How I Made It In Digital Media

We are very excited here at WEXO Towers about our next WEXO TV event on Tuesday 6th November, “How I Made It In Digital Media” and are pleased to see so many applications coming in (please be patient while we proces them all). For those of you that have been reading our recent blogs, we strongly believe that the internet economy holds the solution to both UK Plc’s economic impasse and youth unemployment. According to BCG the internet accounts for 8.3% if the UK economy (£121Bn in 2010). 76% of people would consider giving up chocolate for an entire year in order to maintain their Internet access (see recent blog)! For those of you that want are still attracted to the traditional employment options like PR, marketing, advertising, fashion, music, investment banking, etc Rightster and other digital media companies offer opportunities in all these areas and as these multiply so the more traditional roles will decline. Make sure you are on the right side of the fence…

This event takes a slightly different format to our previous showings (How I Made It in Fashion 1 & 2, How I Made It In Advertising and How I Made It in Food!). This time round, we have a sponsor in innovative new digital media company, Rightster, who are using the event as part of their Recruitment campaign to find the some of the UK’s sharpest and savviest graduates and undergrads. There will be opportunities for 10 or so Graduate Jobs starting in January and also internships and further roles starting in the Summer of 2013. See here to find out more about the roles on offer and to apply to come along.

The event will feature key players from some of the biggest names in Digital Media including The Guardian, ITV and cricinfo.com. Successful applicants will be able to hear them talk briefly about how they ‘made it’ and then ask pre-polled questions followed by drinks at the renowned Adam Street Private Members Club.

So what is Rightster?

Rightster is a cloud-based software and services company that simplifies the distribution, marketing and monetisation of live and on demand video content. They work with a whole host of exciting names including The British Fashion Council, The Guardian, ITN and ELLE. Here’s Founder and CEO, Charlie Muirhead talking about it at a recent MIPCOM industry event in Cannes:

Here’s Founder and CEO, Charlie Muirhead talking about it at a recent MIPCOM industry event in Cannes:

Next week we will be publishing the biographies of the 5 confirmed panel members…

Someone somewhere was trying to say something last Thursday. I tend to wake up in the week days to the wonderfully illuminating BBC Radio 4 Today programme at 6am* (the first 30 minutes gives you your daily dose of everything you need to know about current affairs, business and sport – in that order with some weather and a newspaper review thrown in for good measure). I miss Ed Stourton but I feel at ease with Evan Davis (Dragon’s Den), there’s something quite matronly about Sarah Montague and Garry Richardson (Sports) might be no Christian O’Connell but especially given the hours he works (and the fact that he’s been doing it since 1981) he can crack impromptu gags with the best of them.

Sandwiched between details of David Cameron’s David Letterman interview (I would never send my son to Eton and there’s no way he sounds like James Bond) and news that the FTSE closed lower on Spanish economic woes (really?!) was the announcement of a new website, Unistats, that seems to help young people (including my cousin, Charles, 18 and currently working down the local boozer) work out how much they can earn from different courses at different universities (interesting for sure but taking this as gospel might be like believing that Nick Clegg wasn’t going to raise tuition fees). Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to search for the course most likely to introduce me to a life of bling and Bollinger but here are the outcomes for 3 options:

1. 1) Politics (MA Hons) at Edinburgh University (my degree): 71% Satisfaction, Average Salary 6 months after graduation: £18,000 (though last weekend’s Sunday Times 2012 University Guide dropped it from 27th to 39th on poor teaching!)
2. 2) PPE at Oxford (David Cameron’s degree): 93% Satisfaction, Average Salary 6 months after graduation: £25,000 (same as Computer Sciences at Bristol University which our developer studied but apparently he is 3% more satisfied)
3. 3) BA in Global Cinema at Sterling University: 81% Satisfaction, Average Salary 6 months after graduation: £15,000

As I overtook yet another bus on my way to work (how is it that since the Olympics, the traffic lights seem to have gone on strike – someone privatise them – and even if i do end up furiously mopping my brow on arrival, it still seems to be possible to get to work on a bike twice as quick as on a double decker), I then passed a new army recruitment advert with an array of different soldiers on it looking like they were pursuing an array of unsoldierly careers. The advert said: “What do you want to be?”. Anything but a soldier these days I thought, given that reports indicate that 8,000 (including many serving in Afghanistan) are to lose their jobs in January with the army shrinking by about 20% come 2020.

I discussed this further this morning with Tray and Bella, 2 of WEXO’s directors who also run Careers Mentoring company, Tinker Tailor. Bella’s father was a General in the Marines and as a child I always wanted to be a soldier. Having spent a bit of time watching reruns of Spooks recently, and in the hope that I might get an invite to the new Bond premiere this month, I think in my next job I might become a Spy. In my experience, ruthless research, undercover networking and the occasional one liner often get you all sorts of offers. And I reckon I can do a pretty good Sean Connery impression too.

Robin Kennedy, WEXO Co-founder & CEO

* NB – if you’ve had a big night you can catch it later on BBC iPlayer or even better download the TuneIn Radio Pro app on your IPhone and record it (please don’t tell me you’ve still got a Blackberry, they’re for riots and the company that makes then is slowly following Nokia to the dogs.)

I’m reluctant to begin with another drawn out proclamation summarising the current state of affairs that plague the graduate job market, so how about a concise one instead.

Amidst a cloud of continued economic folly, unpaid internships and the shock horror of GCSEs grades falling for the first time in the exam’s 24-year history – one would assume the tough route is not to everyone’s taste. Unsurprisingly. Whichever side of the mobile political fence you pitch your tent, most would not argue that a healthy, competitive environment uncovers those most suitable for a career in their chosen field.

Countless articles dictate (or advise) which “buzz words” the ideal interviewee must utilise to impress, whilst evenings are elongated by carefully considered multiple-choice personality test answers. I find the importance of a candidate’s life-attitude and ambitions is often lost in the panic of being represented in the “perfect” light. Everyone is eventually bracketed into one jumbled mess. Granted this is by no means the sole fault of the employer, but a circumstance that has arisen from political and social failings over the past years.

I believe it is actually in the hands of the modern graduate to alter this saturated work environment. Take every opportunity to further yourself through being pro-active, and fervently express that desire and ambition to anyone you converse with. Much success I have so far had in my admittedly restricted career has occurred through such discussion. I am currently writing this from WEXO towers due to Robin and I connecting on musical ambition and his intrigue in how I have structured the next year for myself (naturally open to change). Another interview turned into an expressive and fruitful debate, which led to me receiving a number of useful contacts, and advise, despite not wanting to fully commit to the particular career path.

Hindsight is a wonderfully tortuous thing

I am a great believer in the notion of not beating around the bush – being direct with someone always goes a long way. On the back of that I am a 23 year-old graduate from the University of Leeds with a First in World & Popular Music. I often struggle when conjuring the drive within myself to proceed; yet I do not feel I lack ambition and my passion for Southeast Asian culture is leading me closer and closer to a move to Cambodia in order to pursue my love of journalism, music and social development. Hindsight is a wonderfully tortuous thing, thus I cannot stress enough the importance of expressing a genuine interest in your career choice and never being caught up in gaining ‘required’ experience for experience’s sake.

One anecdote I would like to conclude this blog with is how I came about my internship at Songlines music magazine, and why it is a prime example of what I have so far stated.

Songlines, Glastonbury & Persistence

I had interviewed the Cambodian-American group Dengue Fever over Skype for my dissertation in early 2011, and naturally decided to go and meet them at Glastonbury that year in the Songlines tent (West Holts stage). One thing led to another and with a beer in hand I got talking to the publisher of the magazine about who I was and why an internship at the magazine would be a fantastic opportunity.

Left at that, I went on a rather extended post-graduation holiday and returned in September to get stuck into the rest of my life. I was then based in Somerset, and emails to the magazine fell largely on disinterested eyes to my great disappointment. Unaware of the unstoppable flood of emails magazines have to deal with at the time, yet determined that this magazine was the perfect environment for me and a reason to move back to London, I decided to get archaic and send a letter. Behold! Two days and a phone call later and I was on my way to London to meet the assistant editor. I was explicitly told that this was the best move I could have ever made and immediately demonstrated my pro-active nature that is so desired within the media industry.

Networking

Nine months later and I continue to reap the rewards from the placement. Networking is a terribly over-used term, but still means so much in this industry. Expressing your related interests or perhaps even more importantly convincing someone of something new is your ticket to another opportunity. I continue to work at festivals, gigs, artist signings and events where I am able to connect with members of the public and music press. Nothing is more invigorating than going into work everyday to something you enjoy. Through working at Songlines and the opportunities that have occurred since (record labels and artist management), I have become very apt with InDesign, Photoshop, CRM/SEO management, website and social media development – none of this I would have forced myself to learn at home alone over such a short period of time. From a music perspective, the amount of new musical treats I have been introduced to is already uncountable.

I have not said anything that could be classed as a euphoric and game-changing statement, perhaps this blog even verges on common sense, but the opportunities do exist. Granted necessity dictates and money does not allow everyone to do exactly what one desires at that specific time, but this should not ever hinder ambition.

Ed Craggs

Deep into my third week working for UPS in the logistics department for the Olympics, I can proudly say that so far, this has been the most interesting and informative job of my career to date. I have learnt more during the last three weeks than I would ever have thought possible. It has confirmed that the future of my career firmly lies within sporting events.

Having previously worked for a company which staged, marketed and produced sports events across the UK, I already had a clear understanding of what to expect working at a sporting event but it was nothing on the scale of the Olympics. I’m now learning the logistics side and I hadn’t realised its sheer significance to the overall success of an event. From working in marketing and sales before, I feel that the logistics element is a lot more challenging and involves a more prolific approach.

My role for UPS is Customs and Freight Advisor and Delivery Coordinator. In English, this means answering questions that National Olympic Committees (including team athletes, press and broadcasters) have regarding getting their sports equipment, kit, technical devices and general belongings into the UK. There is a team of 10 of us that also coordinate the deliveries coming in and out of the Olympic park.

The team are all fantastic people and come from many different walks of life with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Our team manager, Kelly Wilton, has shown great patience; teaching us thoroughly and comprehensively, step by step , everything I now know about logistics.

Amy

Looking for a job in the music business is incredibly intimidating and can be a soul destroying process. Six Months into a colossal search I came across WEXO.

After applying to a Music syncing company I visited ‘WEXO Towers’ to have a good old fashioned informal chat with Robin. In my experience, the average recruitment consultant just wants his commission even if you end up in a tortuous role. Robin actually seemed more concerned that I followed my ‘dream’.

I went away with much more clarity and continued to crack on and whittle down my options.

Six months later I’m sitting in a cool, spacious office overlooking the Strand, working as Robin’s assistant. I’ve organised an album launch for Mano de Dios, am putting together a 2012 gig schedule and am overseeing the shooting of a music video. To add another string to my bow I’ve been helping recruit 90 Deputy Logistics Managers (most of them graduates) for UPS at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Sometimes talking to graduates and people looking to build their careers in something exciting and innovative is surreal – because it was me last year, and now I’m helping them (with the assistance of the WEXO team’s guidance and their vast network and knowledge).

There is never a dull moment, not with such variety. One day I can be in the office finding suitable candidates for fresh roles, the next I can be checking out a picking up a ham for our office lunch from shop a in Battersea. My favourite part is the learning and the company.

There are some incredible opportunities out there but you have to dig deep. Sometimes you have to take the ‘scenic route’ but there is nothing better than actually ending up somewhere you look forward to going to each day.

I’ll wrap it up there, I have some ham to eat.

Dominique Edmonds

As often as the media writes about how hard the current generation of school and university leavers are finding it to build valuable and rewarding careers, employers complain just as much about something broken in our education system. They see a lack of preparedness for the work of world – the wrong skill sets and attitudes, low ‘employability’. Valid feedback perhaps but it is among the current crop of business owners that the concept of the ‘unpaid internship’ has developed, and the habit of rarely replying to online job applications become the norm.

Stressed employers, under-prepared young people, a barely hidden culture of exploitation that more than occasionally leads to a dysfunctional system that serves no-one. Yet at the same time two truths remain:

1. In these tough times business owners need “stars” and “A-players” more than ever.

2. There is an incredible pool of talent waiting to work with entrepreneurs and business owners. This new generation are more often than not talented, driven by values beyond money, fascinated by entrepreneurs and probably the most ambitious yet in terms of what they believe they can do. (7 of my colleagues at The Bridge remind me of this daily)

Just as Rushanara Ali, MP for Bethnal Green, saw for herself with the successful Fastlaners project in her constituency, great results can be achieved. The challenge is finding the win-win commercial model to provide something that lasts.

Which is what the team of entrepreneurs, business school faculty and leadership specialists behind The Bridge have come together to do. Our model is to build an eco-system of growing businesses, ambitious young people and The Bridge team. Everyone puts in, everyone takes out and no-one pollutes. Real paid work; the most personalised, modern training and development; young people delivering tangible commercial results. Our ‘Enterprise Community’ provides its population with ongoing support.

Our programmes strip away the theory and focus on what really counts:

* a high personalised learning experience – every Bridge associate has a performance coach throughout their 6 months with us
* the precise skills entrepreneurs need in their team members to help their business grow – taught by people who do this in their day job
* learn by doing – live business challenges replace bums on seats in the lecture theatre
* large doses of inspiration from people who have done incredible things
* micro class sizes, continual personalised assessment and feedback
* a focus on deepening an individual’s strength, confidence, and communication

And there is no better place to talk about this than here at WEXO with Robin and his team, who continue to do great things in this space.

Come along to our Open Wednesdays events to find out more…

Tom Hickman
Founder & Managing Director
www.bridge21c.com

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

When I arrived in London, after graduating from Newcastle, I was a little unsure of what career path to take. But after successfully completing a business training course I stumbled across WEXO. WEXO are not like any other recruitment agency. They took a genuine interest in me as an individual and offered some great advice and support. Most importantly they helped me find an internship at MiH Jeans. I interned for three months before being offered a permanent position back in April.

I work on the UK Sales team which is something I would have never imagined doing when I graduated. MiH Jeans has been an adventure from the moment I started and has grown massively as a brand. Because it is still a relatively new company which is evolving everyday there is always something exciting going on.

My daily responsibilities are constantly changing but here is an example of some of my daily tasks:

• Responsible for Koodos- sending out ordered jeans through Parcelforce and replenishing stock levels
• Ordering up Jeans from the warehouse for the Sales and PR teams
• Helping organise and potentially being in charge of future sample sales
• Taking part in Sales visits- being aware of their current and previous orders and taking any relevant press information
• Filling out marketing research questionnaires for stockists to help with future marketing and sales ideas.
• Checking in returns and organising for these to be sent down to the warehouse with correct packing lists which will then be filed here.
• Accounts

Throughout my time I have slowly been given more responsibility and I now work directly with the buyers. this is great experience as it has given me the chance to make a name for myself in the industry whilst building relationships with the buyers.

The team at MiH Jeans are all hugely passionate about the brand and this didn’t take long to rub off on me which makes it a much more enjoyable place to work as everyone is eager to see the brand succeed.

MiH Jeans has been a fantastic opportunity for me as it has opened my eyes to a role I would have never considered before and this is all thanks to the help and support of WEXO. I can’t thank you enough.

Nicola Tulloch

“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

Are you comfortable that you’re getting value for money? An inside account on the intricacies of unpaid internships…

For a long time now, there has been a debate raging about unpaid internships and I wanted to take some time to clarify our position. This follows both our original blog on this subject (in the words of the original protagonist) ‘It’s my work, he’d say, and I do it for pay…’over a year ago on 1st December 2009 (in response to a BBC debate on Intern Abuse) and the proceeding comments in August last year (following our failure to bring together an Internship Alliance to try and lobby the new government to incentivise companies to operate paid internship schemes).

The song effectively remains the same:

“Today, more and more actual graduates are resorting to internships and in the brave new world, it is only right that if you are adding value to a company you should be paid at least the National Minimum Wage (NMW – approx £210 a week). Social mobility is key and unpaid internships discriminate against people who simply can’t afford to work for free. But in these dire economic times, with companies struggling to make ends meet, we must be careful not to scare companies away from opening their doors to young people all together. They need to be incentivised to understand their obligation to help the youth of today; not named and shamed because they can’t.”

Many will argue that not paying interns NMW is illegal. I suspect this is probably true but so is smoking cannabis and approximately 1 in 4 16-25 year olds have broken the law and tried it. What I am more interested in is the morality of not paying interns.

An article on Business Link’s website makes it very clear as to who is and who isn’t entitled to NMW. As it infers, my mother who volunteers for the local hospice (a charity although by law voluntary workers can work for any of charities, voluntary organisations, associated fund raising bodies or statutory bodies) is not entitled to minimum wage (and nor would she want it) because she is a volunteer – and so does not have any contract (written or verbal) to perform work or provide services. Anyone who falls outside of this is entitled to minimum wage. This probably includes most interns.

What about undergraduates? Along these lines, for anyone who is shadowing a company or learning from them as in work experience, then there is not the obligation to pay them because they are not providing a service or working under contract. On occasion, undergraduates are exempt from NMW (usually if their tutors agree that the internship is related to their course and they are not performing a service to the host company). During my time at university I did 3 internships over 3 summers and each of these paid me in excess of minimum wage (one even gave me a bonus at the end). I’d like to think this was because in each case I provided a service that added value in excess of the value I derived from the internship experience.

Legally, isn’t this a grey area? Yes, but what matters for me, as I have suggested above, is that if someone adds (monetary) net value to the entity they work for (or be it future value) then morally they should be rewarded for it irrespective – and this we see as the acid test. Along these lines we are very happy to see companies offer ‘work experience’ for up to 2 weeks – and we would encourage them to pay expenses during this time. Any longer than this though and the chances are that an individual will be adding value and so should be paid accordingly.

What about the BBC and Parliament? I am not exempting these institutions that are renowned for not paying their interns but arguably the interns are deriving more value from the experience and so do not pass the acid test. If though (as is often the case with smaller companies) there is a ‘job description’ or a list of responsibilities then the logical conclusion is that the intern is going to be adding value and should be paid accordingly!

I am no socialist – I view myself as a liberal conservative, a proponent on free market economics and people ‘getting on their bike’ (albeit with the safety net of a welfare state) – but I am tiring of companies (particularly in some distinct parts of the creative industries) telling me that they used to work for free and so their interns can too. I do not see why anyone should pay their interns (especially in this day and age with student debts as they are) anything less than I pay my cleaner.

What about start-ups? WEXO is a start-up and we pay our interns. I don’t feel comfortable asking people to help me build a company for free. I am encouraged to see a number of start-ups round London doing the same thing. I’m all in favour of getting young people in to experience start-up life and entrepreneurship but not if they’re a substitute for employees. If you can’t afford to pay your interns or grads, you should probably wait until you can, question your business model, or look at some other form of commensurate remuneration via say equity or (bizarrely in an equivalent move to what Barclays Capital is suggesting for bonuses) even bonds (in simple terms, IOUs). This might not stand up legally but it probably does ethically. If as a ‘Founder’ you choose not to pay yourself (as I myself have done on occasion) then to my mind, that is your prerogative but I suspect that in your own interest, you would be advised to make an IOU arrangement via directors loans instead of just foregoing payment. Not paying yourself does not justify not paying your workforce.

Should there be a limit to how long internships can last? Timing is one issue that we haven’t visited in past writings. In economic times like these though, internships have become a temporary employment vehicle for graduates and in line with other players in this field (including STEP whose BIS and LDA programmes we helped deliver last year. Programmes that include schemes to help incentivise companies to pay interns) we strongly suggest that internships should last no longer than 3 months. After this time, companies should either ‘step’ up to the plate and commit to a giving them a job or let them get on with finding one elsewhere. Otherwise young people will get stuck in an ‘internship trap’.

What about the new £2.50 an hour proposals from the CIPD? The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development have suggested interns should be paid £2.50 an hour which works out as roughly £400 a month (see BBC article earlier this month) As far as we are concerned, all this does is reduce the inequality. In all honesty, could you live on this?

So what? I voted Conservative, was impressed by Michael Gove when he spoke at an event I attended; and on the face of it, I can’t stand Ed Balls. I believe in cutting the deficit, to an extent; (we still have less debt as a country than Japan and Italy have had for much of the last decade as per interesting Fresh Minds article) I will hold my hand up and say that I back the hike in graduate fees. What I can’t condone is slashing investment in jobs (be in the Future Jobs Fund or private sector stimuli) and basic education (literacy in particular in this country is poor). We called, some time ago, for companies to be able to recoup the cost of hiring interns at National Minimum Wage from the recent VAT hike. This could help solve the conundrum addressed herein. Last week youth unemployment reached new record highs. And young people don’t fully understand the roles that ARE on offer hence our event on 8th February. We issued a press release for this last week but as I said in another release in June:

“Existing public sector initiatives have made no dent in this crisis; it is our opinion that if the situation is to improve, the government needs to start properly backing the private sector [not just relying on it]. The VAT hike will help UK Plc raise a much needed £13Bn but figures suggest the average return on hiring a graduate is 500% over 3 years so that’s one of the main places I’d be investing it.”

Robin Kennedy