Make your mark by spending eight weeks this summer working with the UK’s largest publisher. Our paid summer internship roles sit across 9 different teams, with opportunities to contribute to projects in one of our publishing houses or specialist group functions.
You don’t have to have previous experience in publishing to join our summer internship programme. With our support, you’ll gain universally applicable skills that will benefit you wherever your career takes you – whether that’s the publishing industry or elsewhere.
Our summer interns are paid the London living wage and we offer financial support to those commuting from outside of London.
Applications will open on Friday 21st March and will close on Sunday 6th April 2025.
Summer interns will be expected to join us in the business from Monday 30th June to Friday 29th August 2025.
Please note that this is a full-time hybrid position. You will be working from 9:30am to 5:30pm 5 days per week, unless otherwise agreed with your line manager and HR. You will be expected to be in person in our London office for at least 2 days per week.
Available roles
Eligibility
Our mission is to make books for everyone, because a book can change anyone. To achieve this, we are always seeking new voices to join us.
If you identify as coming from a lower socio-economic background, this internship is for you. You’ll either have been eligible for free school meals, or at age 14 your highest-earning parent/guardian was not self-employed or in senior management, and was employed in one of the following categories:
-Technical and craft occupations such as: motor mechanic, fitter, inspector, plumber, printer, tool maker, electrician, gardener, train driver
-Semi-routine manual and service occupations such as: postal worker, machine operative, security guard, caretaker, farm worker, catering assistant, receptionist, sales assistant
-Routine manual and service occupations such as: HGV driver, van driver, cleaner, porter, packer, sewing machinist, messenger, labourer, waiter/waitress, bar staff
-Unemployed
*These are broad categories
that may not exactly fit
your family situation.
Please use your judgement
when self-identifying*
Please note that in order to apply you must also be over the age of 18 and have a pre-established right to work in the UK for the entirety of the internship. Unfortunately, we are unable to sponsor Visas as the summer internship does not meet the minimum requirements for Visa sponsorship.
You do not need to have any previous experience to apply for our internship programme. You also don’t need to be studying or have studies at university to be eligible.
“I gained a strong understanding of the publishing industry and the roles that get our books onto shelves. My manager introduced me to colleagues across the company and I got to grips with how everything works.
It equipped me with skills that helped me move into a permanent Communications Assistant role here. These skills ranged from time and diary management, strategic communications, and platform-specific knowledge (like the publishing platform Biblio).”
Chadia Aliberti
Application Process
Applications will open on Friday 21st March and will close on Sunday 6th April 2025.
Written Application
No need to spend ages crafting the perfect CV and cover letter – to submit your application, you will need to answer three short questions on an inclusive hiring platform called Applied. We’ll ask you about three of the five core qualities that will be important in successfully completing an internship with us:
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Communication
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Problem Solving
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Organisation
You can find more information about the core qualities we’ll be assessing throughout the recruitment process in the ‘Core Qualities’ tab.
On Applied, we will also ask you to indicate your top three project preferences, so please make sure you’ve reviewed the role info on this page in detail before submitting your application.
Video Submission
If you’re successful in the written application stage, we will assign you to one of the 9 project roles. You will then be invited to complete a project-specific video task on the HireVue platform. We will ask you to complete a series of short video submissions, answering questions about how you demonstrate some of the core qualities we are looking for. We also might ask a question specific to the role you are being considered for.
Virtual Learning and Selection Days
If you’re successful in the HireVue stage, you will be invited to the final stage of the recruitment process for our summer internships, which is a virtual Learning and Selection process. This will take place virtually over two days via Microsoft Teams.
On the first day, you will be invited to a 45-minute interview slot. You will be asked a series of questions related to the core competencies we are assessing, as well as your motivation and interest in the role.
On the second day, you will be invited to a 1-hour group task slot. Alongside the other shortlisted candidates for your role, you will complete an interactive task. How you complete the task and how you interact with the other candidates will be assessed by the hiring panel.
All successful candidates will be contacted at the end of May, with the internship programme running in July and August.
Core Qualities
When we are assessing applications, we will be looking for candidates to demonstrate five key qualities that will be important in successfully completing an internship with us:
Stay tuned…
Our core qualities will be uploaded here very soon.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The recruitment process will be entirely virtual, so you won’t need to travel into London for any interviews or tasks, they can be completed from home.
As with many of our permanent roles, the internship will run as a hybrid programme. A hybrid format ensures that interns get the most out of the programme and office amenities and that they can build effective relationships across the organisation. In general, we expect interns to be in person in our Embassy Gardens office in London two days each week, although this will be dependent on your role and team. You would be welcome to come into the office more than this, if you’d like.
For interns based outside of London, we are able to provide some financial support for travel into London.
If you’re looking for accommodation in London, we recommend checking out The Spare Room Project, run by the Society of Young Publishers, which aims to help break down barriers to living in London for those trying to enter the publishing industry.
Please note that we will accommodate any reasonable adjustments for those with accessibility requirements. These will be discussed with candidates on a case-by-case basis.
We welcome applications from candidates with a disability or long-term condition. We want you to be comfortable and confident throughout the recruitment process and during your time in the business.
In the first stage of the recruitment process, we will ask you if you need any reasonable adjustments. That way, we can reach out to you to discuss these should you be selected for the next stage of the recruitment process.
Reasonable adjustments in the recruitment process could include (but are not limited to) having a BSL interpreter or extra time during an interview or task.
If you have any questions or want to ask about adjustments or alternative formats, please contact us at [email protected]
Prior to joining, we ask all new employees if there are any adjustments they’ll need while working with us. We use a tool called the Tailored Adjustment Plan, which can help structure a conversation with your line manager about these adjustments.
We can consider a broad range of adjustments, including physical adjustments (like furniture, equipment or software) or non-physical adjustments (like altered work hours, communication preferences and more one-to-ones).
You might not know what barriers you face until you get to the office – and that’s okay too. You can discuss any requests you have with your manager at any time.
We are members of the Business Disability Forum, and have access to support through Unum, occupational health, the Employee Assistance Programme, and other specialist providers.
We also have a brilliant internal colleagues’ network, AccessAbility, for those who identify as disabled, neurodiverse or chronically ill, or who are currently coming to terms with a related identifier.
You will need access to a device to complete most stages of the recruitment process. This device will need audiovisual functionality so you can complete video tasks and video calls. Please contact us at [email protected] if you do not have access to a device on which to complete your application.
Once you start work with us, our IT team will provide you with a laptop to loan for the internship. The team will be on hand remotely and in the office to make sure your tech is all set up, and to support you with any tech issues throughout the internship.
Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that all interns will secure a permanent role with us at the end of their time on the internship programme.
We will, however, make sure you are in the best possible position to take on an entry-level role in publishing at the end of the summer. We’ll provide you with the experience and training that you need to build your industry- and role-specific knowledge and skills; we’ll help you network with colleagues across the business; and we’ll give you training and support for completing job applications.
As of 2024, all of our London-based teams have moved into the Embassy Gardens office. You can find more information about EG, including accessibility information, here.
It really depends on what you‘re doing with us! Our mission is to make books for everyone, because a book can change anyone – it’s really important to us. We know that to deliver this mission, we need to draw on a range of perspectives. In some of our roles (e.g. editorial) you may need to work closely with titles and be an avid reader, but in others this will be less important.
Absolutely! We know that roles on our training programmes are very competitive and that a rejection can be disappointing, but that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be perfect for another opportunity with us. Please feel free to apply for another one of our programmes or another permanent role with us. We won’t penalise you for any previous rejections.
Our mission is to make books for everyone. To be able to publish boldly and creatively, for all readers, we aim to have a workforce that is representative of the diversity of UK society, in all teams and at all levels.
We collect and track data every other year on the make-up of our workforce so we can track our progress against this objective. Based on this data, we have observed that people from lower socio-economic backgrounds are the most underrepresented group in our company. For this reason, we have made our summer internship a positive action training programme to better support people from these backgrounds to get into publishing.
There are several other routes into the business for people who would like to begin a career in publishing, but do not meet the eligibility criteria for our summer internship. For example, we have 250 paid work experience positions open every year, which anyone can apply for. We also have hundreds of entry-level roles available each year, which are open to all. You can keep an eye on our open vacancies on our Careers website, or by following our careers Twitter/X account @PenguinUKJobs.