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

A career is a lifetime investment. You wouldn’t go into a car dealership and buy the first car you were offered, nor would you accept a marriage proposal from a mediocre stranger, just because they’ve asked you. Choosing a career is no different – it’s a decision that’ll be with you for years to come, so take your time and choose carefully.

When I graduated with an MA from Edinburgh during the depths of the global recession, I had to forgo dreams of landing a grad-scheme job in a multinational corporation with years of stability ahead of me. At the same time, I couldn’t bear the thought of being a dogsbody in a dead-end job, working just to make ends meet. Instead I decided to ride out the recession, committing myself to a year of gaining experience and invariably working for free. I moved in with Grannie, ditched the gym membership, and signed up for jobseekers allowance knowing (hoping, praying) that in a years time I would have found the job of my dreams and it would all be worth it.

3 months into my graduate year, and one internship down, I came across the WEXO site, and more importantly came across an internship posting at LeapAnywhere.com. It was one of the only sites that listed jobs for skilled, savvy and interesting grads, with not a ‘sales clerk’ or ‘admin assistant’ role in site. Phew!

(This is now the section where i have to sum up my job and company; an incredibly hard task at the best of times, not least when I’m sitting at my desk, smiling at my boss, and already 100 words over the word limit.)

I rocked up to interview for the role of Charities Associate and felt immediately at home in an office-come-playroom, scattered with Macs, beanbags, park benches and laughter. In a somewhat overly friendly mood, I sat discussing philanthropy, politics and above all giggling with my interviewer for well over 2 hours. When asked if I had any questions I responded with “Do you like marmite?’ “Can you juggle” and “Would you rather have 6ft long arms or knees the size of footballs?”. I had a call the next morning offering me an intern role to start ASAP.

9 months later, I am the full time Head of Charities and Partnerships in an exciting, dynamic and familial internet start-up. I’m the happiest I could imagine, working in a company that begins the week with an ‘Inspiration Session’ and ends with week with ‘Beer-o-Clock’; combines my passions of charitable engagement with creative technological innovation, and offers me responsibilities well beyond my experience (but not beyond my aptitude). I have 400+ Charity partners on my books, and already feel like I’m making waves in an industry I’m professionally and emotionally committed to.

The moral of the story is this:

1. Be honest with yourself and your employer. (Offering my personality in interview paid dividends and meant that I was employed as a person not just a skill set).
2. Find something that makes you happy – don’t ‘settle’ for the first job you come across because you feel you have to.
3. Instead, get the experience you need.
4. Don’t rush your decision, you will find something that ticks all the boxes!

Click here for our YOUTUBE channel, and you can check out our WEXO Profile to view any current opportunities at LEAP ANYWHERE.

Felicity McLean

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.

It strikes me the problem is it’s easy to be good value for money to a company when only being paid expenses – almost whatever positive contribution you make will be a help. But to become essential to everyday working life and worth good money, not to lose takes a different skill set than just being a good intern. I’ve done numerous internships whilst attempting to find a way into fashion journalism, and at times I’ve wondered whether I haven’t fallen into an ‘intern trap’ – forever a great intern, without ever being employed.

Sure I’d had great feedback, people were always sorry to see me go – but with the lack of budget allocated to editorial staff, no one was putting their money where their mouth was. Editorial positions are not advertised with ‘competitive salary’… just ‘salary’.

BUT, finally, I was offered my first paid editorial job – editorial assistant and fashion news writer for a well known website. It was temporary, but a huge validation, confirming months of hard work hadn’t been in vain. In taking my first step (which I was convinced I was overly ready for), despite all my work experience, I realised what a big one it actually was. With jobs so difficult to come by, everyone on the payroll has to pull more than their weight – especially newbies. Value for money will now mean more than an inquisitive nature and an exceptional cuppa. All the great ideas you had as an intern will now have to come more frequently, on demand and into fruition if you’re to meet steep expectations.

I say this not just to prepare you for the fact that dream jobs will be hard work even after you get them – I’m sure by the time you get there you’ll be willing to work hard enough to face those challenges. The experience has shone a bit of light for me on how I could have come across a more employable intern because as I now see it, giving an employer what they may want from an intern and what they need in an employee is often very different. Here are my tips on convincing employers you’re up to the job, not just the internship:

1. Take on responsibility wherever you can – think long term projects, e.g. redesigning any inefficient systems they use. Make their lives easier, but do it all yourself – don’t just have the idea, be prepared to see it through and manage the project from start to finish. Let them know when it’s done and how it makes life easier. If possible be the only one to know how the new system works!
2. When work loads are heavy, ask to do the low priority work of the paid staff – depending on your placement you might be doing this already, but use their state of panic as the opportunity to take on new tasks you haven’t yet been asked to do. This will have the effect of narrowing the psychological gap between them and you.
3. Write a list of everything great you’ve done since being in the placement (if you can, include one unfinished project) and have a list of ideas for the future. Request a meeting with whoever is responsible for your placement, present them with the list, your ideas for the future and say you would like to stay with the company and why. Explain why this would be cost effective for them (all the time you would save them, how much more work could be done overall, what impact this would have on the company etc). Most company budgets are strained at the moment – could they afford to take you on part time?

There are so many more ideas that could help with making the jump. If you think of one, post them below and help fellow impoverished graduates get employed. Or just tell other people your experiences – they really do help.

Ruth Gibbs

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 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.

Last Saturday, WEXO were one of the Exhibitors at The Sunday Times Festival of Education at my old school, Wellington College. This was a unique event with presenters ranging from OW Rory Bremner to Michael Gove MP, Lord Baker to Germaine Greer and the Duchess of Kent to my old economics teacher John McArthur (now at ISCO). I counted 84 speakers in total who waxed lyrical on everything from dyslexia to addiction, the disadvantages of exams (too late) and British schools preparing a world class workforce. I was busy preaching the WEXO word and getting people to guess how many sweets were in the jar (217 – well done Mark Little on 210 – your £50 M&S voucher is on its way) but I did make it to the last of these talks. John Morewood, Graduate Recruitment Manager of HSBC (my old shop), Hugh Husband (McKinseys), Sir Anthony Cleaver (nice red socks) et al discussed how poor numeracy and literacy are from applicants (please at least use spell check for starters). The audience then quizzed the panel about children not knowing what to study for specific vocations (we have just started working with www.u-xplore.com to this very end). At the end, it was particularly interesting to hear the Secretary of State for Education talk about his new ambitions including a return to traditional A-levels with exams at the end of 2 years. Bizarrely, his patter sounded more socialist than capitalist and I was particularly impressed with his ability to take 6 questions in a row and then address each in turn with no more than a glass of water in his hands. There seems to be a common view (which I subscribe to) that teachers need to be better trained and supported; and that this country needs to focus more on Science, Engineering, Maths & Technology.

On Monday, WEXO were honoured to be invited to a Gala Dinner at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate The Prince of Wales’s 25th Year as President of Business in the Community (BITC). HRH, Sir Stuart Rose, Philip Green and Stephen Howard were there to present the prizes and Stephen Fry compèred. It was uplifting to hear such homage paid to HRH. It even made me wonder whether Price Charles was in fact a force for good?! It was a shame that Sir Stuart’s Work Inspiration initiative, which WEXO wholeheartedly supports, (and as a business you can too here) was not referenced; but it was encouraging to see SMEs recognised in The Small Company of the Year Award which went to the wool company Herdy. Was it their lamb that was so delectably rustled up with the buttered spring greens and warm rosemary vinaigrette (washed down with lashings of Rothschild Viognier Vin de Pays)?

After three days of hard labour, on Wednesday evening I was due a break and got invited to go and play tennis at Buckingham Palace (pathetically childish excitement ensued). A great friend works for the royal family (now there’s a WEXO blog we’d like to read) and had been asked if she’d like to use the tennis court. The gardens at ‘BP’ are lush and beautiful and HRH has one of the biggest flower pots known to man. Sadly the only Queen in residence was of the Apoidea variety.

Robin Kennedy
Co-Founder & CEO
WEXO

P.S. As per a recent Press Release, WEXO is campaigning to let SMEs recoup the costs of a 3 month paid internship from forthcoming VAT hike. To register your support, please comment below.

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.

For those of you who only read the first line of an article, I’d just like to say that joining WEXO was how I found a placement that suited my aspirations. And that’s it!

Now for the rest of you (I’d say ‘us’ but I’m placed and happy now) I’ll give you the whole (short) story.

Before the end of the recession in 2008 I was on placement with a Dutch insurance company which; when the recession hit, had to cancel their whole placement scheme. This is how I landed in April 2009 in the middle of a recession year without having anything arranged for my University compulsory placement year. Tough.

I had the choice of giving up that placement year, skipping it and going straight into my final year at uni in September. But I didn’t do that. Why? Because I had some GOALS. I did not choose the 4-year programme for fun, but because I wanted to finish it. And giving up that easily just wasn’t me.

Summer came and I remained in the UK (I’m from Romania) to search for an alternative. So no holiday, no going home, no relaxing this time, but instead I tried to ‘fix my little piece of recession’.

What followed? Well, hundreds of emails & applications, about 20 interviews throughout the summer. I was progressing, getting better at it as I was tracking my self-development, but that just wasn’t enough. Due to the economic climate and the shortage of time (deadline for finding a placement was September 2009) it was clear that I needed some support.

So I went through several ‘agencies’. What happened (as you might very well know) is that usually I registered, I got added to their database, and started getting their newsletter. That’s about all. No contact, not a lot of results, you feel about the same except for feeling more ‘registered’.

The thing with WEXO is that I started getting responses the next 2-4 days after registration. I was contacted directly by companies asking for availability for an interview, phone numbers and all that. Robin Kennedy (founder & CEO of WEXO) met me personally and advised me how I should proceed, and their team always answered all of my emails in a timely manner.

Look, I’m not saying WEXO is the best, because I had several interviews and support from other organisations, on the contrary, it can be even better. But, and it is a big ‘but’ here, they were the people through which I got my placement in London; they responded the fastest; their online system for interacting with the companies is efficient and it allows direct messaging. It clearly shows clear, concise company information. It is these little things that might be just what you need in times like this to get to where you want. It was clearly what I needed.

I’d like to also take this opportunity to thank Robin and his team. You’re there with something that works both ways guys, thank you.

Best regards,

Cristian Paizan, Cambridge