Tuesday 9 August 2011

Snapshot Diary: Random House 2010


I am going to begin my snapshot diary instalments with my first work experience placement at Random House - summer 2010. All in all I spent four weeks there, 2 weeks in the HR department and 2 weeks in the Publicity department.
Like any young person, I was excited but nervous to go on my first placement. 
Before, the only work environments I had experienced was in retail. So offices were a brand new kettle of fish for me.

I began my 2 week placement with HR, I had my own desk on a comfortable air conditioned floor – it was a great work environment and nice and quiet! My main role was to act as an administrative assistant and complete any admin tasks. The employees were very nice, polite and even introduced themselves formally. One of the employees introduced me to Linkedin, I hadn’t even heard of it before I started work experience but it is a great website to sign up to if you want to impress employers (they can be known for 'googling' candidate names).

Anyway, these are the main tasks I was involved in the HR department:
  • Small admin duties
  • Filing - converting hardcopy files to electronic files
  • Adapting documents
  • Using Excel spreadsheets for documentation purposes
  • Using Adobe InDesign, MS office package and Microsoft Outlook

After 2 weeks, I transferred into the publicity department, which was a lot faster paced and each day I was kept very busy. That said, Random House definitely offered one of the best publicity experiences that I’ve had so far. Once again, all the employees were very nice and friendly and offered me numerous books by the end of the placement. Additionally, I managed to have a chat with one of the Publicity Director’s about what they look for when interviewing graduates for assistant roles (I’ll speak more about this at a later date).

Anyway, here are some of the main tasks I was involved within the publicity department:
  • Creating show cards
  • Speaking to national newspaper
  • Helping out at and organising events
  • Mail outs
  • Filing
  • Employee meetings
  • Author signings

Overall, I was very busy and I liked the fast paced work environment at Random House. For anyone who is interested at gaining work experience at Random House make sure you add their Facebook page – this is updated frequently with opportunities.

Want to know how I got my very first placement? (LINK COMING SOON)

Lastly, are you studying an MA in Publishing at Oxford Brookes this year? Random House are offering monthly scholarships for those of you that are! What's even better is that they'll offer training days in various departments over the month and its PAID.
A great opportunity for an Oxford Brookes MA student! Apply at: http://ah.brookes.ac.uk/postgraduate/funding_source/random_house_scholarship/

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