Responding to this.

Mac writes:

I finish a Jobbridge in marketing tomorrow. The company I’m working for has revenue in the millions but has never had any marketing before. They don’t need me any more as the impact of my work for how the company is run is going to take time to deal with. No job for me!
During my internship…..
– I took the 28 brands they represent and developed verticals to categorise them. They had never bothered to do this before.
– I have developed marketing strategies for each of the verticals under the two brands.
– I have designed and built the company two websites, one for their Irish brand and one for the UK.
– I set up all their analytics.
– I have been using SEO to progressively improve their rankings in search.
– I have built HTML email templates and written the copy for a number of email campaigns.

There is more but you get the idea. At the start of this week I was contacted by a recruiter who came across me on LinkedIn and wanted to talk about a position. He had been impressed by my work so invited me for an interview. During the interview yesterday I told him that my current position was as an intern. He informed me that although I had the skills required for a number of jobs on their books no employer would be willing to employee me until someone else had employed me first. He also let me know that no amount of unpaid experience would improve my CV as the only thing missing from it was a paid marketing job. I have basically been told that I have to find someone willing to hire me to do marketing before I can get a hired to do marketing. .

I’ll let people decide for themselves whether the system is stacked against graduates.

(Pic from the Farmleigh Irish Intern Asia scheme)


httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KVvJ594Ne4

What you may need to know:

1. My Brothers is directed by Paul Fraser, a regular collaborator with Shane Meadows – he wrote and/or co-wrote Twenty Four Seven (1997), A Room For Romeo Brass (1999), Once Upon A Times In The Midlands (2002), Dead Man’s Shoes (2004) and Somers Town (2008).

2. Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody did the music with old mucker Jacknife Lee.

3. The cast includes Kate Ashfield from Shaun Of The Dead (2004) and Sarah Greene from theatrical sensation Alice In Funderland.

4. Meta Moment at ’50: Charlie Casanova (2010) director Terry McMahon plays Charlie.

5. Bachelor’s Walk Flashback: Super 8 Don Wycherly at 1’38.

Release Date (Ireland): Tomorrow


Costa Coffee: the rapaciously expansionist brand that makes Starbucks seem quaint and slow-moving by comparison.

Totnes, Devon: the town that said No.

Totnes’s local economy looks to be in reasonable health, which is surely down to the fact that it is about as far from being what we now call a “clone town” as could be imagined. The local record shop, Drift, is mind-bogglingly great: the kind of place that you’d think was amazing if you found it in New York. The quality and diversity of restaurants is amazing. Most pertinently, the town has 42 independently run outlets that serve coffee, and – so far – not a single branch of any of the big caffeine-selling multiples.

Now, though, Costa – whose most visible slogan remains “Saving the world from mediocre coffee” – is on its way, as part of programme of expansion that will look either worryingly aggressive or admirably ambitious, depending on your point of view.

Totnes: The Town That Declared War On Global Capitalism (John Harris, The Guardian)

boingboing

From Amnesty International (NZ):

Last week, activists in Uganda held their first Gay Pride. In a country where homosexuality is punishable by death, this was incredibly brave, and is a huge step forward for human rights.

 

Amnesty International (Facebook)

What do you mean you ‘weren’t invited’?

The ladies of Ladies’ Day at the Horse Show in the RDS, showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin, this afternoon.

From top: Elaine Bury, Dawn Leadon-Bolger, Joanne Murphy, Rieleen Wessels, Paula Clancy & Louise Gallagher and Eva Hayes-Morrissey.

(Laura Hutton-Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

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