as possible. This will optimise your ranking when we search for candidates with specific skills or interests. For example this week, Mark Summers and Portland Communications are looking for people who can use indesign and Adobe After Effects, so we would search people’s profiles for these words. You get the idea.

We can’t wait to see your video CV!

It’s been a big week on the graduate prospects news front. On the downside, we’ve seen that unemployment has hit record highs of 2.38m (7.2%) – this in the wake of a study claiming that one in four graduate vacancies have completely disappeared (where did they go?). More encouragingly, there have been reports appearing on both public and private initiatives to address these concerns. Not least of these was WEXO’s debut on BBC Television News above! But this was closely followed by Alan Milburn announcing the long awaited Social Mobility Report and the launch of Boris Johnson’s new website Helping Graduates into Work – both on Tuesday – uncanny coincidence?!

Some time ago, WEXO actually went to see the ‘Panel for Fair Access to the Professions’ which compiled the social mobility report at Cabinet Office. They never thanked us for our time and haven’t credited us in the publication. We do realise though that they’ve been busy. The report is reasonably impartial in its observations and bold in its recommendations. But the very term ‘social mobility’ is starting to sound both pretentious and utopian and the ultimate blame for the report’s existence is probably the failure of Labour educational reform (even in a boom economy) to remove the seeds of immobility that start in the playground. If this is going to be any more than a footnote to the Labour party’s last stand then it’s the doors of access that need to be opened (and not just talked about). This is exactly what we are trying to do. In promoting WEXO as ‘it’s not who you know, but who you are’ we are trying to prove that some opportunities might be better filled with big brains (what you know) but many others are better populated with bolder thinking or broader approaches.

Bold and broad are both words that could be used to describe Boris. And the new London-focused initiative (in partnership with our friends The Careers Group) is proactive in highlighting the benefits of internships. The Mayor has stated that he will promote good practice and support it with public sector investment. We like the sound of this and have written to Boris accordingly (apparently he responds within 20 days). The website is largely a pooling of information and ideas to help graduates work out what exactly they want to do and enticingly what exactly they might get paid given a certain degree. Check it out: www.london.gov.uk/graduates

Lord Young has been a serial achiever and helped start The Prince’s Trust when youth unemployment was last the political issue of the day. Variously as Maggie Thatcher’s business adviser and a jumped up car salesman and he’s not lost his touch… We interviewed him at a Prince’s Trust event recently. Here’s what he had to say….

Did anyone else see Merlin on BBC1 at the weekend? I grew up on a staple diet of King Arthur and Robin Hood (albeit in books) and after the reinvention of Robin Hood as a loveable young rogue this time last year it was refereshing to see Camelot repainted with the same brush. In the first episode, “The Dragon’s Call”, young Merlin discovers his destiny by heeding the call from the last of the dragons imprisoned in the caves beneath the castle. Incidentally the dragon, whose voice is provided by John Hurt, was also modelled using the Elephant Man actor’s real life features.

All this reminded me that I recently talked with some dragons myself. We’ll be releasing interviews with ‘Captains of Industry’ every few weeks and for the moment check out what James Caan had to say to me on how to get on in business…