We see our work experience programme as a learning opportunity.
It’s a chance to go behind the scenes of a global publishing house and get an insight into what a work place is like. You’ll meet lots of people, find out what it’s like to work here and hopefully pick up some new skills along the way.
We think this is an awesome place to work and we hope you will too.
How do I apply for work experience?
The health and wellbeing of all our work experience guests and colleagues is a priority, and given the ongoing developments with Coronavirus, we’ve had to take the decision to postpone our next application window for summer work experience placements.
We’ll update our Twitter and Facebook when we have more information about the rescheduled application window.
We’re firm believers that everyone should have an equal opportunity to do work experience with us. Because of this, we have a random selection process. The only things that will influence your application are when you’re available and which department you’d like to join. We pay everyone doing a work experience placement with us the National Living Wage.
As much as we’d like to, high demand means we’re unable to offer everyone a place. If you’re successful, we’ll contact you to confirm the details. If we don’t have a place for you this time round, do keep trying.
To be eligible for a place:
- You must be over 18 at the point of placement
- You must not have carried out a work experience placement with us, in any department, within the last 6 months
- You must have the right to work and train in the UK. It is your responsibility to check whether this is the case and we’re afraid that we’re unable to sponsor applicants for work experience
How does it work?
Whether you’ve always known you want to work with books, or simply want to dip your toe in the water, here’s what to expect from work experience at Penguin Random House:
- A two-week placement within one of our departments: Editorial, Sales, Marketing and Publicity.
- You’ll be paid National Living Wage. Even though you’ll be paid, there’s no employment contract or selection process like a CV or interview as we see work experience as a learning experience, not a job.
- If you’re offered a place and are travelling from afar, or need some help finding affordable accommodation in London, we might be able to help. In partnership with The Book Trade Charity, we offer subsidised accommodation. You’ll be asked if you want to opt-in for this and places are randomly selected.
- We can also recommend other affordable accommodation if needed or you can get in contact with The Spare Room Project. They match those from outside of London with publishers who can offer them a spare room during their placement.
Keep in mind, getting work experience with us isn’t a prerequisite for a job at Penguin Random House. We’re interested in a whole range of experiences – and especially, your strengths and potential.
Our story together could start here…
What will I be doing?
You’ll be learning your socks off.
During your placement, you’ll be sitting in the hub of your team and learning what goes on around you. That’s not to say that there might not be less exciting bits of the day (we all pitch in for tea and coffee rounds, and – no matter how senior you are – you can never get away from admin), but it’ll be a good insight into what a work place is like and how we get stuff done.
Also, any admin tasks (such as photocopying, telephoning, mailings, filing…) we give to cut your teeth on will be a big help to your team.
Tasks will differ from placement to placement, but this is what you might be asked to help with:
Marketing and Publicity
How can you get – and keep – people’s attention? Working on paid-for campaigns, it’s up to Marketing to get our books noticed.
Forming relationships with journalists, festival directors, radio and TV producers … Publicity is about breaking through the noise and getting our books into the press.
This is what you might be asked to support with…
- Flexing your creativity and coming up with campaign ideas
- Hooking potential readers through contributing to our sales brochures
- Capturing what makes a book or author unique through writing flyers, adverts and posters
- Building our mailing lists to help spread the word about what we do
- Researching and tracking any hype around our books
Editorial
From discovering talent, developing manuscripts, and convincing colleagues that this is the book to publish, Editorial lies at the heart of the publishing process.
This is what you might be asked to support with…
- Exercising that eye for detail through reading submissions and checking things for consistency
- Thinking about our audiences and writing compelling book blurbs
- Getting a feel of the team and daily workload through attending meetings. You might be writing and sending out minutes too
- Helping things run smoothly by putting together spreadsheets and maintaining our databases
- Reaching key audiences by sending out copies of our books
Sales
Sales is about building both existing and new relationships, and bringing our books to as many people as possible.
This is what you might be asked to support with…
- Researching our position in the market
- Providing information about our books to our customers
- Helping publishing teams make sure our books reach our retailers – whether that’s through creating product lists, putting together order forms or processing the orders themselves
Want to keep in touch?
We’ll be shouting about upcoming applications windows on our Work Experience Facebook page.
It’s also a great place to find out what others got up to and how they found their experience.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Blog