Alex Davies. Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce

I have attended and spoken about the recent referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union (Brexit) at many business networking type events, both before and after the vote. The primary difference I have notice from the audience at these events is that before the vote the questions and answer session would always run over time, whereas since nobody has got anything to ask. But what does Brexit mean?

The Brexit implications are slowly starting to emerge and  there may be a number of people who feel they have something to Bregret. Why am I not surprised?

First of all, not a lot has happened. David Davis was appointed Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union on the 13th of July 2016, but not a single other appointment has been made in that department. We know that Article 50 – the section of the Lisbon Treaty outlining the process by which a country leaves the EU – will not be triggered at least until next year. When that happens, we can assume that we won’t actually leave for another 2 years or more as the negotiations take place.

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Huzayfah Bukhat, BSc (Hons) Business Information Technology Graduate

Like many other graduates who recently graduated in the summer of 2016, I started to search for that ‘dream job‘ and in my instance – The first job. How to get a graduate job will depend on you and your personality and here is my way…

Every graduate had the same attitude and drive as me. And this meant that I needed to up my game.

As part of my final year, I learnt how to target employers using social media networks. I had already created a personal website as part of my BSc Business Information Technology program but this needed optimising to further target employers.

I would write blog posts regarding project management, web design and business analysis to build an online network and also show employers that I understand my field and what I am passionate about. It was writing these blog posts that helped me to understand what career path I wanted to take – business analysis. Here are my seven steps on how to get a graduate job:

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Alex Mellor, Medley Academy Co-Founder

You’ve done it. You’ve finally done it. Three years at University have come and gone in a flash. You’ve spent thousands of pounds, you’ve endured thousands of hours staring at PowerPoint presentations and you’ve spent what felt like thousands of hours in the library, juiced up on Red Bull. But, it’s all amounted to something. You’ve got your degree! But what’s next… Are you looking for some careers advice?

I joined a highly successful social media start-up – Social Chain – pretty early on. During my 18 months at the company, we hired A LOT of staff. I watched the company grow from 6 to 40+, all of these staff members were under 28 years old (the average age was 21). When we hired, we never ever went off academic credentials, who had the ‘best degree’ from the ‘best university.’

We hired based on drive, determination and knowledge of the space.

Here are four tips from me on how to use the summer months to gain the advantage over fellow graduates and to land that dream job:

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James Swann Digital Marketing

Do you need to join an online marketing course to get the right tools for your business? For anyone who grew up in the last twenty years or so, digital or online marketing is just another thing that happens. Yet for the rest of us (those with a few more wrinkles) it’s still a major phenomenon that has changed the way businesses of all shapes and sizes go about publicising their goods and services to potential customers locally or in the wider world.

Despite online marketing having been around since the nineteen nineties (arguably earlier) there are still many small and medium sized companies that are out of touch with the digital world and who require guidance in order to make full use of advertising and selling online. Unsurprisingly this has seen the emergence of many new digital agencies specialising in online and wider forms of digital marketing, such as marketing through mobile phone apps and interactive media.

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Ross Menghini from Apadmi

I’m Ross Menghini, business development manager at leading mobile app developer, Apadmi. This week I visited the University of Salford Business School to speak to final year Business Information Technology students taking the eCommerce Consulting and Practice module about the growing importance of mobile in business.

I discussed mobile technology and why it’s becoming a crucial channel for businesses now and in the future.

Have you heard of mobile first? Mobile Apps? or Mobile-friendly?

Below is an overview of what I spoke to the students about…

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Spiros Kontogiannis – MSc Marketing Alumnus

What did an MSc Marketing student do two years ago? The first blog post went live on this blog and at the time, I was a Marketing student working on my internship at Salford Business School. I was practising my business blogging skills by helping to develop a strategy for the Business School blog.

Now, fast forward two years and the blog has been nominated for the UK Blog Awards 2016 and has over 110 authors, 157 blog posts, resulting in over 100k page-views from global readership of 202 countries. And what about myself? Well, the internship at Salford Business School helped me to get a job in the industry – I now work as a Content Strategist at customedialabs.

So, my internship has made a direct impact on my career choice – and the content shared on the blog has triggered wider social media conversations on multiple social media channels – Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube – helping other students, academics and business owners to learn and further refine their understanding of blogging for business purposes.

At the outset an important role for the blog was to allow academics to share research findings, current students to share their views and develop their own business blogging skills as well as alumni – like myself now – to come back to school and share my business experience after graduation and keep in-touch with the #SalfordBSchool community. Has this vision materialised?

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Aferdita Pacrami, CEO 90 Digital

Becoming a remote working organisation wasn’t an active decision initially but when we set up the business we worked remotely from time to time. When we realised how this was positively affecting our work we decided it was the best route for us as a business.

At the start, when we were just a team of 3 in a shared office in London, we knew we wanted to work flexibly. That meant that we didn’t have strict hours; we worked when we were most productive, and if on some days we didn’t have time to commute to the office we just worked from home. We found we were just as productive working remotely as we were on office-based days. When we started growing our team we quickly realised that talented people can be put off by the constraints of an office.

Today we’re a business of almost 30 people and only five of us are in the office daily (our accounting and legal department). Everyone else works from their home, various co-work spaces, cafes, libraries – anywhere with a really good WiFi connection. Some of us tend to work from one location while others travel from place to place.

So, what is it like working in a remote working business? Here are my top four reasons why remote working is ideal for 90 Digital:

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Alex Connock, Managing Director of Shine North

The Northern Powerhouse is as much a marketing slogan as a description of a political or economic reality. But as with all marketing, once an idea is established in the public’s consciousness, it may in fact magically become something more concrete.

As Machiavelli said: ‘Tell the people you are the prince – and you are the prince.’

It’s certainly clear that something exciting is happening in Manchester’s digital and creative industries. They were measured at 56,000 employees in the Tech City report of January 2015, making them a pivotal employer for the region.

The BBC’s move to MediaCityUK in Salford had an accelerator effect, creating additional jobs in supplier industries like post production and digital suppliers – whilst encouraging other creative firms, including our own, Shine North, to make the migration too. A digital talent base is making its long term home in Manchester – even if some of the people who make it up originally came to town reluctantly as BBC transplants.

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Anthea Thurston, MSc Social Business and Sustainable Marketing

My three month internship at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce has just finished and I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone by! I began at the Chamber fresh from my MSc course at Salford Business School where I studied Social Business and Sustainable Marketing.

Of course I was a bundle of nerves on my first day at the Chamber. This was my first time ‘off-book!’ What if I was quizzed in depth on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy or what I thought about Porter’s 5 Forces Model!? Should I bring my notes? What if I forgot everything I’ve learned? Or my name!?

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Rebecca Frankland

It’s no secret that internships open you up to greater job possibilities than if you were relying solely on having a degree, for the majority of sectors anyway. But aside from the obvious, i.e. gaining skills in your chosen area, what are some other benefits of undertaking an internship in a business?

I am Becca Frankland, Clubs & Electronic Music Editor at Skiddle, the event and ticketing agent, and I would like to talk about my experience interning with Skiddle and how I turned it into my full time job.

I know that Salford Business School students are always encouraged to take an industrial placement or internship, but this advice applies to all courses! During my degree, Journalism BA Hons (Multimedia), at the University of Salford, I was told by my tutors how important it was to gain work experience. That’s why, in June 2014, I started my three month internship with Skiddle as an editorial assistant.

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