I’ve just spent an enjoyable few hours putting together an induction and training plan for the graduate who’s joining us next week as our Advertising and Sales Executive. I feel a real sense of responsibility doing this, as this role will provide a career springboard for a talented and enthusiastic young person, as well as being a crucial role to achieve our corporate goals. We deliberately chose to employ graduate, to give them an amazing start to their working lives.
As such I can’t help but remember back to my own first role (far too many years ago for me to own up to). Being on the graduate training scheme of a major High Street bank meant I enjoyed amazing formal training, the chance to work with incredibly talented people, and the ability to work in varied departments before choosing my area of specialism. It wasn’t all good though, one of my early managers told me straight out that, ‘I don’t like graduates, they stop people without degrees getting on’ – so that was a comfortable six month placement then! A branch manager refused me entry into their bank because I was wearing trousers (as one colleague said you had to wear a skirt so he could get his hands up there), and one placement involved an audit where a staff member was found to have siphoned customer funds. I remember feeling uncomfortable and confused about my career choice, and when a marketing role came up in Head Office I jumped at it. That decision has dictated the course of my professional life, the marketing team blew me away with their intelligence, passion for results and the joy of the creative process created a love of marketing and I’ve never looked back.
So what does this mean for our graduate? Well as the person responsible for increasing and optimising third party advertising on our sites, providing account management and advertising consultancy for our clients this role is incredibly important to our growth. But I am also aware of my responsibility to provide a professional foundation which will provide career options and nurture the intelligence, passion and raw talent we saw at interview. I’ve got our new starter spending time on the floor of the London Metal Exchange, visiting the Online Marketing Show and attending a full-on sales training course – as well as the usual inductions, introduction to web systems and password mountain that we all go through in a new job. Ultimately I want Emma to write a blog in 20 years time that thanks FastMarkets for the opportunity we’re giving her.
