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Work Experience at Smaart Publishing: Pooja Darbar

Posted on Fri, 05 January 2007 12:53:23

In the first few days of my work experience at Smaart Publishing I mainly did market research on careers websites for teenagers comparing them to our own. This involved thoroughly browsing different sites and noting their useful or impressive features as well as their poorer ones. Often, the effects of simple changes to the layout, language or presentation of info would have made them more accessible. This research was beneficial as it gave me a clearer idea of what I�d like to see featured, such as a section on the �Getsmaart� forum for general chat, a personalised homepage for registered users, and a new introductory page to the forum amongst other things. None of the other sites I looked at had a forum. These should be added sometime in the near future � watch this space!

I also registered with getsmaart, in order to receive regular e-blasts and career and courses information that will be relevant to me. Very useful.

I didn�t know I�d be doing this beforehand but to be honest it was a welcome surprise; giving genuine opinions on the appeal of sites targeted at students just like me is something I�d like to do more often. Ultimately, who�s in a better position to give constructive criticism? Looking through the vast expanse of careers advice available on the web, it was interesting to see how much of it was actually useful.
Another by-product of this work was that inevitably it increased my own awareness of the information out there; the fact is, given an hour on the internet I wouldn�t usually visit a careers website and that probably rings true for a lot of young people. However, they are designed for us and whether we like it or not, they address choices we all face.

In my second week I wrote an article on fun activities and places of interest in London that cost under a fiver. This was an interesting piece to research because I found some exciting new places that were perfect for the summer holiday and really cheap; it featured free festivals, music studio sessions, affordable theatre etc. As this piece will go into one of the magazines, I was shown how the text is laid out in the framework and customised on a specialised computer application. I chose colour schemes and photos from the image bank to go with the article. It was cool to see what my words would look like in print.

I then phoned admissions offices at different universities and asked for their advice for students who might be going through Clearing this summer, for a feature in the e-mag. I collated their responses and wrote them up with an introduction and ending; at first I was a bit worried they�d all say they had no time for pesky researchers writing articles but surprisingly I got good, useful feedback. By the end I�d had some funny conversations with friendly admissions tutors and PR managers which definitely made up for some of the cheesy music played while I was put on hold.
My favourite piece was my �talking points� section as I could write about any issues affecting young people that were interesting to me and relevant. I chose to include a section on the Mayor�s free bus travel for under-18s proposal because during my work experience I used the bus for free being under-16 at the time and had read about the apparent influx of 14-15 year olds travelling by bus since they no longer had to pay. During the week the Which? Survey of cereals was published so I wrote about its results and the unhealthy cereals targeted at children being the most sugary. As a cereal eater myself, the research I did prompted me to change my choice of cereal so I wondered if it would have any affect on other young people.

My third section was on the planned changes in legislation to allow schools to have security checks and teachers to frisk following the various stabbings of schoolchildren. I also wrote another section for Smaart Talent about the controversial comments David Cameron made about rap music played by Radio One. I had mixed feelings on the topic and included opinions from different corners in the piece, as approaches vary so much depending on your perspective; I thought it would be a thought provoking subject to cover.

The two weeks were over all of a sudden and it was time to leave. I�m really glad I got the chance to come here, mostly because I didn�t think I�d get a placement where I would have so many chances to write freely and research the market. I learnt so much through looking into the world of careers media and all in the company of the friendliest people!