BlueSky Team Blog

The unpaid intern debate is back in the news this week with announcements that HMRC will be probing the exploitation of interns in the PR industry. This comes on the back of reports that, of the 100 firms reported by Intern Aware, an incredible 10% were either PR agencies or companies advertising PR roles. Now forgive me for potentially going off on a rant here, but is it really necessary for PR – and indeed any industry – to use unpaid talent? In my view, if an individual at any level, and regardless of their background, is doing work for a company which it deems necessary, that person should receive payment for their services. Yes an intern will require a level of training and perhaps even more hand holding than someone with more experience would, but they can also prove invaluable for the business.

As it is International Women's Day - and never one to shirk controversy, I thought this may be an apt post for today. It was prompted by some interesting research I came across from one or our business education clients which suggests that women are under represented in high paying jobs not because of discrimination - but because they are not applying for them. Professor Roxana Barbulescu, of the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University, says “Women are taking themselves out of the running for certain jobs. When they evaluate different possible career tracks they already have the assumption that their applications may be unsuccessful. This is combined with a preference for jobs with better work-life balances and a lack of identity with more stereotypically masculine jobs, such as you may find in the finance industry. In a sense they pre-empt what they think the employers’ decision will be, and opt-out first. ”

I'm sure most of you are aware of the story about Adam, an unemployed graduate who has blown his last £500 on a billboard ad with a huge picture of himself and a link to his website employadam.com. The Telegraph reports that, "The 24-year-old from the Isle of Wight is yet to be offered his much sought-after first job in television production." Now don't get me wrong - I am all for innovation and enterprise - and I really do hope he gets the job that he wants but.... His on-line CV says nothing about what value he can add, and what his previous experience has taught him about the industry he is interested in - it's a wasted opportunity. He says he has sent over 200 CVs but that it is difficult to get across his talent on paper. So why not have a blog with examples of his work and send that instead? Where is his LinkedIn profile? Why isn't he linking in with media production professionals? Why isn't he joining relevant LinkedIn groups and engaging with industry professionals?

I was talking to a fellow business owner the other week and he was bemoaning the fact that he couldn't afford to put a decent employee benefits package together. "It's so difficult to compete with the big guys when they have their gym memberships, private healthcare and big employee engagement programmes." I asked him what he did to engage his employees - he said "well nothing - as I've said, I can't really afford it." This surprised me. I'm not going to pretend I am some great benevolent employer but there are lots of small things a business can do to make their employees feel valued and engaged. For one thing we always buy a birthday present and a card for our staff, we buy ice creams when it's hot; we are really flexible when it comes to people needing to come in late or leave early and when our four graduates passed their induction we bought them chocolate Olympic medals. We also invited then all to dinner the day before they started so we could all get to know each other. We close for Christmas week and give away a few extra days of holiday rather then making staff take it out of their allowance. We also give staff £50 when they join to buy a picture for our meeting room - so that there's a bit of everyone's personality in there - as well as something to remember people by if they leave.

While recently watching the summer blockbuster Horrible Bosses, I began to wonder why I, and the cinema full of people, found the tales of bullying, sexual discrimination and law breaking in the workplace so hilarious. The story of three friends seeking revenge on slave-driving, egotistical bosses who regularly manipulate, humiliate and undermine them provides some very funny dark comic moments. However I soon realised that the audience were able to identify closely with the protagonists, leaving them thankful for the real life managers they have!

I bought the last copy of The News of The World last Sunday. Not because I supported the paper in any way shape or form but, from a professional point of view, I wanted to own a piece of publishing history. I can't remember a time in my whole life ( almost half a century) an instance of a newspaper closing down in the midst of such a scandal.

Having just heard the new phrase ‘Connectiquette’ I decided to look into the etiquette of managing connections online. Technology has brought us all closer together. Social networks have provided platforms making it easy to connect with long-lost friends and family, new friends, business colleagues and other people who have similar interests, aspirations and goals. They have also become crucial in job search and career management.

It’s been three months since I took my first nervous steps into the BlueSky office, and I have to say they’ve flown by. As a newcomer to PR, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. My

At a recent presentation training course, run by the brilliant David Josephs, we briefly discussed our fears about presenting. After all, if we’re so nervous, we must be afraid of something!

Reading through Andy Headworth's mostly fabulous 2010 PDF, '50 Top Tips for Jobseekers' this lunch time, I came across one tip in particular that, I'll admit, made my stomach lurch.

Those of you in the PR industry know that most PR companies are filled with passionate, intelligent people dedicated to helping great brands and businesses to communicate with their

In my humble experience of the workplace I’ve already come across many management and HR styles. Some worked well for some personalities, some were great all-rounders and some proved ineffective. I can’t claim to be a manager or a leader, nor an expert on HR, but it’s rare to hear from a subordinate perspective, what makes a good manager. The best managers I’ve ever had all possessed the following qualities, and I’d even go so far as to assert that you can’t go far wrong if you’re:

There’s no such thing as bad publicity… right? The Daily Mail doesn’t seem to think so. In fact, it seems that every other day