Organising Work Experience

My first thought after hearing we were to perform work placement was to complete it in a publishing house. However, after scouring websites for contact information, I learnt that they were all either too far away (most were in North Sydney) or they were not accepting work-placement students. I also searched through non-major publishing houses, but many of them lacked contact information, or I had never heard of them, or they were very niche, and specialised in, say, self-help books. A few days later, I was talking to my uncle about my course and what I wanted to do after I completed the course, and he informed me that he worked in a publishing house (though not as a publisher). He promised to chat to some people at work, however I never heard back from him.

I then rang my sister Lisa and her husband Jason, and asked about performing work-experience at their workplaces (American Express and Dexus respectively). Lisa works as a marketing manager, which would have been wonderful. Even though they work in Sydney, they also live in Surrey Hills, and I could have stayed with them (though I didn’t fancy the idea of staying with my sister for a week). Again, however, I never heard back from them.

I then talked to my father about performing work experience with him at his work. He didn’t seem too keen on that idea (probably because I’d annoy him!), and he thought it might be more appropriate for my course if I performed my work experience at a media-related business. He offered to talk to one of his business associates, Mark Wilson, who runs Wisdom Advertising, and whom I had met a few times. Wisdom Advertising does more of the advertising work for my dad. I was a bit apprehensive about that, as I had no idea what an advertising company did in their workplace, and my dad’s business associates kind of intimidate me. However, I gave my father the dates; he asked Mark, and Mark agreed.

All in all, I managed to sort out my work experience within a few days.

I searched quite a few websites, however these are the main ones I was interested in:

• Harper Collins
• Pan MacMillan
• Angus and Robertson
• Random House
• Penguin Books

These were all either located in North Sydney, or were not accepting work-placement students.

People I contacted:

• James Halloran – Did not respond
• Lisa Halloran – Did not respond to my calls
• Jason Rowlings – Informed me that Dexus was not taking on work-placement students
• Michael Halloran – Contacted Mark Wilson for me
• Mark Wilson – Accepted

I used the Internet to research the publishing houses. However, as all of my other options were obtained through family connection, I didn’t use the Internet to research these companies. I talked to my sister and my brother-in-law over the phone and several times in person, however I gave up on that avenue because my sister is hopeless with getting back to people. And finally, I used the telephone when talking to Mark Wilson.

Their website can be found here.