August 6, 2019

Keeping everyone sweet on work placements

For 18 months, I single-handedly kept Britain’s confectionery industry going.

I was a training manager, visiting different newsrooms every day to train and mentor journalists from senior editors to the youngest trainees.

I hope I was reasonably good at it.

But just in case, I had a secret weapon. Sweets.

The news editor in Bath was partial to a Skittle. The picture editor in Bristol loved a liquorice allsort (as did/do I), while a reporter in Wells would only eat jelly beans.

So wherever I was, I brought with me a selection of sweets.

So that, even if they didn’t remember me for my training, they remembered me for the sugar rush.

And, perhaps, my tea-making.

I’ve taken my sweets on tour again this week, with my Work Experience for the Elderly caravan pitching up in Swindon and Gloucester, to keep my hand in and my skills updated.

Around the country, some of our students will be involved in their own work experience adventures this week.

They too will be hoping to be remembered – and for all the right reasons.

Because that’s what’s at the heart of all positive placement experiences.

We hope that our students emerge from their time in newsrooms, studios or offices with their confidence, skills and maturity all enhanced.

The best placements are transformational, and can start spreading fairy dust on CVs.

I watched the excellent Amol Rajan’s fascinating documentary How to Break Into the Elite , and I couldn’t argue with much of what he had to say.

But there was a point where I worried he was dwelling too much on actual degree classifications.

His programme came out just before an interesting Twitter debate between some of my counterparts in the journalism education business, about whether we should regard ourselves as trainers or lecturers.

 

And there remains a debate over when a work placement becomes unpaid labour, as this thread proves.

But that’s by the by.

I’m delighted that four of our students will graduate with a first later this year.

But that in itself hasn’t been enough to see them into work.

What’s got decent jobs for them and their classmates has been the combination of a well-taught, hands-on, industry-focussed degree AND the experience of spending time in newsrooms, freelancing, doing student radio or other journalism, and getting stuck into projects from event presentation to outreach work to volunteering.

So how to make that work experience, work.

Here are my tips – both for students and employers.

They’re an update on a comprehensive guide I wrote three years ago.

Students

1. Be prepared

Look at the website, watch the TV output, listen to the radio station to understand the way stories are put together, and to check what’s already been covered. Research and brainstorm new story ideas, and don’t be afraid to get in touch the week before to pitch them. If you come armed with stories that work for the newsroom you’re in, you should be welcomed with open arms. If once you’re there, you find yourself at a loose end, try to make helpful suggestions to avoid the need for that open-ended question: Have you got anything I can do?

2. Be precise

If you’d like to find out more about how the news operation makes its headlines and intros search-friendly, or how the Local Democracy Reporter journalist finds stories, or how the magazine’s social media team engage their audience, say so.

3. Be interested

Take an interest in everything around you, ask intelligent questions, contribute ideas in meetings, and make the most of opportunities to talk to the people around you. Ask them how they got into the jobs they do.

4. Be honest

Ask for help, and don’t be afraid to say you don’t understand what you’re being asked to.

5. Be positive

Be a radiator, not a drain. Smile, even if inside you’re dying a little. Don’t ever stand on ceremony or be too proud. If they want vox pops, give them the best vox pops that have ever been done. Don’t clock-watch. Share the tea-making. We always tell our students the story of one of their predecessors who quit his internship on a very big Saturday night TV show over a task he felt was beneath him – and ended up being the butt of a prime time celebrity joke.

6. Be reliable

Check spellings, facts, dates, numbers, email addresses. Don’t be remembered for forcing your temporary employers into a correction.

7. Be brave

Walking through that door – particularly if it’s preceded by train, tube or bus journeys – will take a little bit of courage. But the anticipation will probably be far worse than the reality. Every single one of those confident, comfortable-looking workers will have been in your shaking shoes some time.

8. Be remembered for all the right reasons

Ask the best question, come up with the best suggestion for a poll, talk to the most people. Make sure that in six months’ time, they can still put a face to that name.

Newsrooms

1. Be clear

Let people know the ground rules: Start times, dress code, how the tea and coffee works, where the loos are, who everyone is, how to answer the phone. Take away as much of the uncertainty as you can.

2. Be organised

Try to impose some sort of routine or pattern, or to have regular tasks that people on work experience can tackle. Make sure there’s always something they can fall back on to do, while giving them space to show they can be self-starters.

3. Be interested

These are – or should be – intelligent, engaged, opinionated young people. Ask them for their views and insights. Would you read this? Does this Instagram post work?

4. Be patient

Ok. This is the most difficult of all. I always admit that I was that news editor that sometimes didn’t speak to the workie till 2pm. I couldn’t be arsed at times. But the last few years have shown me how crucial placements can be in fanning fantastic flames – or cruelly snuffing them out. Your door might be smashed down by quality applicants when you have a vacancy. Others aren’t so lucky. If someone shows potential, with the right attitude and instincts, I think you have a responsibility to the industry to encourage them. And remember when you, too, were summoning up the courage to approach that reception desk all those years ago.

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