The capability and the experience is so relevant.
It's not about what you've done 20 years ago.
It doesn't really matter in digital, it's what you've done in the last 20 days.
So I guess when graduates come to us, our typical
starting salaries are up to £22,000 with us.
But I guess the main thing that we try and focus on
is the opportunities for progression in our industry.
It's definitely one of the fastest growing industries in the world,
is digital marketing and digital media.
So within you know, a few short years, you know, you're looking at up to 30, up to 40,
depending on how fast you are and how fast you progress.
We were just discussing around how there's the opportunity,
it's not necessarily about years
earned, it's about the experience and the skill set that you have.
And it's not necessarily around, you know, you need two years experience,
you need three years experience.
If you've demonstrated the skills and the competencies
that you need for the role, then you're perfectly placed to step up
into more senior roles in the business very, very quickly.
Yeah, I mean, I couldn't agree more with that.
I think also digital is growing very quickly. There was, you know, significant
acceleration through COVID where the reliance on digital kicked on a bit.
You know, as a business, an employer, we've paid out bonus three years
in a row as a private business, which, you know, we’re very proud of.
You know, it's on top of salary.
The company can perform and you can, you can perform at the individual level,
then there's more money on offer also.
And just picking up on Emily's point, I think whenever
I talk to students, we do talk to them quite a bit about this thing.
I think there's something in digital that is quite hard to pick up on.
When I compare, you know, a career in digital and business management,
but particularly digital, with the likes of accountancy,
with the likes of medicine, with the likes of teaching,
those industries a fantastic and extremely valid.
But there is a slow,
methodical progression to the director level positions.
It's very rare you would find a teacher with one or two years experience
becoming the Head Teacher. Yeah.
Very, very you know, rare and unlikely actually, whereas in digital
you know within 1 to 3 years, many of my peers,
many of Emily's peers are at that level, you know, and actually it's so fast
and you know that the capability and the experience is so relevant.
It's not about what you've done 20 years ago.
It doesn't really matter in digital, it's what you've done in the last 20 days.
And therefore a lot of our peers are young people
with not necessarily as much experience as you would have to go through
in other verticals and in other categories.
And you find that people who are in their twenties very often decide
they want to go and set up their own agency, want to go freelance,
want to be able to offer their services with greater flexibility.
And I think that, you know, it is absolutely fantastic
and a testament to our industry that that they can do that.
And it also means employers like Summit, we have to respond to that.
If we don't respond to that, then talent
there'll be a talent drain away from us into into the freelance,
into the work, into themselves, into these new cutting edge agencies.
Hence
why we've had to bring in things like, you know, actually compressed working hours
so you can work ten days over nine and take every second Friday off.
That's, you know, the very nature of digital being at the forefront of,
you know, of working practices and how we go to work.
And that hybrid working home office, working across international territories,
there is no better or leading industry.
You know, digital is completely at the front of that.
And I really get a sense that this generation are much
more interested in finding a career that they're passionate about,
that they will bounce out of bed for,
but also has that right balance between work and life.
So you know, finding companies and opportunities where you can get
that balance where you can have the that the fourth Friday off and...
Second Friday off.
Give them the fourth Friday off and they’ll
revolt, there’ll be mutiny.
Is that when they've got the money to go down to the pub?
and so yeah now I think that's increasingly
I don't know what you guys how you guys feel is it
is that balance important?
I think these days a lot of people maybe our age care
more about working conditions and mental health and things like that.
Me personally, if it was between a job
that was slightly less money but had a lot more of the benefits like that,
it would definitely be something that I would consider
because working for a company
that you feel cares about you more than just
here’s your paycheck at the end of the month, it makes you want to work harder.
It makes you want to develop yourself in the company.
It makes you want to kind of rise up the ranks, I should say.
So I think it definitely is
for me at least, quite an important thing to see if a company cares.
You know, the I definitely agree when you, you know, you say things about
what they have to provide for you because sometimes it’s not really about the money
Like you can you can have a job that pays you like 50k a year,
but then there's no supporting environment, you know, there's
no support from the team leaders or no support from the managing area.
So it kind of makes you just want to like,
yeah, I'm just going to leave. You know there’s your 50K money
but I’d rather be stable. I’d rather
have a personal care before get that money.
So for me personally, I’ll agree with what you say as well is like
I’d rather have an environment that’s supportive.
Yeah.
That really cares about my growth. And that’s where the money comes in
because sometimes you come in to work and enjoying it, you don’t even care
if you’re earning 19 or 18K a year. It’s about
Yeah I feel needed. I feel important.
You know, there is this support here.
I think going into industry, a lot of people recognise that us as
young people are the voice of the future and we’re the sort of enablers
going forward.
So it's all about us and it's about our new ways
that we see the world and our opinions, particularly with topics
such as sustainability
which are of such importance
now, is such a huge area and you know,
big companies, small companies, entrepreneurs want to hear
from young people and see our take on things.
I think that's just to touch on something you said there as well.
That's something that we look at when we bring in our kind of next group of execs
well, what our most junior role in the businesses is we’re looking at that group of people
thinking there are leaders in two years time
because this and especially our industry moves so quickly.
You know, we're looking for
who are the people that are going to be leading this account?
Where do we see them progressing to?
And it's conversations that we need to have
all the time to make sure
that we've always got the right skill sets coming through. Yeah.
So even if you are joining in in the most junior role in the business,
you know, nine times out of ten you're probably looking at two or three years
and you're going to have your own team and you're going to be managing
your own clients and managing your own area.
So I think that is something that's really important to us
and something that we talk a lot about
at Summit is progression.
Something that we even talk about at interview stage
and when we're doing events with the university,
this is the map of all our roles that we have and this is where you start
and this is where you could end up in a in a few years time.
So I think that's something that's really important to us as well in terms
of making
sure students know that when they leave and when they come to places like Summit.
Yep, you start in here.
But look at this wealth of opportunity that's waiting for you in,
you know, in two years time.
I was talking to one of the graduates from the business school yesterday,
literally yesterday, and she helped manage
some of our accounts on a car hire firm.
I said,
broadly, how’s it going, are you settling in well? And she said
it's amazing.
I cannot believe you've let me have my own market to manage already.
So she's managing the Spanish market for a top five car hire firm on her own.
And I said, do you speak Spanish?
No. Don't worry about it.
You're going to be fine.
But she, she was so happy, she said I cannot believe
I've got the opportunity to manage this market.
This is an incredible amount of money that she's spending and advertising on
for an amazing brand with loads of potential customers,
very hotly contested and competed in that space.
And she was just so happy.
And actually I was like, that is exactly the response we want.
Not ‘Oh, my goodness,
I can’t do this or I'm not ready.’
It's a ‘I can do this and I will do this.’
And I'm going to show you in three months that, you know, the performance
and the accounts, they're going to get better.
You know, every day I come in, I'm going to make it better than it was yesterday.
And that's what you know, it's really motivating and exciting for that to happen.