Publishing recruitment: How to get your foot in the door and stay there

Helen Speedy

As with most industries, Publishing has had to adapt to the digital age.

While eBook sales levelled off in 2015 and high street book retailers have had a bit of a renaissance, digital resources are certainly the future for most areas of publishing and content provision, such as educational, STM, professional and business information publishing.

All publishing roles are implicated in digital advancement from production, with digital work flows and new methodologies, through to sales, where you might be selling an online service or subscription rather than units of a print product. No positions remain untouched and some of the challenges faced in terms of skills shortage are linked with the necessity for digital product or technical experience combined with traditional publishing expertise and knowledge. However, we are finding that publishers are now looking to their own employees and working to train them to develop the necessary skills rather than looking to other industries, which is great.

One type of position that is relatively new to publishing and increasingly in demand is the Product Manager/Product Owner function. Finding people who have both the publishing and ‘product’ experience can be challenging. Knowledge and experience of the sector is more often than not something that our clients will be looking for, perhaps not above skills, but definitely in conjunction with the skills required for a role. So, the most effective way of addressing skills shortages is to focus budget and time on developing current employees and encouraging those with the knowledge to transfer and grow their skills within the sector.

We are seeing publishers work harder to keep hold of good staff, so if you are in a traditional role in publishing, but want to develop your skills, then it is a good time to talk to your employer about the opportunities on offer.

You might want to look at some of the many courses on offer at the Publishing Training Centre or the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP), which your employer may fund as part of your career development. The courses cover a wide range of skillsets, from copy-editing and proofreading to marketing and social media. If you prefer (or must) to fund your own training, the SfEP offers generous course discounts to its members – the membership effectively pays for itself if you do one course a year.

For supply chain and production people, Book Industry Communication (BIC) offer courses on eBook creation, pre-press for publishing, shipping and printing.

It’s also worth keeping an eye on the various massive online course (MOOC) providers such as FutureLearn and Coursera. These sites offer courses for free, enabling you to enhance your CV and continuous professional development (CPD) even if you are on a very tight budget.

Publishing is a highly competitive industry and if you are looking to get your foot in the door, work experience is essential. Candidates who stand out from the crowd often show initiative by having used their spare time to get involved in something related. For example, blogging on a subject linked to an area of publishing or attending networking and social events to find out more and gain contacts in the sector. Here are some things you can highlight on your CV to show how blogging is useful to you:

• Commitment: The longer you’ve been blogging the better. This shows commitment and creative thinking, and also proves that you can work well independently.
• Networking: If you’ve worked with brands or publishers mention it on your CV. Not only does it prove your communicational skills, but also shows an understanding of the industries you mention. This is particularly good if the brands are relevant to the job you’re applying for.
• Social Media and SEO abilities: Have you got 1000 twitter followers because of your blog publicity? Mention it! Do you understand SEO? Mention it!
• Coding: If you’ve altered your HTML yourself or have learnt about it then put that down as a skill.
• Design: Did you design your blog, or make your own graphics/headers? Have you got original artwork or worked with others to create artwork? Put it on your CV.

However, while experience is vital, we wouldn’t recommend doing more than a couple of weeks’ unpaid work experience when starting out. Another good way to get a foot in the door can be finding a paid temp role. Our temps team at Atwood Tate finds that clients can be more flexible when hiring on a temporary basis and tend to value skills over specific sector experience for these roles. This can be an opportunity to use your transferable expertise and gain some experience in the world of publishing.

Helen Speedy is Associate Director at Atwood Tate