I came out of university in the summer of 2008 thinking that I would walk into a job. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I had a nightmare for the next 6 months trying to find one. Interview after interview and reaching the final stages I was unable to stand out.
What WEXO has given me is a fighting chance to get one. It has allowed me the opportunity to show what I have got. I now am now in my seventh month and I have some crucial experience behind me. I am working in a small commercial team helping to sell video content to entertainment sites. I have already had small success directly bringing two large online retailers to trial which will hopefully go into contract.
Hopefully my Christmas present will be a job at this company. If not I will be in a much stronger situation to gain employment.
Greg Bailey
All well in WEXO Towers…
We’ve just signed up our 70th company (looking to launch to users when we get to 3 figures) but one of the comments we come up against occasionally is “Why would we want to open up our offices to more work experience students?”. The companies we talk to are generally of two types. Company X is small, dynamic and growing and welcomes talented graduates (on the cheap) with open arms. Company Y tends to be larger, more conservative and already gets quantities of applications for work experience, feels compelled to accept some (especially from clients’ children etc) but does not necessarily subscribe to the benefits.
Company X is most commonly found in the Media sector (especially PR and Advertising). Company Y typically comes from vocationally geared sectors. Company Y is more often sold on what WEXO can provide in terms of marketing, matching and managing applications through the scarily named Web 2.0 tools and STP (Straight Through Processing) techniques that we provide.
An article by Rosie Gamble in the Sunday Times last weekend picked up on this theme. Despite a tacky title, it made a compelling case for student placements not necessarily being a burden. The argument here was that in smaller companies in particular, giving students responsibility gave them the impetus to rise to the challenge - and being new to the working world they often did so with a fresh perspective. With internships in particular (placements of 2 months plus), companies could really benefit, effectively conducting long term interviews that enabled them to then hire the best students in good faith when they left their studies.
The biggest problems then came down to how you sourced and picked your candidates. The answer here of course is WEXO…
