Month: February 2012

Benefits of Work Experience

Miscellaneous by Lauren0 comments

Are students ready for the world of work?

I am a student at Nottingham Trent University, studying Product design. I have just started a 9-month placement as part of a 4-year sandwich course. During my year out I have carried out a months work experience at the studio 4, 5 months part time work in retail and I am just starting a 9 month placement back here with the studio 4.

Many university courses offer 4-year sandwich courses, which include a placement year. Placement years do help to prepare you for the world of work as long as you find a placement!

Finding a placement

This is a lot harder than what I originally thought. Universities advertise placements but you’re most likely not the only university who will be applying for the positions available. The amount of people applying for the placement on your course x how many other universities … [Read More]

Pinning your hopes on the next big thing

Internet by Paul0 comments

I met a futurologist once who was deeply embarrassed about his job title, but provided a fascinating hour-long chat on trend-spotting.

He said identifying the next big thing was as much down to probability and predictability than a sixth sense. You look at current trends and how they are evolving for an insight into what might happen next.

I likened his role to BBC’s Tomorrow’s World programme, which served up a tantalising glimpse into the future that in hindsight was not always very accurate. But he shook his head and claimed to be far more conservative in his predictions than the BBC show ever was.

I was reminded of that encounter during the last few weeks as I took a look around Pinterest.

It is relatively new on my social media radar, but the site is actually two years old. Not exactly the new kid on the social media … [Read More]

A starring role for The Studio 4

News by Nat0 comments

On Saturday, The Studio 4 became the main focus for a photo shoot, showing off our fantastic new Faber EOS roller blinds that were installed earlier in January.

Having moved into our new third floor offices in September last year, we were in desperate need for our new blinds due to the sun coming in and glaring all our screens from lunchtime every day.

Faber’s EOS system solved our problem, as it’s flexible enough to be adapted to a wide range of styles and sizes and in our case was fitted to twenty large and four small windows. This included in our boardroom, which had to have the blackout option installed to make our presentations come alive.

Preparation started on our offices about two weeks before the shoot with the organisation of professional cleaning of the metal columns around the windows and the actual windows being cleaned inside and out … [Read More]

Don’t go changing…three words that don’t apply online

Internet by Paul0 comments

Don’t go changing. The first three words of a famous song might provide sound advice in matters of the heart, but they make absolutely no sense at all when it comes to business.

And it is certainly true when it comes to doing business online. Standing still online is never an option.

Change is good. Change is what we should all embrace.

Yes, I know, that’s all well and good in theory but when it comes to practice we all have a certain amount of fear and loathing when it comes to change.

If we encounter something new when we ae expecting the familiar, our first impressions are not always positive. In fact, they can be downright hostile.

That is just as true online, witness the fall-out from any new developments and announcements from our favourite search engines or social networking sites. Twitter’s recent announcement on the “open exchange of … [Read More]