Publishing profile: Steff Lever

Exeposé Books chats with Steff Lever about career paths and joining your student newspaper…

Steff’s advice: get involved with your student newspaper!

Steff Lever, publishing intern turned professional, gained a coveted job at a top media company before she’d even graduated. Only four weeks after finishing her university course, the numerous placements she’d completed throughout her degree landed her a job at IPC Media. Her blog, Diary of a Publishing Professional, offers insights into Steff’s professional development as well as posting up to date lists of placements in both the book and magazine world. Steff speaks to Exeposé Books about her experiences and offers some pertinent advice for students thinking of going into similar careers.

Like many students, Steff had not decided on her career path when she arrived at university. Instead, she realised that publishing was for her when she began doing internships which proved  to use both her interest for reading as well as allowing her to explore the different options that a career in publishing provides. Currently whilst working as a PA and Office Manager at IPC Media she is able to dabble in editorial, publishing and marketing “to really gage what career [she] would like”.

However, she doesn’t believe it’s necessary for a graduate to know exactly what career path they want to embark on – “when you’re young, it’s the perfect time to experiment with new things so there’s certainly no rush in deciding upon a career path”.

In 2011 Steff started Diary of a Publishing Professional because she felt that whilst students are constantly encouraged to take placements and do internships they prove difficult to find and gain. Therefore her blog not only offers hints and tips for those hoping to break into the industry but also advertises the current opportunities that are available, such as paid internships and job vacancies.

The current plan for Steff’s blog is to continue to record her career as it progresses and provide readers with further information about the publishing industry. She hopes that by ‘document[ing] [her] own experiences.. others will find it insightful’.

Some tips that Steff has for new students who are considering a career in publishing is to join your student newspaper  as “that’s publishing experience that can go straight on the CV”. She would also recommend “getting involved in anything that you enjoy and anything that will put useful skills on your CV, such as teamwork”.

As a final question we caught up with what Steff has been reading recently. Apart from the reviews that she regularly posted on her blog she particularly recommended Letters from Leaders by Henry O. Dormann since “it’s a great choice for a book that you can dip in and out of whilst studying”.

More information is available on Steff’s blog: diaryofapublishingintern.blogspot.com and she is more than happy for any one who is thinking of going into publishing to contact her by twitter (@steff_lever) or email (steff.lever@gmail.com).

 

Summer Recruitment Fair begins

Image credit: University of Exeter

Career Zone is holding its Summer Recruitment Fair this Wednesday, 15 May, in The Forum from 1:00-3:30 p.m.

Students are not required to book and all are welcome to attend.

The fair will feature a range of exhibitors from a variety of sectors including Dell, Johnson & Johnson Ltd. and Teach First. They will promote graduate vacancies, summer internships, and casual summer and part-time jobs.

Students will also be able to browse a range of employability training opportunities and attend a CV clinic run by Career Zone.

The event is sponsored by JMC Recruitment Solutions, a leading recruitment company for the aviation, rail and automotive industries.  Full details of all exhibitors are listed in the brochure.

Career Zone is Exeter University’s career and employability service. The Summer Recruitment Fair is Exeter’s final recruitment fair of the academic year. Further information on the regular services and support Career Zone provide for Exeter students can be found on their website.

Olivia Luder, Site Manager

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Gender Inequality, are we really helping things?

Photo credits to Phil of Photos

Picture this: A small IT firm set up in Exeter employs four people and due to growing demand for its technical products is looking to employ a fifth member. This will be a skilled job and will require some training, and the interview process has narrowed down the candidates to a 28 year old man and a 28 year old woman with identical skills and potential; who does the firm pick?

Much has been done in terms of employment law in the past decade to address the inequality, both in wages and in treatment between the genders. However, much of the legislation has proved counter-productive and often harmful to prospective female workers, especially for those employed in small businesses. Consider the case of maternity leave. An employer has to pay six weeks of 90% pay and then up to another thirty three of £135.45 a week (or 90% still whichever is lower) for an employee who during that time contributes £0 to the company. That can mean thousands of pounds shelled out to an employee while in the meantime a replacement has to be found. A worker to cover the lost manpower is often very difficult to recruit as the work is only to be for a short period of time and especially for skilled jobs this is often both difficult and expensive.

Furthermore, many women lose the willingness to go back to work and want to stay with their child; while the company’s outlay on maternity pay will be decreased, the disruption of their long term plans is not healthy for business plans. For men, paternity pay can be an inconvenience, but as it only lasts two weeks, the impact on the business is minimal. For large companies employing thousands of workers, the small numbers on leave at any one time, providing they are not in important areas, will have much less effect, but for a small business, especially in harsh times, this can prove catastrophic. So, back to Exeter’s IT firm: why should they employ the woman?

Benjamin Blackford