I work for one of these places. I'm sure you can guess which one.
Please wear a suit, when you get the job you're able to wear what you like. I am assuming the culture of the UK offices will be fairly similar to the US ones.
The questions I got were
1) In your own words tell us what our company does (I gave an analogy to explain)
2) Explain our business model
3) Who are our target consumer (educated, females with lots of disposable income)
4) What are your core strengths
5) Tell me about your hobbies
6) What can you tell me about the office environment from just looking around (we have glass windows everywhere so nothing goes un-noticed - work is alot like university)
In the U.K the Conservative Part were auctioning internships in several prestigious organizations. One Crispin 'I make money' Odey offered a week internship at his Hedge Fund for £5,000.
Its quite common. Personally, I have used my own personal contacts to get work experience. But when you involve money into this matter you are just creating more of a gulf between the rich and poor.
It is extremely common across all the industries in London. Very unfair. Media/Journalism is the worst culprits of this.
Both are purely entertainment versus encouraging entrepreneurship especially Dragon's Den which is pretty much ritual humiliation. I find that mentality is what hampers the U.K from developing an entrepreneurial culture.
Referrals are the best way in. A friend of mine quoted:
'Since the last time we spoke, my role at Google has changed a bit and I'm now quite heavily involved with interviewing and hiring new candidates.
We are looking for top quality candidates with solid degrees from great universities, a passion for the internet and the advertising industry as well as other traits that make them interesting people - open mindedness, self-starters, entrepreneurs, people who are looking to change things.
Experience in (but not limited to) consultancy, advertising, marketing, sales and account management are all desirable. Entrepreneurs are especially liked as its one of the few companies that really values innovators, since we need them to keep pushing the company forward in an ever changing market. I can tell you some great stories of people right at the bottom who have lead global projects from a simple idea - check out Life In A Day for a recent example.
Since you have a great network, I would be grateful if you could pass on my message to your university list and anyone who you feel may be relevant. Candidates are 20 times more likely to get a job at Google with an internal referral so its a win-win situation for everyone.*
I got an interview offer but unfortunately the gig was not based in London so I had to pass it up. Maybe I'll try again in a few years.
Learn Excel/MySQL/Another programming language, find out where you can get small grants for start-ups just to build a prototype and just get people using the product.
I'd recommend joining a start-up as well. Currently I'm employed at a hot start-up and every single day I am being given several projects which are essentially building/architecture projects using excel, mysql and other programming software/languages to make things useful to the business that people can use.
