Tagged with jobs

The BBC isn’t recruiting the locals at MediaCity

The bad press about the BBC’s MediaCity base in Salford will just not go away. Today it has been revealed that out of 680 new jobs, only 26 of them went to people from Salford. That’s less than 5%. Oh dear.

Local Labour MP Hazel Blears said:

The BBC needs to up its game and start to employ local people for local jobs.

Ken Lee, human resources director for BBC North, said:

We believe that this is a promising start. The BBC has recruited from across the north of England based on skills and experience, not by postcode.

In semi-related news, new unemployment benefit claimant figures show that the amount of claimants in the Salford and Eccles constiuency has gone up by 14.8%.

Of course I am being slightly unfair to Ken Lee. It’s not a bad thing to recruit based on skills and experience but it does raise an interesting question: is it a responsibility for the BBC to stimulate the local economy by recruiting people from the area or not?

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Introducing my new freelance job

So, as of two days ago I entered the world of employment. This is just as well, because living life as someone with no paid job was beginning to drive me insane (as exemplified by my recent problems with the benefits system). Anyway, I am now working as a community publisher for the hyperlocal news site Local People. Local People hosts a whole network of hyperlocal websites in many different towns across the country, including Guildford, which I will be taking charge of.

I haven’t had any professional working experience in local news nor have I stepped foot into a local newsroom but I do have experience and understanding of the subject through other projects. At university we were trained in the art of local newsgathering/newswriting and I even did a dissertation on it, including hyperlocal. Given that I think that sites like this will eventually turn out to be the way that people find out news about their area, or at least form a key part in its development, this is quite an exciting opportunity and one I hope to take advantage of.

So, head on over to Guildford People to see what I’m up to. I’ll link it up to my portfolio at some stage as well. Also be sure to check out if Local People cover your town in their directory.

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Now that things are calmer

A queue in Brighton

Before yesterday’s brief attempt at a blog, I hadn’t done any blogging here for the best part of two weeks. I’ve been really busy. Here’s what’s keeping me busy:

University – It’s done. It’s all done. My last hand-in was on Thursday 13th May, on the morning of The Great Escape no less, and I have to say that I felt a bit disappointed with what I handed in. I can’t really do much now except hope that I’ve not been marked on anything that I think is unfair. There is much, much more I want to say about my three years at the UCA in Farnham but I will have to wait until I’m graduated and until I know that that chapter of my life is over for good.

One Little IndianI have been doing an internship at One Little Indian Records’ digital department for a while now (approaching a month and a half). It’s been enjoyable and it has taught me so much about the music industry to the point where I’m incredibly grateful. It’s also opened my doors to a few new paths where my career could go down. Journalism, digital and possibly even PR (I say possibly because my CV just doesn’t have enough PR-specific experience) are possible options now. Or maybe even something else entirely!

MusicOMHI have started doing voluntary writing again, this time for a website called MusicOMH. A couple of reviews that I’ve done are already up there and there’ll be more coming. Doing gigs is a lot more convenient for me this time than my last voluntary post purely for the sole reason that I’m in London during the day anyway, so getting to wherever I need to get to is easy and it gives me something to look forward to at the end of the working day.

The Musical ChairsI’m still keeping it going. Whilst the ‘busy period’ occurred, the website turned two years old in its current format and it would be a shame to just stop writing for it. I’m trying to post as much as I can when I get the time and so far it seems to be working out fine. Besides, why drop a blog that has been given entry to The Great Escape for two years in a row? It would be mad!

So yeah, a lot is happening. The main message though is that the end of university is appreciated far more than is healthy. For reasons I’ll explain at a later date, I felt like I’ve been held back from moving on with what I want to do in my life. However, over the gloriously sunny weekend I’ve had time to contemplate and reflect and I don’t think I would want to be in any other position.

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Is the job market getting better for journalists?

Recession

We might be in our worst recession in modern times but it seems like the worst of the dry journalism jobs situation may be over. In the last week I have seen a flurry of job advertisements, in all mediums, appear on various sites. Journalism.co.uk posted a blog entry today summarising some of the jobs that have popped up in the last week (a few of them it has to be said from Future Publishing):

Web content editor
London, United Kingdom

Publisher/managing editor
Dubai, Dubai

Online editor
London, England

Editor
London, United Kingdom

Researcher
London, England

Staff writer – Edge
Bath, England , England

News correspondents
Leeds, England

Video journalist
London, England

Print executive (maternity leave cover)
London, England

Staff Writer – Rhythm
Bath, United Kingdom

Global technical support representative
City of London, United Kingdom

Hold The Front Page is also posting lots more local journalism job advertisements. Obviously, a lot of these jobs are almost unattainable for me at my level but it does give me an encouraging sign that the market is picking up and that by the time I graduate there will be a more forgiving jobs sector.

One has to hope.

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Preparations for Year 3

Coke bottle

On Wednesday I go back to uni, back into a routine of sitting in our Mac rooms with a bottle of Diet Coke to get me through the mornings/afternoons. This is the first year where I’ve not needed to buy anything for the upcoming year, got my financial issues sorted out beforehand, and realised that I am in budget in terms of keeping costs down (and when you see my potential gigging calendar for the remainder of the year, that is some achievement). I’m trying to get myself motivated for it but at the moment it’s a struggle. It’s been a summer of equal relaxation and excitement. I’m now pretty unlikely to ever get a whole summer off again so I’ve tried to make the most of it. I think I have.

This time next year I hope to be in some form of work. I now have a rough idea of what I want to be doing at the very least after I graduate. The marketplace is pretty rough at the moment and I want to get work as quickly as possible. Even if it’s not the job I really want, it’ll be something where I can apply the same skills and earn money for it, which is a start. It’s scary that in May my time in education is up after a decade and a half. Where does the time fly? You start off as a naïve young toddler and end up as a ‘responsible’ adult.

The next couple of days will be spent, as well as the usual Musical Chairs shizzle, listening to and reviewing some CDs. One of these is by a band I might be interviewing next week so this is pretty useful to me. From here on in, I’m busy and there’s no stopping me until Christmas. Daunting yet exciting times.

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