New Blood
*Joe, ready for work.
Engineering recruitment, much like Football, is never going out of fashion. Long as there’s two people left on the planet, there’s always going to be a client and a candidate. But nothing is going to entice either to come to your recruitment agency more than good presentation, and what better way for a recruitment agency to get some marketing assistance than through the Kickstarter Scheme!
Universal Credit’s Kickstarter Scheme is a programme offering opportunities to young people like myself, providing the chance to gain much needed work experience. While one consequence of this is that you become the company rookie wherever you go into, it’s also given myself the unique opportunity to apply my skills in Animation and Video Editing in an unfamiliar field. And so, a month after my relationship with Synergi Recruitment began, here is what I learnt.
My first introduction to Synergi and my future colleagues was during my job interview, and nothing says strong start like opening the door and thinking you’ve got the wrong building whilst everyone stares at you. First impressions aside, it didn’t take longer than week one to become aware of the kind of work culture that exists within Synergi. There’s a real big focus on being part of a collective and everyone in the team here shares around advice and support. It’s a cycle of lifting each other up, and it’s hard not to caught up in it when you arrive. Nowhere is this more apparent than during the recent national crisis on whether England will take the Euro cup home or not. Unsurprisingly, there was much anticipation in office, and everyone got involved in sweepstakes and penalty kicks for meeting internal office targets. The football gives everyone something to look forward to, and the team has never felt closer than when the England flag hung proudly on the wall. You’ll be surprised how infectious the atmosphere is, though you will have to do a bit of research into the sport prior.
Aside from learning Football, my introductory tasks have been focused on Internal Marketing material, which is similar to External but all the content you create is for Synergi members only (sorry everyone else). That’s right, you lot miss out on all the statistics, targets and birthday presentations presented on the three televisions within the office. Three televisions may sound unproductive initially, but video and animated presentations keep the office lively whilst informing staff on current information within the company. Obviously, I cannot speak for everyone present here, but being able to add in touches of humour to presentations or producing an internal newsletter I feel eases stress that may come from the job, whilst adding an extra internal layer to the already well-established culture within Synergi. Additionally, I think it’s really fun to do.
It was initially quite hard for me to see how my background as an animator who writes 100% fictional stories about being mugged in a car park fits into the marketing of a recruitment agency. Despite this, I’m surprised how well my skills have managed to translate into this new field. Writing for animation lends itself to newsletters internally and blogposts (go figure) along with design skills making for some really snazzy content. It’s interesting to see how what I’ve previously learnt adapts itself to the recruitment agency that popularised the red S, something that the freedom of internal marketing really encourages.
You’d think after watching films like Dead Poets Society you’d be use to thing’s not totally going the way you expect them to. Yet the work I’ve done for Synergi was more than what I expected, and unlike my viewing of Dead Poets Society I wasn’t hopelessly depressed afterwards. It’s definitely been a weird month to be dropped into a company considering the previously mentioned national crisis, but it’s one I can’t deny I’ve been enjoying.
Here’s to the next 5 months!
Joseph Cawte
Kickstarter Marketing Executive
