As a change from my countdown of Wire characters, a task more Herculean than I envisaged when I first started it, I thought I’d write a quick review of my First Ever Proper Job Interview (hereto referred to as FEPJI), which took place today in Manchester.
The job I was going for was of DirectNews Correspondant for a company called Adfero. It basically involves writing tailored news content for the news pages of the websites of a various Adfero clients, who range from Vodafone to the NUT (National Union of Teachers).
In practice this means you have to write 25-30 stories of around 175 words per day. So in a typical day you might write four stories for the Vodafone website related to mobile phones (although the stories don’t have to be, and ideally aren’t about, Vodafone), four stories for lovefilm.com and four stories for a more niche website (Martial Arts, for example).
The aim of this is to increase the amount of hits the company’s website gets through SEO (Search Engine Optimization- something of a buzzword in media circles at the minute). It works on a simple premise- if someone types ‘Seth Rogen’ into Google and you have a story about Seth Rogen on lovefilm, this will increase the chances of someone visiting their website, and thus obviously increase their chances of selling their products to internet users.
The first proper stage of the application process (after sending them a CV and covering letter) was to write up two 200 word stories based on two long press releases within one hour. These press releases are emailed to you and you have to choose the most newsworthy aspect of the story and present the story in a neutral style (i.e. opinions should only come from people quoted in the story, not the writer).
After managing to pass this stage of the process last week, I was invited along to a ‘Recruitment Day’ at their Manchester offices.
So I dusted off my suit, ironed a shirt for the first time in years, and even got a haircut in preparation for my FEPJI.
There were a few different stages to the Recruitment Day:
- Firstly, the man in charge of the recruitment process, John Mills, gave a short presentation on the work of Adfero in general, and DirectNews in particular. This included an honest assessment of the positives and negatives of the job. In rough summary:
- Negatives: Hard graft and pretty pressurised to knock out a substantial number of stories each day (you are essentially writing a new story every 15 minutes); Solely office based; You won’t build up any contacts as there is a seperate commercial team dealing with clients; You won’t be using journalisitc skills like shorthand (although no shorthand goes down as a bit of a bonus in my book!)
- Postive: Great experience for not only future journalism work but also PR and copywriting; reasonable hours (8am-5pm Monday-Friday); decent salary in comparison with what you would get at a local newspaper; decent chances of promotion; and, of course, an actual job in the actual media industry where you will be paid actual money to spend all day writing.
2. In the second part of the day we (there were six others there at the same time as me) took three different tests.
- In the first we had six minutes to sub a short report and correct any errors in spelling and grammar. Think I did reasonably on this, although probably not perfectly.
- The second was easily the hardest as we were given 12 minutes to answer 40 numeracy and literacy questions. I didn’t manage to answer all the questions, but think (well hope) I got most of the ones I did answer right. My long division, last used for my GCSEs, was severely rusty though.
- The third test was a series of general knowledge questions that we had 15 minutes to answer. The questions were fairly tough (Name the secretary of state for business, etc) but, by utilising my weekly University Arms pub quiz experience, I feel I did pretty well on this. Sadly no questions on Bruce Springsteen though.
3. The final part of the day was a 20 minute interview which took place after lunch. If I am honest, this was probably the section of the day I did worst in. I had great visions of myself going into the interview room and wowing Mr Mills with my knowledge of SEO and how to use Twitter as a news-gathering device, but it didn’t quite work out like that. I ummed and erred my way through quite a few answers to relatively simple questions and had a tendency to start rambling aimlessly as soon as I had been asked something rather than thinking for a few seconds and coming up with a concise answer. I would advise anyone applying for a job with Adfero to really think about 20-30 questions they might be asked and have some good, snappy answers ready, as this is a job in which brevity and conciseness is valued very very very highly (or as a DirectNews report would have it; highly). It sounds like crushingly obvious but I wish I had done it!
Also, its probably best not to say your favourite part of journalism is patch work if you are applying for an office based job as I did. Probably best to steer clear of saying “I’ve applied for loads of jobs and you’re the first to even offer me an interview” as well. Damn verbal diarrhoea!
Anyway, I will find out in a couple of weeks if I’ve managed to get a second interview… fingers crossed I haven’t screwed it up with my weak interview and I get a second chance to show them my true, devastatingly charismatic (ahem), personality next time.
P.S. For any of the Sheffield Journalism crew, the guy interviwing me mentioned Sheff’s excellent reputation in the media industry at least three different times in the 20 minute interview. So maybe we will all get jobs after all!
So did you get the job?!
Well I got through to the second interview stage but because I wasn’t available till September someone else got the position. So the answer to your question is no, I didn’t get the job!
Thanks for posting such detailed info, it’s really useful for anyone else preparing for an interview with Adfero, such as myself. Is there any more info you could give? i.e. how would you recommend I prepare for the initial assessment day? I take it there’s only a second interview stage, no third one? And how soon did they want you to start?
Hi Maria,
In terms of preparing for the assessment day I would say one of the best bits of preparation is to do a bit of research into Search Engine Optimisation as it is really key to the job. If you have something sensible to say about it I reckon the chances of getting through to the second interview stage are pretty high.
They said at the interview that I would hear back within three weeks but they got back to me about the second interview stage within a couple of weeks.
The second interview was done by three of the line managers. For this stage, it’s definately worth buying a couple of papers beforehand and going making sure you know what is happening in the day’s news agenda. They ask if you can name the week’s big story in sport, finance, news, and entertainment- they have a lot of financial services clients so make sure you know about finance news especially.
Generally, I think they prefer people who can start in the role straightaway. I wasn’t available to start until September and although they said that was fine at the interview stage, I think it counted against me getting the job. I heard back three weeks after the second interview stage that I hadn’t got the post. I guess it would be sooner if they are offering you the job though.
Hope this helps… good luck with the interview!
Are you joking
Surely this is the cheapest recruitment SEO effort of all time. Try harder
Hey, thanks to your help I am about to go to the recruitment day bit of their process.
Just thought I’d share that a source that I used for their newswriting test which I thought would be too simple turned out to be golden.
I used DirectGov which is a government agency with plenty of authority so if you are short of ideas maybe see if they have something about the topic in question.
best of luck to everybody doing the adfero interviews
I went to this recruitment day and decided not to bother going back for my afternoon interview! I found the place soul destroying and I didn’t go into journalism to be stuck in an office all day! so i’ll just keep huntin..
Molly – you made the best decision of your life! Wish I’d have been that smart………
Damn straight Molly! Chris I think you may have dodged a bullet there. Surely, we all want to write because of the exciting – if often tough – life that it comes with. Or for the thrill of writing itself, about something MEANINGFUL.
The problem is, so many are so desperate to do it that they do this – or work for nothing, then everyone feels they have to do it or someone else will. THIS IS NOT JOURNALISM. It’s not even writing, really.
Don’t stand for it. P
@ Molly – TBH it is hard work and then more hard work – but the office is very friendly and I would completely disagree about it being soul destroying, most people don’t stay for much longer than about a year, but that is more down to them using it as a stepping stone and wierdly having Adfero writer on your CV is quite good. I wouldn’t recommend trying to get a career in Adfero, some have done it though…
You had a really lucky escape Molly…. a really lucky one.
Oh god, I too am going for an interview at Adfero tomorrow.
Thank you for this enlightening post. I have heard some horror stories from Journo friends but nothing like this.
I can’t remember how to do long division so I’m probably screwed anyway.
Hey, at least you made it to the recruitement day. I’ve been hit back (twice! for two different jobs) and too be fair it looks like they have a massive turn over rate, since they’re constantly advertising jobs…
I you go to a recruitment day and are unsuccessful then don’t expect any prompt feedback. I’ve now been waiting two weeks to find out where I went wrong and haven’t heard anything despite many phone calls and emails. I think its a bit rude of them to not give feedback for a whole recruitment day when people have travelled down at short notice.
Adfero! Don’t bother with it! It’s a vile company run by idiots and the staff are embittered, underpaid and constantly belittled by cretinous managers.
It deserves nothing less than everyone’s complete and utter contempt.
I’m applying for this exact job and didn’t expect to find anything this useful on t’interweb. Thanks for your tips.
Hi there,
I’m a former Adfero employee and spent three years in their employment. I have decided not to use my real name above so I can be as honest as possible and let people know exactly what they will be getting themselves into at this company.
First off, Adfero absolutely IS a great place for graduates to start out with an entry level writing job and is an incredibly useful thing to have on your CV. Being a Direct News Correspondent will allow you to hone your writing skills, effectively manage heavy workloads, adhere to tight deadlines and learn a lot about writing for the web.
In reference to Molly’s post above about not getting into journalism to be stuck in an office all day, well, if you think modern newsrooms are like those depicted in the movies, I would say you’re in for a very rude awakening. If you are starting a career in this industry, you have to be ready to do a little bit of hard work for a few years… and if you’re waiting for someone to give you a press pass and send you out into the big wide world to be a ‘roving reporter’, well, you’ll be waiting a hell of a long time.
So if you do want to get into the field and learn something useful – rather than joining the millions of unpaid office bods fetching coffee for underpaid journo dinosaurs in failing print publications – Adfero is worth considering… but be ready to pay a serious price.
I would very seriously warn you about the aforementioned workloads at this company, which frankly are borderline illegal. Writing 30-odd 200 word stories per day is a tough task and five days a week it is in fact bad for your health. You will be given a bunch of clients that you will have absolutely zero contact with, as any complaints, queries, issues, or – on the rarest of occasions – praise, will go through a customer service team. Adfero do not require their ‘DNCs’ to be anything other than copywriting machines working to timelines that turn lavatory breaks into an unnecessary luxury.
Expect no thanks for your hard work by the management and do not expect a friendly working environment where you will get to know your colleagues. This isn’t necessarily because they are all horrible (though many of them higher up absolutely are), it is simply because no one has the time for pleasantries or gratitude… two minutes wasted at this company is two minutes that could have been spent writing copy… don’t believe me? Do a Facebook search on ‘We Escaped Adfero’ for more.
For reasons I cannot go into, the end of my time at Adfero was particularly strange. After a period of work-related stress, I became depressed and took some sick time. During this period, my social networking channels were being monitored by ‘friends’ in the office reporting back to management, which Adfero then attempted to use in bringing disciplinary action against me. Lets just say they failed, and I was given a healthy pay off to leave quietly – as I say, I am legally bound to say no more.
So, if Adfero was such a living nightmare that made me ill, provided a horrible working environment and left such a bitter taste in my mouth, why did I stay there so long? Well, if I knew then what I know now, I would have left much quicker. The truth is, every day I would switch off my brain, go into auto pilot, leave and go home to do the things I truly loved – and for a while this worked. I never had the time to look for other jobs and didn’t realise there was so much available to me. I now have an incredibly rewarding job in SEO which involves writing and much, much more. My opinion is valued, I enjoy my working day and I see a pretty clear career path ahead of me… but the irony is, that without Adfero, I may never have got this job.
In conclusion then, my advice would be to take a job at Adfero, but do so with two things firmly in mind. Firstly and most importantly, be ready to leave in a year and a half, maximum – anything more is genuinely bad for your soul. Secondly, expect to be treated like a machine and to have a tough time of it with no incentives, thanks or personal gratification linked to your daily tasks.
If I have painted a vulgar picture of this role, good, I intended to. But, if you think you can handle it, a year or so at Adfero will be good for your writing and your CV… just think VERY carefully before taking the plunge.
I hope this helps.
This is extremely helpful to me! I’m glad so many people have been driven to leave their experiences dotted all over the internet. Adfero I guess, don’t think about the hordes of SEO-trained content writers that they piss off!
Hi,I’ve just done the news tests and I was wondering how long it took them to get back to you?
How long did you have to wait for your results for the written test? Because I still have yet to hear from them, two weeks after sitting the test. I’ve emailed them so many times, and he is not replying back or still ‘chasing’ it.
Hi mate,
I must ask, where or how did you send your covering letter and CV as i have found their website’s submittal system faulty and have been unable to send my documents!
Thanks a lot and your article was a well worthy read for most job interviews.
So, a silly question, I appreciated, but I guess first impressions count… Was a suit overdoing it? Got an interview on thursday and just deciding what to wear… Ta.
Jeez, I meant appreciate. Clearly need to improve my subbing skills before thursday…
I wore a suit – definitely appropriate for the interview. The daily dress code when I worked there was smart casual though.
Hi all,
Quick update – I was actually offered a job by Adfero and started there in September 2009, staying for around 18 months until I got a job as a trainee reporter at my local paper in Shropshire. I have been pretty slow to say the least with updating this blog, so apologies for that!
As several people have alluded to, the job is definitely hard work and you have plenty of stories to write throughout the day, so need to be extremely well-organised, especially in terms of meeting deadlines. Equally, it is really a cross between writing and marketing rather than out-and-out journalism – you are ultimately being paid to help clients improve their website. That means you follow their brief and tailor stories to fit what they want (while still ensuring the stories are factual and accurate).
I was in the Manchester office and speaking personally, I found pretty much everyone there to be a pleasure to work with, both other members of staff and the bosses. Admittedly, you might not get much talking done due to your workload on most days though!
Now I have been lucky enough to get a job as a reporter, I have realised what a great training ground Adfero is in many ways. While the demand for copy is high, it is nothing compared to what you get at a local newspaper (or mine at least!). You have to meet frequent deadlines for different editions and different pages of those editions, sometimes having to write up stories in 10 or 15 minutes. What Adfero has given me is the ability to write copy quickly and accurately and meet deadlines, all things which are vital to working in a local paper. It is something that is just as important as having a good shorthand note or conducting a successful interview in my opinion.
What I would say to anyone thinking about applying is to go in with their eyes open – its probably nobody’s idea of a dream job, can be stressful and isn’t really a typical journalism role, but it can be a good stepping stone into the media sector.
Also forgot to say – if you do start there and show you can meet the deadlines and your monthly targets, it’s a pretty secure job as the company is growing and need staff they can rely on. Plenty of opportunities for promotion as well, pretty sure I’m correct in saying all the Desk Heads in the Manchester office when I was there started off as Direct News Correspondents, or content writers as they are now known!
I start my news writing test in about 13 minutes and feel a little bit daunted about the job application after reading all that! Still, it sounds like a worthwhile job to get.
Thanks for that. I just got through the 1st test stage today and have been invited to the recruitment day tomorrow!
That long division has me worried and will need to brush up on Cabinet Ministers!
However thanks for the tip about SEO, I’ll have a look into it.
Really need a job at the moment and something more to go on CV and give me a boost to the next step up.