We’re off! Our time as TARGETjobs editorial interns…

Hi, we’re Charlotte and Ruth, two of the editorial interns here at TARGETjobs. Today marks the end of our four month internship, so we thought we’d reflect on our time at GTI Media.

Highs

We’ve sincerely appreciated the friendly vibes at GTI. The expectation as incoming interns, as most students imagine, was that we’d be ostracized by the more mature and experienced full-timers due to our lack of life experience and the bad rep we suffer from as ‘students’. However, we couldn’t have been made to feel more at-ease. As a reasonably small company, we’ve gotten to know a lot of our co-workers – even the CEO stops for a quick chat when we’re grabbing a cuppa.

One of the best parts of being an editorial intern was the interviewing, from partners in law firms to accountancy graduates, we all got to talk to industry professionals. The variety of interviewees means every interview has been different; you could be talking about the impact of the legal aid cuts one day, and about advice for aspiring engineers the next. It’s great to see the article printed and seeing your name credited in the publication too.

As we’re both going into final year (scary!) it’s officially time to sort ourselves out and start applying for grad jobs. Our time working at TARGETjobs has definitely been instrumental in figuring out what we actually could (and want to) do with our lives.

Lows

We are based in an office and sitting down all day on a computer can take its toll (hard to believe, we know). There is also constant cake in the office and biscuit time at 3 pm means a fat bulge has appeared. No summer bod for us.

It’s great to have a CV with no gaps, but a four month internship does push the boundaries of endurance. Maybe that has something to do with being accustomed to the luxury of the student-summer, but the summer holiday bants have been sorely missed.

Relocating

Being from NI, commuting to work in Oxfordshire every morning wasn’t really on the cards. Luckily (especially given rent prices in the area) one of my best friends lives 20 minutes from the office. It might sound like a long time to be on top your friend and her family, but in reality when you’re working 9 – 5 and have a social life, you really aren’t in the house for much other than dinner and bed. – Ruth

I’m not from the Oxford area either, so had to rent a room that I found online and it really wasn’t as bad as it sounds. The family were very welcoming, and a full-time job and making friends in the area meant I was hardly in the house. I’d moved away from home for uni, so knew I’d be able to do it again. – Charlotte

Signing off…

We’ve both learned a lot this summer, and honestly feel like much more employable adults! So we can’t recommend getting a summer internship enough – and if you’re lucky, the person you get stuck sitting beside for over 40 hours each week could be really sound.

Article written by Charlotte Wharf and Ruth Thompson, TARGETjobs Editorial Interns. Connect with Charlotte and Ruth on LinkedIn. 

TARGETjobs Careers Round-up

I haven't written a round-up post for a few weeks now. I thought it was time to update you all on company matters, updates and job opportunities.

We have has such a busy few weeks, new team members have started whilst others are departing for new adventures. It's such a fast yet hectic process but it's refreshing all the same. 

We said goodbye to our Email Marketing assistant Hannah Jag-Nathan and we are saying farewell to our Client Marketing and PR assistant Fran Walker who will be sorely missed! 

We also welcome new members of the team - Thomas McCann who has been recruited as part of the trendence team. Also, Alicia Baker who is the new Client Marketing and PR assistant.

We recently had our TARGETjobs recruitment awards, which went down incredibly. Some worthy winners (L'Oreal crowned UK's most popular graduate recruiter) and of course our special guest speaker and host...Lenny Henry! You can read all about it in our article here.

Now on to careers advice... 

If you're looking for a graduate job check out our upcoming graduate job deadlines here.

We here at GTI Media are recruiting in house! We are looking for a new digital marketing executive who is on trend with current and upcoming digital platforms, savvy with technology and interested in building their knowledge and experience. If this sounds like if could be right for you then check out the job description here and apply today!

We've collected some expert tips in case you need a last minute confidence boost before your graduate job interview. Have a read of our latest article 'Last-minute interview confidence boost: if you don't feel it, fake it'.

Editors choice:

If you want to be hired as a graduate civil or structural engineer, there are decisions employers expect you make before you apply - 'Want a civil engineering job? Three career decisions you have to make' 

Are you worried that you haven't done an accountancy internship, or managed to line one up? What will that mean for your future job prospects? Have a read of the latest article 'Why you shouldn't panic if you haven't got an accountancy internship on your CV'

Whether you're interested in applying for training contracts, vacation schemes, insight days or open days, it's likely you'll need a law CV - even if you're just uploading it to your online application form. Have a read of our ten way to get your legal CV noticed by top law recruiters.

Relevant experience such as an internship is key to getting a graduate scheme place in civil and structural engineering, construction or surveying. Know what you need when applying.. Construction work experience: what you need and how to get it.

CV's are a key part of the speculative application process. We've put together some tips to help you stand out in the marketing, advertising and PR sector. Find out more here: Writing a CV for graduate marketing, advertising and PR roles.

That's all from me this week!

Good luck with your applications.

Roxanne Chand

Editorial internship - the highs and lows

Us interns are coming towards the end of our time at TARGETjobs now, and it seems that we’ve experienced the full range that this placement has in store. So I thought I’d offer a quick taster of what we’ve been doing for anyone who’s interested:

The highs – interviews

Every now and again we interview industry practitioners, to give our readers a glimpse into what it’s actually like to be an intern at an investment bank or trainee doctor...

Once we’ve got a name and a date in our diaries we’ll do some research into the company and industry so we can frame some questions. We’re always looking for an interesting angle or storyline. There are usually some industry trends to talk about – sustainability comes up a lot in construction and civil engineering, for instance. But you don’t really know how the article’s going to turn out until you’ve actually done the interview. 

Some of the interviews they do here are more structured – sometimes you’re trying to find out about a particular sector or area of practice and there’s a very detailed set of topics you need to cover. But other interviews tend to go off piste – if someone’s got an interesting story to tell it’s better to follow that up than to cut them short so you can get through the forty remaining questions on your list.

Doing the interviews is one of the more enjoyable aspects of the job – it’s always nice to speak to someone who’s really enthusiastic about what they do. And it’s great to see the article when it gets laid up for print once you’ve gone through the approval process.

The lows – job descriptions

Long ago, in the mists of TARGETjobs history, there lived a wise woman who was the font of knowledge about all jobs. Determined to pass on her learning to younger generations, she worked long and hard to produce approximately 330 job descriptions . Thanks to her noble efforts, we students panicking about our job hunt (or lack thereof) can educate ourselves about the options out there.

But we live in a changing world, which means that the job description database often needs updating. Professional bodies, trade magazines and exam boards have a habit of disappearing or changing their names and it falls to us interns to work out what’s new.

 I’ll admit it’s not the most exciting work, but at least it means that when I meet automotive engineers, accountants and biomedical scientists , the ‘what do you do?’ conversation won’t be quite so awkward.  That said, if anyone with a job title starting with a letter other than A, B or C tries to talk to me I’ll be completely lost – my quota stops with “courier”.

By Elizabeth Bingham 

Editorial Intern

GTI Media - hello and goodbye

In my four months here at TARGETjobs I have come across lots of jobs that I wasn’t aware existed or only vaguely knew about. The problem is that when you spend all day reading, hearing and writing about what other people do for a living, you start getting a serious case of grass-is-greener syndrome. I’ve interviewed lawyers and engineers, I’ve proofread and updated over 100 job descriptions and along the way I’ve found myself wondering whether I could make it as a solicitor, management consultant, or even an aromatherapist. I’ve decided it would be fun to be an architect, until I realised you have to train for 7 years, and I briefly thought about accountancy before remembering that I’m not very good with numbers.

It’s an odd job to have – helping to write and edit careers advice for graduates when you’ve only just graduated yourself, but racking your brains trying to work out what makes a good management CV or investment banking covering letter helps you prepare to do the same with whatever jobs you apply for in the future. And while I was occasionally tempted to run off and set up an aromatherapy practice, I don’t think my career aims have changed significantly while I’ve been here – I’ve got a feeling I’ll find myself applying for publishing jobs during my masters next year. 

Working here has helped me develop practical office skills that I didn’t necessarily use at university – managing and prioritising work for different editors, meeting tight deadlines, remembering to update spreadsheets, keeping a record of email exchanges – not to mention getting out of bed before seven in the morning! Given that most entry level editorial jobs involve tracking correspondence with authors and agents, it’s all relevant experience. It hasn’t been non-stop excitement, but I’ve definitely gained from the internship, and I’ve also learned how to present it all effectively on CVs and covering letters.

Before I go, I’d like to thank the editors at TARGETjobs for putting on helpful training sessions, for showing us how to edit online content, and for running us through all the stages that take a magazine from the drawing board to print. To the other interns – goodbye, and best of luck for the future!

By Liz Bingham

Editorial Intern

TARGETjobs career advice weekly roundup

Hello, and as always welcome to our weekly graduate career advice and news round-up. I have a few introductions for you today, to welcome the new editorial interns Jessica, Katie, Claire and Liz. 

The new editorial interns will be blogging for us so watch out for their posts.

Just a few words from our interns before I start on this week's roundup post.

"My names Katie, in between stressing about my dissertation and trying to get the most out of university while I still could, I spent a considerable amount of time trying not to think about life after my final exam.A lot of the friends I made at Nottingham Trent University already seemed so set on what they wanted to do post education, and this filled me with dread because I still didn’t have a clue. But that didn’t stop me from getting everything I could out of university.
Now, as an editorial intern at TARGETjobs, I’m finally okay with being undecided. I’m enjoying learning about publishing and I know that somewhere along the line I will have that light bulb moment.I might officially be in adulthood now that I’m a 21-year-old graduate, but I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up."            Katie Lloyd 

"My names Jessica, I've done a degree in Linguistics and Spanish Studies at Lancaster University. I’ve started a baking society. I’ve taught dozens of hyperactive children and hormonal teenagers – I even lost six of them in London for two hours. I’ve lived in Spain and the Netherlands. I’ve spoken at a Linguistics conference and used the ‘c’ word repeatedly (thankfully, the topic was the history of swearing in English). I travel to an excess, clocking up numerous hours on public transport and visits to world heritage sites. I love anything wordy and I’ve slept (pretty unsuccessfully) on a crab-infested desert island near Singapore. Despite all of this, I’ve never had a permanent, full-time job. Still, as an editorial intern working on TARGETjobs I think I’m on my way there. In an ideal world, I’ll be sailing up my career ladder to an editorial role working on educational, academic or language resources.
 For now, I’m enjoying my internship here; I spend a lot of time fact-checking, proofreading, writing and tweeting. I’m also trying to keep up my Spanish and my blog wordoriginstories.wordpress.com after my nine-to-five-thirty working day." Jessica Jennison

"Hello, I'm Liz. I've just finished my degree in English Literature at the University of York and I'm working as an editorial intern here at TARGETjobs over the summer. In my spare time at York, I wrote film and theatre reviews for the student papers, I got involved with an anthology which publishes students’ creative writing and I interviewed local residents for a community project.
I’ll be going on to do a Masters in 18^th century literature next year, which thankfully means I can put off making my career decisions for a little longer! That said, I have known for a while now that I’d like a career in publishing, and I've done work experience placements with a couple of book publishers. TARGETjobs is quite different from other places I've visited though; most of the content here goes online and there aren't any books in sight. I’ll keep you all updated about my experiences and I may also say a few things about the differences I've noticed between GTI Media and book publishing houses."                                                                Liz Bingham

Now, let me start this week's careers roundup with next week's internship and graduate job deadlines:

Let your graduate career start here! Next week's application deadlines for graduate jobs and schemes.

Teach First and many more: next week's work experience deadlines, apply here

On to our latest career advice articles...

If you’re looking for a glamorous career in PR, you’ll need to know how to get a foot in the door. Before you can really get stuck in to hosting major events, drinking swanky cocktails and schmoozing local journalists, check out what you can do as a bright self-starter with the TARGETjobs guide to entry-level routes into public relations. 

To all law students, before applying for 2016 training contracts by the 31 July deadline, make sure you fully research the firms you're targeting. We show you how in our article 'How to research training contract applications'

According to new research carried out by the trendence institute, male undergraduates are much more willing than their female peers to overlook a company's image if an attractive salary is on offer. Click here to read more.

Job opportunity

GTI Media are hiring! Marketing and PR assistant wanted.

The role:

The Marketing Assistant will work with all members of the Marketing Team to provide administrative support, as well as having the opportunity to take responsibility for their own projects. 

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate excellent organisation and time management skills, be a quicker learner and have a strong team work ethic. 

As you will be involved in both B2C and B2B marketing, you should be confident in both verbal and written communication, be a creative thinker and have an eye for detail. 

This role is an excellent opportunity to develop your marketing skills within a small, busy marketing team working across the GTI portfolio and TARGET product range.

If you think this role suits your career aspirations why not apply now.

That's all from me this week!

Enjoy your weekend and best of luck in your applications.

Roxanne