Issue 58 / August 2015

Bido Lito! August 2015
3
INTERNAL AFFAIRS
Editorial
So, you want to start a career in the ‘creative industries’, do you? Great, good luck to you. The country needs you, too; according to latest government
statistics, the combined worth of the creative industries to the UK economy is about £70bn per year, representing one of the few booming sectors
in the UK marketplace. You know that your flowing prose, incisive reviewing style, signature illustration technique, or acute awareness of the
negative space-loving Copenhagen-style design will make you an asset in a sector that’s going through a major upheaval as new and traditional
media collide; but how do you get your foot on that first rung of the ladder?
First of all, get to the back of the queue; the amount of people coming out of universities and colleges loaded with qualifications in writing
clever words and making pretty images far outweighs the number of employment opportunities available. Unless you’re taking a punt on your
own venture, you’re going to have to compete with hundreds of other people applying for the few positions out there. “Fair enough”, you think, “I’ll
download the application form and give it a go. You’ve got to be in it to win it.” Scroll down to the ‘requirements’ section and you’ll see something
that could make your heart sink: ‘relevant studio/office/publication experience desired’. With the sheer weight of competition for temporary and
full-time roles now, even most entry-level positions come with the caveat of some hands-on experience. A three-year degree, and all the work that
comes with it, isn’t experience enough in the over-saturated jobs market, it seems.
This is where internships come in. And before the bile rises in the back of your throat, to be spat on to the page at the very thought of internships,
hear me out. Put the horror stories of exploitation and boredom-inducing bouts of tea-making to one side for a moment, and consider the role (and
good CV buzz words) that decent intern opportunities provide: hands-on experience working on ‘live’ projects; exposure to a professional working
environment; the opportunity to test your skills and prove your worth; improving teamwork, inter-personal skills, telephone communications, hot
beverage-preparation techniques… you get the picture. I don’t want to trivialise the matter, as I think that internships – paid and unpaid – play a
key role for individuals and businesses alike, especially as the value of experience increases. Being blooded in a potential workplace also lets you
get a taster of the likely environment, allowing you to gauge if you’ll even like the role. You might even try a few before you decide exactly where
you want to specialise. If you’re still undecided, think about internships like this: if we called them work experience roles, would it make you think
any differently about them?
Just to reiterate at this point, I – and we as a publication – are completely against exploitation in these circumstances. Anyone who doesn’t show
the requisite respect for the mutually beneficial role a robust internship programme can play – and/or just treats them as box-ticking exercises –
should be named, shamed and avoided. It’s also worth pointing out that unpaid internships are far from democratic, being restricted to those who
can afford to work for free just to gain experience. Unpaid roles should never be seen as a replacement for labour either, especially if the business
stands to make money from the product being worked on; but, at the same time, not all such placements have to be paid ones, if you have an
appreciation of the creative currency in opportunity and experience. This, in itself, is a delicate notion, as it can be easily abused if the intentions
aren’t pure (see above).
Got an opinion on this, or a positive/negative experience of an internship that you’d like to share with us? Tweet us, email us, Facebook message
us, send us a letter: we want to hear what you think about the culture of interning, and we’ll be building a lot of the responses in to a full feature
to be run in our September issue, which looks in to the whole issue in a bit more depth.
There’s a further reason behind bringing this discussion to the fore, not least because we are launching a new internship programme of our
own. We are looking to take on an Editorial Assistant to work alongside our team on the monthly magazine production, and we promise to stick to
all the guidelines set out above! We would like to hear from any of you who are interested in the role, and we’re going to be meeting prospective
candidates at our Bido Lito! Social Live @ Aloft Hotel on Thursday 20th August. Drop us a line on submissions@bidolito.co.uk if you’d like to apply
(and see the news item on page 23 for a bit more info).
And finally… Craig and I would like to say a big, huge, bright pink ‘thank you’ to Luke Avery, the unsung hero who hung up his InDesign boots
last month. Luke has been part of Bido since the very beginning, and is as much a part of the mag as any of us, having worked on making it look as
recognisable as it does now. It’s been a pleasure, mate, and we wish you all the best! Following on from this, we would like to extend the warmest
of pink welcomes to Mark McKellier, who joined us on design/layout duties for this month’s issue. I apologise in advance about my obsession
with hyphens…
Bido Lito!
Issue Fifty Eight / August 2015
bidolito.co.uk
Static Gallery
23 Roscoe Lane
Liverpool
L1 9JD
Editor
Christopher Torpey - chris@bidolito.co.uk
Editor-In-Chief / Publisher
Craig G Pennington - info@bidolito.co.uk
Reviews Editor
Sam Turner - live@bidolito.co.uk
Design
Mark McKellier - @mckellier
Proofreading
Debra Williams - debra@wordsanddeeds.co.uk
Digital Content Manager
Natalie Williams - online@bidolito.co.uk
Words
Christopher Torpey, Glyn Akroyd, Richard
Lewis, Joshua Potts, Jonny Davis le Brun,
Stuart Miles O’Hara, Phil Morris, Alastair
Dunn, Jamie Carragher, Bethany Garrett,
Sam Banks, Walrus Said, Nik Glover.
Photography, Illustration and Layout
Mark McKellier, John Johnson, Charlotte
Patmore, Aaron McManus, Lucy Roberts,
Jemma Timberlake, Keith Ainsworth, Mike
Sheerin, Stuart Moulding, Samantha Milligan,
Gaz Jones, Antonio Franco, David Howarth.
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The views expressed in Bido Lito! are those of the
respective contributors and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of the magazine, its staff or the
publishers. All rights reserved.
Christopher Torpey / @BidoLito
Editor
bidolito.co.uk