Work Experience at Conde Nast

Apologies for my Blog Silence for the past week or so, but I have been doing work experience in Conde Nast Traveller magazine's advertising department! I did work experience in their editorial department back in 2010 and I've managed to keep in touch with one of the top dogs on the mag, so when a work experience girl dropped out before her last week was completed in the advertising offices, he mentioned it to me. Like everybody else, I had to send my CV in and wait. Thankfully though, my wait wasn't too long and within a day I was hunting for London accommodation and booking my trains. 

*The Conde Nast Traveller corridor in Vogue (yes, VOGUE) House on Hanover Square just off Oxford Street*

Day Three at Traveller!

24^th September 2010

Perhaps I spoke too soon about Sarah. She has smiled at me a couple of times today and even asked, ‘Are you alright?’ as she passed me. I think perhaps she is just shy. Either way, she’s definitely NOT Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.

It is half five and boy oh boy have I been a busy bee! Last night I sent an email round to everyone in the office, to remind them basically that I am here for work experience and not for ‘sitting-staring-at-a-blank-computer-screen’ experience. I asked them to give me some jobs to do, like ANY jobs. I think the words were ‘no matter how menial or time consuming’. And wow, did they deliver? Oh yes! Nothing that I have done today is boring, but almost everything was time consuming.

You see, first thing today the silly old post people hadn’t brought up the post, and they didn’t until about quarter to eleven! I know, what are they paid to do, eh? Anyway, because our post wasn’t here, I was free so I went upstairs to help them with theirs at GLAMOUR.com. I met some cool people and again, their office was so much more animated than ours. When I had finished doing that I checking my emails and I had loads from different editors and subs asking me to do different things. I’ve been so busy that I have had to leave blogging until now when I have practically no time in which to do it, so I’m literally going to list my different tasks in as brief a manner as I physically can. Here goes . . .

1) I photocopied two whole features from the April and June issues, as a lady from an architect firm told us that we had written about a couple of hotels which she had worked on and she wanted to obtain some print-outs.

2) I called four hotels in Nairobi to check what their cheapest double rooms cost during low season and to confirm that their phone numbers were operating. That will go into the little blurb at the end of mini features, for example ‘Double rooms with breakfast starting at £97, for more information contact that hotel on blablabla or visit their website www.blablabla.com’. It was very funny though, because all of the people who work in the hotels are African and didn’t really understand my accent so I prepared what I would say to make it more clear and concise and put on a posh voice. I said, ‘Hello, this is Gabriella Buxton calling from Condé Nast Traveller magazine and I just wanted to check over a couple of prices with you if that’s ok? How much would your cheapest double bedroom cost in low season? Thanks that’s great. Bye.’

3) I called four hotels in the UK and basically did the same thing, except at one place the man was so pompous who answered the phone. That feature will be about pub inns and places like that, you know, barn conversion B and B’s and the like, so the man on the phone was not a trained-in-customer-service reception assistant, but some posh country bloke who thought it would be a laugh to stick a hotel in his shed. He was all, ‘Can I ahhhsk when the feature will be printed. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Well, you will post me a copy wohhhhhnt you? Very well. Pip pip. Tallyho.’ Ok, so he didn’t say those last two bits, but he may as well have done.

4) In Traveller magazine there is a monthly feature called That was Then and it basically tells the story of what something was like in the olden days, eg. New York City, Boeing 747, The Titanic etc. This feature has run since the first ever copy of the magazine was printed, in October 1997. I basically had to create an index of every single topic ever explored by the feature which involved a lot of huffing and puffing pulling big heavy magazines out of really over-packed and high up cupboards. I was knackered by the end of it! But I got the job done, and tidied all of the back-issues while I was at it. A job well done I would say.

5) Finally, I have saved the best for last. I am going to have a piece published on the website!!! I will be an official Condé Nast writer! One of the girls from the website team asked me to ‘do a bit of writing for her’. A ‘bit of writing’ in her opinion is a 300 word PUBLISHED PIECE!!! Ok, so I’m over-using the exclamation marks, so sue me, I’m excited! Anyway, I did my first draft and it was crap with a capital K. J Well she hasn’t sent it back to me yet, but I know it was crap, I didn’t even know how to start so it must have been crap. Anyway, she said she will give me some notes for me to edit it with a couple of times, and it should be on the website next week. I will also post it on here, so you can all see.

Also, something else I have learnt is that just because people aren’t super-gobby, they are really nice and sociable. The two girls who sent me a job each are called Laura and Hazel and they are both so nice. There is another girl called Nell and she is really sweet too to the extent where her and Hazel were fishing around their loose change when they knew I didn’t have any cash for the tampon machine. One of the guys who gave me another job just came over to tell me that they were all going to the pub and did I want to come. I WISH I wasn’t going to Birmingham tonight, because I would have loved to be there and see what everyone is like in a sociable environment.

So in all today has been amazing, which was completely unexpected as I just got my monthly blood curse this morning and it usually makes me lose the will to live. Ooh, and also when I was eating my Special K and mango for my lunch, I went into the travel library and found a book about Florida. Result!

Finally, I am now the last one in the office, so I will very quickly tell you about some other free stuff we had in today. One of the guys was sent a box of health foods, which included little boxes of olives, chilli nuts, dried pineapple and coconut and some other lush stuff, so I’ve been snacking all day but it’s all really healthy so I feel great! Anyway, I’d better get off before the tube station shuts again.

Day Two at Traveller!

23^rd September 2010

Oh my God is it hot in here? It’s like an OVEN. Plus I have done quite a lot of exercising work today. It is nearly four o’ clock and I have spent most of my day reaching high into shelves full of travel books in order to organise them into correct alphabetical order. There are hundreds of books, and basically, when a writer wants to write a piece on a city they help themselves for research. However, when they have finished their research, the cheeky little blighters go and put the books back in the wrong place now, don’t they? Enter Gabbi. I come along and put all the books in alphabetical order according to the country which they refer to, so that the naughty writers can go and do it all over again tomorrow. I don’t mind though; it has kept me busy and I love when I get a big job like that done. The shelves look nice and tidy now, and I have pulled the spines of all of the books forward so they look super neat and even.

I arrived to work an hour (!) early this morning. I guess when my dad gives me a lift to the tube station and I know where I’m going I don’t need to set aside an hour and a half for travel time. It was ok though, it meant I could wander around the area. I discovered this amazing sandwich shop where they do like, a million different fillings on all kinds of bread. It looks lush there, and isn’t too expensive either. If only I wasn’t back on the Special K diet again, I could pig out a lot.

I also had my first ‘coffee’ today. I went to the tiny café in the offices and had an espresso with two sugars. It wasn’t too bad really. I guess coffee just isn’t my thing. I couldn’t believe how small the café is! It’s called Tony’s and I think that literally only Tony works there. No wonder Alice didn’t plug the café when I asked where I could go for lunch . . .

I had a small handful of Special K for my lunch and half a pot of sundried tomatoes with mozzarella balls. It was really good, apart from the fact that the inside of my bag had a little oil in it. I managed to mop it up though, so no harm done.

I did a ton of photocopying earlier on. Sarah (the Editor) had stuck post it notes in about ten different magazines, and wanted the spreads on those pages to be copied for in a meeting tomorrow or something like that. I love photocopying massive A3 pictures, since they look so good when I’ve done them. I then folded them around the issue which they had come from and took them over to Alice’s desk. I felt like I was doing a really important job! Only downside is that my fingers got all inky, which wasn’t great on top of the dust that sorting through the books covered my hands with. Nothing that giving them a quick wash in the toilets didn’t fix, but my hands still feel a bit odd and dry . . . Never happy am I?

It’s nearly time for me to take whatever post that we have down into the mailroom.

You know what is really odd? My phone hasn’t rung once. And I haven’t had to take any of Sarah’s or Alice’s calls yet either. I really hope I have chance to pick up and say, ‘Hello, Traveller.’

I think we can just help ourselves to any magazines we come across, apart from obviously back-issues and stuff like that. On each floor there is a magazine stand or two where I think we can just take a copy of the magazines that are produced on that floor. At least I hope so, because this morning I took a copy of Brides! Not that I’m becoming a bride or anything, but it is always useful for the purpose of becoming a magazine journalist to read all kinds of magazines, and if they are free why not?

I think I might be meeting dad in Camden for dinner tonight. I wonder what we’ll have. Apparently there is this event called Lock Stock on tonight, where all the bars open early and the cafes stay open late, so there should be plenty on offer. I just hope that I don’t get stuck at Oxford Circus for twenty minutes like I did the other day. I came across a ton of people waiting outside the tube station, and I asked someone what was going on,

‘They close the station every so often to prevent overcrowding. They will let us go in ten minutes or so.’

How silly is that though? All that happens is that hundreds of people get really hacked off that they can’t go home, start jostling etc and then absolutely stampede through the station once they can. Surely that is more dangerous? Whatever.

Each week Condé Nast will pay me up to £50 to cover the costs of me coming here, so by Thursday afternoon I have to collect as many receipts as possible from various spends I have made. This week (keeping in mind that I have only actually been here for two days so far) has cost me around £47. In fairness though, part of that is because I had to trek all the way back to Birmingham on Tuesday which cost £27, but still. I’ve spent about £6.99 on food, £10 on tube travel, £2 on the bus, plus my Birmingham money. And yet I only have a receipt to prove £2.99 of it. Shocking right? I’m sure I have my train receipt at my aunt’s house somewhere, and I’m going to try and bully the tube people and people from Itsu to give me the receipts for my previous trips, but I’m not feeling too hopeful.

Something else productive that I have done today is to create four documents which basically have a template of our generic email which is sent to aspiring writers, budding photographers and illustrators and prospective staff. This is because we often get emails asking how to freelance for us, or how to get a job within the company, and yet this is not the best way for they to get a decent answer. With freelancers we advise them to send their link or story to the correct person, and with prospective staff we have to direct that to the main website www.condenast.co.uk where they can find all of the current vacancies. It was getting a pain to have to type the same email over and over, so I made documents which can be pasted in, and then all I really have to change is the name that it is addressed to. Job’s a good’un! I am a genius.

The only thing that I don’t really like, is that there isn’t really much socialising that goes on in this office. I know that sounds silly, because work is for working and not chatting about last night’s mojitos or whatever. But, like, people don’t really talk in here unless it is to do with work. And even then it is quite brief almost to the extent of being abrupt. I guess it means that the job gets done quicker and more effectively, and I’m sure that everyone wouldn’t be able to leave work twenty minutes early like they seem to if they we babbling on all day, but a ‘Hey how was your evening?’ or ‘Been up to much recently?’ wouldn’t go amiss. I’ve had quite a busy couple of days, and being a sociable person I want to discuss them, and find out what everyone else’s days have been like, but I don’t feel comfortable enough to ask. Perhaps on Monday I could just launch in with, ‘Were you up to much this weekend?’ to Alice, but I’m not very motivated since I’m sure the answer would just be ‘Not really, could you sort through those competition entries?’

The other offices aren’t anywhere near this quiet. I went into the advertising office earlier on today, and it was like a party in there! Everyone was laughing, chatting and having a good time, whereas in here people actually have their iPods on! I think some people actually come in here, and don’t say a single word until they leave later on in the day. It’s nuts. And with my fantastic observational skills I can determine that this is because the Editor in Chief’s office is kind of attached to ours. I don’t know whether people are scared of making noise around her, or if they are just following in her footsteps (she actually hasn’t so much as LOOKED in my direction since I got here) but I think it is definitely down to her influence that the atmosphere lulls so much.

If I am being fair to her I guess she is getting the job done. At the end of the day, people have completed their tasks in a quiet environment and that’s all that matters. And if I was a powerful Editor-in-Chief I’m sure I would have things as I wanted them, after all it is ‘her’ office and we are ‘her’ staff. And why would she smile at me, or introduce herself to me? Every three weeks the person in my seat changes, and when there is work to be done I guess it’s not a busy person’s priority to come over and mingle.

The only difference is that I would have a fun and chatty office. I would be respected but enjoyed. I would introduce myself to every new person who comes into the office, because you never know who they might be, or what they might have to offer. And I guess that’s why she’s an Editor-in-Chief and I’m not.

This is yet another learning curve for me, but so far I am really enjoying it! I’m seeing that yes, sometimes people might have different ways of working, and they may not be your favourite, but as long as they work it doesn’t really matter.

Despite all of the silence I am thoroughly enjoying this placement. If I could afford to do this all year and go to university at the same time then I would. But I can’t, so I have to make the most of each moment I’ve got, and not grumble about something as petty as a little peace. J

My First Day With Conde Nast!

20th September 2010

It is 16:22pm and I have nearly finished my first day as an Editorial Intern at Condé Nast Traveller Magazine in London.
This morning I thought I would die. I was convinced that I was going to be late, as this is the first time in ages that I have had to rely on my own (questionable) directional skills. Navigating London City with only half a contact lens in is not advisable. In the space of about an hour, my demeanour went from the blissful excitement that woke me up this morning, to the sheer panic that I felt when signs for the Victoria Line seemingly vanished.
I woke up at 8:00am in order to meet the lovely Editorial Assistant Alice at 10:30am. I hopped into the bath at my aunt’s house and washed my hair, since it didn’t quite have the right amount of ‘spring’ to it when I rolled out of bed. I painted my ‘special occasion’ Benefit makeup on with military precision, and then began to get dressed. What does one wear to a ‘smart/casual’ office which just happens to share a building with the likes of Vogue, Vanity Fair and Tatler? Definitely NOT the ‘jeans and a t-shirt’ that Alice had confirmed would be ‘fine’ a couple of weeks ago. Oh no. I put on some golden tapered trousers new from Topshop, a brown pair of brogues with cream laces new from Dorothy Perkins, a long-sleeved cream t-shirt old from Abercrombie and Fitch, a luxurious fur gilet new from Topshop and a tan ‘I mean business’ satchel/briefcase, which yes, you’ve guessed it, is new from Topshop. Well, you know they say dress for the job you want, not the job you’ve got, so I channelled the ‘Editor-in-Chief of Vogue’ which I know I have in me, and marched out of the front door.
Within seconds my confident attitude had gone. Waiting at an unfamiliar bus stop, not knowing when the bus would arrive, how long it would take to get to my tube station at East Finchely and not knowing when to get off. But before I knew it I was enjoying the ride and waiting for the notification that I had requested from my bus driver as to where my stop was.
I felt like I was running late. By the time I got to East Finchely it was already twenty-five past nine and I hadn’t even topped up my Oyster card yet for London travel. Shoving £10 into the machine and running onto the Southbound platform meant that I got straight onto my train. Success! Now this is where my whining starts. Why are people so rude on the tube? It’s almost as if there is some kind of negative energy force field which compels Londoners to create an impenetrable barrier with their copy of whichever superior book they are currently ‘reading’, or pound their music so loud that their eardrums may burst. Well, whatever, I thought as a kindly looking old lady had blanked the grin I flashed her as I landed on the train just as the doors shut on my back. Fine, you don’t want to be nice, do I care? No I don’t. And so I topped up my makeup after confirming that I would change at Euston and get the Victoria Line for two stops until I reached Oxford Circus.
I became one of the rude Londoners in seconds. I found myself shoving past people on the Underground, asserting myself with a gruff ‘Excuse me’ on the escalator when tourists were loitering up the left side. What had I turned into? A city girl. And I had better get used to it.
At Oxford Circus station one of the stroppy Tube Men told me that I needed Exit 3 to get to where I was going, and I was off again, pushing and jostling and even elbowing one foreign pervert. Luckily the directions were fairly straight forward, and not even a monkey could have gotten lost.
There it was, the grandly-named Vogue House. And what a dump it looked. No offense, but I was expecting a big white chocolate building bathed in sunlight, not dissimilar to the one Oliver Twist stood in whilst chirping ‘Who will buy?’ And yet, the concrete jungle surrounded by a mass of other buildings covered in scaffolding faced me head on, as if to say, ‘What? Are you going to throw away this opportunity because I’m ugly?’ It challenged me to enter, and never being one to turn down a challenge, (after double coating my lipstick) I followed a pretty girl inside, and I was automatically glad that I had.
Even the security reception area was glamorous, with a copy of each magazine Condé Nast create framed onto the wall. After asking for Alice and saying my name, I sank into a plush red leather sofa and thought, ‘Today will be a good day’.
I got directed up to the sixth floor and as the elevator doors opened I saw the great big silver magazine title signs were revealed. I was stood at the point where Condé Nast Traveller and Brides Magazines meet. When Alice opened the door I was in a complete daze which she had to snap me out of by saying, ‘Are you Gabriella?’
Alice is lovely. She looks young enough to be your friend, yet sensible enough to be professional. She has beachy blond hair, one of the most naturally pretty faces you can ever imagine and an effortlessly cool sense of style. Guess what she was wearing? Jeans and a t-shirt.
I blabbered some rubbish about being surprised I didn’t get too lost, and she made me feel at ease immediately, showing me my new desk surrounded by different people involved in the editorial team. She gave me the Work Experience Handbook and told me to give it a quick read before sorting through the weekend newspapers.
Here at Traveller (I love saying that) we keep all the past week’s newspapers. Each time a new paper comes out, we replace the old one and so on and so forth. With it just being the weekend I had to sort through Saturday, Sunday and Monday’s papers, taking out all of the supplements (especially the Travel Supplements) and putting them into their relevant slots. After sorting through all of these, it was post time! I sorted the post into the separate piles necessary for a smooth distribution. This was a great way of learning everyone’s names. Everyone was really nice as I was giving out the post, asking how long I will be here, what I will be up to etc. After doing the post, I had a little mini-tour of our floor, saw where all the old magazines are stored, visited the travel library and learnt how to operate my new best friend; The Photocopier.
Alice had some work to be getting on with so she went to do that at her desk near mine, whilst I had a more thorough look at the Work Experience Handbook. It’s quite good really, and with the assistance of this I began sorting through the mass of emails which come into Condé Nast Traveller daily. There were so many competition entries that I had to divide into winners and losers, tons of press releases that I needed to forward to the correct editors, and a mass of work experience, writing, photography and illustration enquiries. It made me think, ‘You want to work here, and I’m actually here!’ A little like a celebrity I guess!
Before I knew it, it was already 12:30pm, so I had to run some post down to the mailroom (where the men cannot speak English and are so mean I bet they wouldn’t even if they could!) Also, I met an absolute bitch in the elevator on the way back up. She pressed number five whilst I pressed six, and feeling a little more confident than earlier I asked, ‘What is on the fifth floor?’ This is how the conversation went;
‘Vogue. And the fifth?’
‘Traveller.’
‘And you work there?’ (This was asked with a disbelieving look on her face.
‘I am interning for the next three weeks.’
‘Oh me too. Iloveitit’samazinglikejustthismorningeveryoneinmyofficewastalkingaboutLondon fashionweekandiwaslikeohmygodi’mreallyhere.’ And then she got out of the elevator. Yes, I’m really enjoying my placement so far too, thanks for asking. Cow.
Anyway, I sorted through a couple more emails and then jogged off for my lunch at around one-ish.
There is a lovely little sushi bar right next to Vogue House, so I popped into there, even though I am on the Special K diet until the end of October. I treated myself to some Edamame beans with a sweet chilli dressing, called my mom and boyfriend to let them know that Condé Nast is nowhere near as grim as my first impression had led me to believe, wandered around the leafy square before going straight back to work. An hour long lunch break is too long when you love your job! And you know, as I walked back the sun was shining and there were tons of fashionable London people bustling around, and for some reason, Vogue House looked so much more glamorous.
I went back ten minutes early, and got back to work, looking through, forwarding, responding to and deleting emails as necessary. I looked over the old Work Experience Handbook to see if there were any tips or tricks that hadn’t been mentioned in the new one, and a piece of advice for what to do if you are bored occupied my next hour or so. Not that I was bored, I just felt like I had completed one task and wanted to move onto another, so I began going through the piles of magazines which have been popped onto the ‘recent areas of interest’-type pile. I removed anything older than a couple of months and filed them with their even older counterparts (or ‘back-issues’ as we call it in the magazine world), and then organised the remaining magazines into piles according to their general topic, such as food, travel, fashion, politics, economics etc.
I bet Alice must have thought me an idiot, as this took so long. Alice is the editors PA, also known as the Editorial Assistant. I think that basically makes her the second most important person at the whole magazine, as she seems to be the only one who the editor (Sarah Miller) ever talks to. Plus, her name is second in the list of names in the magazine masthead, so that has to count for something, right? Considering she looks so young, she seems to have gone far already. She is my idol. Haha.
And here I am now. Just about to pop the last bits of mail for today into the mailroom before having a mooch over the magazine. I have emailed Matt Buck from the photography team already to compliment his work on the Gothenburg Sweden feature in next month’s edition, and he has offered to let me shadow him a little; no I don’t want to be a photographer, but there is much more to his job than that as he told me in his response email so I’m sure I’ll learn a lot from him on Thursday when I return to London. No experience is a bad experience. Or is that supposed to be publicity . . .
Well, whatever.
The only thing that I’m not too keen on is the fact that the office is so quiet! It’s that quiet that you can hear other people holding their breath, just so they don’t break the streak of hush. Matt even joked when I mentioned it and said that our office is known as the Silent Witness. At least I think he was joking.
Just before the end of the day I will print off the last few ‘Where are you now?’ competition entries, and put them into the correct boxes, giving each reader an equal chance at winning a holiday in Thailand. Lucky them!
Anyway, it is off to Birmingham for two days now, so as I flick my computer off and clean my desk, I kind of marvel at the way that the day has turned out, and I hope that every day will be as dream-worthy.