Lovely Hamish has just spent a month with the planning department and penned this before he left for the South of France. (I didn't pay him to do it, honest!)
It’s been 40 years since Jimi Hendrix posed this question to us students. These days, we’re warned, it’s the favourite enquiry of graduate employers. That’s why almost everyone I know approaching their last years at uni, spends each summer desperately seeking out work experience placements, and that’s why students these days spend the summer months in firms across the country putting files in order, data into spreadsheets and the kettle on.
Not so at The Leith Agency, where I’ve just finished a month’s paid placement. From the moment I was introduced to the planning department I knew that here, things would be different. Maybe it was Clare Falconer’s ready smile, the firmness of Paul’s handshake, or the friendly efficiency of Lizzie and Brie’s greetings. Perhaps it was the warmth of Claire Wood’s hello or the glint in Alan Ainsley’s eye – but it was immediately clear that this was a department that worked hard and played hard.
I’d drunk ten cups of coffee before I made one, and I needed them. I was put to work from the off, making clumsy but welcomed contributions to various projects across the IRN-BRU, Grolsch, Sol and Scottish Executive accounts. I can only assume the agency’s filing system is in perfect order, because no-one asked me to alphabetise anything.
Everyone in the department made time to explain their role to me in detail, and I even got an audience with David ‘the master’ Amers in my final week. By the time Sarah returned from her honeymoon, I was snowed under with work and hell-bent on meeting deadlines. By the time Kenny arrived, I could almost work the printer.
And that taste in my mouth? That, I think, was a genuine taste of what it was like to be a Leith Agency planner, although it could have just been IRN-BRU.
So it seems I really got what I asked for when I enquired about work experience at Leith. Many thanks to everyone for having me, and especially to Ed for taking me on.
Best wishes, Hamish.