Apply to #MyDigitalCareer to kickstart your career in digital and social media

Steve Ward is giving 50 UK graduates an opportunity to gain an insight into their future career. I asked him to tell me about #MyDigitalCareer.

What’s the opportunity in content, digital and social for someone graduating this year?

It’s greater than ever, as social media becomes more of an integral element of job roles. It’s not just public relations or marketing now, it is part of administration; customer support; data analysis; editorial and journalism; human resource and recruitment; sales, and more.

Business leaders have greater credibility if they are digitally savvy and have a solid footprint. It’s no longer a fad; and the business community has a better understanding of how social media works for them, what to measure, and where it produces results.

Who are you, and what does CloudNine do?

I’m Steve Ward, founder of CloudNine, the first recruiter to specialise in digital and social media in 2009.

Six years the industry has matured. We find roles for people across social media, digital communications, online content and editorial. This early-adopter status makes us one of the most effective users of social media in talent acquisition.

What is #MyDigitalCareer, and why is it important?

#MyDigitalCareer is a free week long programme during the week of 13 July. Across five evenings and different venues in London we’ll provide unique insights, advice, autobiographical stories and learnings from some of the industry’s leading lights, and emerging stars.

There are just 50 places for the most apparently exciting young graduates we see. We will choose the 50 people who most demonstrate their potential.

It’s difficult to get on the ladder of a career in this industry when you have a limited amount of experience. Too many fantastic graduates miss the boat, and end still searching for their opening a year after they left university.

They commonly come out of university academically intellectual, but commercially naïve. It’s well documented that the system typically fails to prepare their outgoing talent for the challenge of a competitive job search.

CloudNine wants to help tackle this issue.

What will students learn from the #MyDigitalCareer course?

The sessions over the course week are a unique opportunity to get up close and personal to first hand mentorship and to mix with a range of people of who have seen the challenges of building a career in the industry.

I’ve deliberately picked so far, a range of people across the spectrum of expertise and experience. The five night programme will comprise of: digital leaders; agency specialists; brand-side specialists; case studies from graduates who entered with credit and have grown their career, and on the final night recruitment specialists who can advise on smart ways to stand out.

We want this to be a course that helps bright-eyed graduates make decisions on the direction and purpose of their career.

Who are the mentors?

We've got Eb Adeyeri from We Are Social; Matt Buckland from Forward Partners; Molly Flatt from 1000heads; Becky Gloyne from Microsoft; Keri Hudson from Cancer Research; Rachel Kneen from O2 Telefonica; James Poulter from Edelman; Charlie Southwell from Transmute; Danny Whatmough from Weber Shandwick; and myself.

We’re also trying to finalise people from Asos, BBC, Burberry, Dare, Moo, Oglivy and Paramount. We’re hoping some of these people will take on continued mentorship of some of the programme attendees too, depending on their availability.

Who should apply to the #MyDigitalCareer programme?

The programme is open to all graduates who have just completed their final year. We particularly want to encourage those graduates who have taken an interest in digital marketing, social media in communications and journalism.

The stand out candidates will be those that best demonstrate they are a digital native; and understand how best to present themselves with a degree of creativity; either in writing, imagery, presentation or video.

We don’t want exclude those who haven’t dived into the world of Photoshop or Final Cut yet; however the ability to present content and writing well is going to be paramount.

How do I apply to #MyDigitalCareer, and how will you pick the 50 candidates?

We have created an Eventbrite page to administer the initial applications of interest; but you can apply just as easily by emailing [email protected] and notifying your wish to be considered.

We will then invite you to submit your imaginative application to us by 14 June 2015.

After the deadline date, we will assess all the applications, and based on the criteria above, the quality of delivery and a little bit of gut instinct that goes with assessing people with potential.  We will notify the 50 chosen lucky people during the week following.

What happens after #MyDigitalCareer?

CloudNine will make a commitment to the 50 graduate and will do as much as we can to line up work-experience placements, internships and career opportunities. We’re already starting to work on communicating to the businesses that will most likely employ a digital/social media graduate; and these 50 – and their newfound degree of commercial awareness – will hopefully stand out amongst the pack.