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I'm Francesca Dow, managing director for Penguin Children's, and we publish stories for kids
of all ages, right from babies to teenagers.
I started, I think everyone does right at the bottom, I was a secretary. I did loads
of admin, I was very passionate, I worked late, I did extra stuff whenever I could.
But basically it was start right at the bottom and just be passionate and convicted and convinced
that you can get there.
I think it's very important to get work experience or do have some kind of internship, both for
you as the employee and also for your employer. For you it helps you to find out whether in
fact it's a career you like and something your interested in, and for the employer to
know if your the right candidate for them. We take on lots of people who have already
done work experience for us, it's when of the short file ways that is there is a job
going at the bottom, someone will get it whose already worked for us.
We love having young people working for our business and particularly because, my particular
bit in business is about publishing for young people and they are the ones who are closest
to our consumers so we are really interested in you and your fresh views in your experience
and what you have to offer and your take on ideas.
My tops 5 tips to get into publishing are, number one you have to be passionate, you
have to love stories and story telling and you have to be able to communicate with your
audience. Number 2 you have to be informed about the
industry, even as an outsider it's so easy to find out about the industry.
Number 3 is about experience, and kind of experience you can get is much better for
you and for your employer. It will help you to get your foot in the door and to help you
if you do like the industry. Number 4 is about presentation, there's so
much competition, you've got to seem really smart, really passionate, well informed and
present your CV well. Number five, and this is really important
, is don't give up, if your sure that this is the profession that you want to work in
then you've got to keep at it and that's a really good quality to have for when your
in the profession because life is tough, even when you've got a job.
I think increasingly as the world changes, it's now about having ideas and being entrepreneurial,
I think this is the best possible time not to have the regular qualifications and particularly
in an industry which is about innovation which is what publishing is about. So anything you
can do, if you have an idea, if you know different kinds of technical developers or ideas people
and you want to come up with some ideas now is your moment. This is not necessarily about
having top grades or top university qualifications, it's about initiative and imagination and
also sticking to what you believe in.
My advice would be think about how you can make a difference, because you could bring
something different to anyone else. So what is it that you bring that no one else can
and are you going to make your possible employer see that. An internship for you gives you
a chance to see whether you like the work, you like the industry and if you like the
people and you can get a really good sense if its working, and if it fires you up then
it will give you confidence to persevere.