The Student Room Group
Reply 1
Guesswork, but I'm thinking UCL would be the best and Kingston would be the worst?
Reply 2
Surely you can get plenty of jobs in publishing without a masters?
Reply 3
No publishing firm requires an MA for entry - what they massively value is work experience, which you should get as much of as possible. If you look at publishing vacancies (google for 'bookseller'), almost all of them require you to have spent about a year or so in publishing. I think you would be better off spending a year getting experience in publishing, be that work experience or paid (if you're very lucky) rather than spending all that money on an MA. How are you planning to fund it?
I read an article that said that a publishing MA is equivalent to two or three years experience, and that 99% of graduates go on to work in the industry: http://www.independent.co.uk/student/career-planning/getting-job/publishing-if-you-dont-mind-the-pay-read-on-475701.html
Reply 5
My girlfriend works at an academic publishers, and noone she works with has a postgraduate degree in publishing, just for ze info.
If I apply for placements, how can I make my work experience (all of which is in primary teaching) sound relevant to publishing (editorial)?
Reply 7
Are you based in or near London? I found it really easy to secure brief (1 or 2 week) work placements with publishing companies, despite having no experience. As long as you don't go for the big names, most of them seem fairly up for getting people to come in.
rottcodd
Are you based in or near London? I found it really easy to secure brief (1 or 2 week) work placements with publishing companies, despite having no experience. As long as you don't go for the big names, most of them seem fairly up for getting people to come in.


At the moment I am. I want to move to Brighton where my boyfriend is, but I'm not sure that there are any jobs there. :s-smilie:

How much work experience does one typically need before they can get a job? I work full-time, you see. :s-smilie:
Reply 9
la fille danse
At the moment I am. I want to move to Brighton where my boyfriend is, but I'm not sure that there are any jobs there. :s-smilie:

How much work experience does one typically need before they can get a job? I work full-time, you see. :s-smilie:

Google for a list of London publishers and email every single one of them. I remember that a publishing company called 'Michael O'Mara Books' were happy to give me work experience without even interviewing me; I just e-mailed them my CV. So that might be worth a short.
I don't know about how much you need, I just know it's extremely competitive and you need as much as possible. Take a look at current vacancies (like on that bookseller website I mentioned) and see what they are generally asking for. I used to work as a bookseller and a lot of them wanted to end up in publishing - temping at a bookshop is not a bad idea as you get experience of publishing from the other end, which is something useful. I know Penguin did a graduate scheme into publishing, but that was a while ago and I think they've stopped it.
Reply 10
Does anyone know if the UCL MA in Publishing is worth it? Also gives you a 5 week industrial placement, but it costs six grand and for that money is only really viable if it effectively guarantees you a job at the end of it and shaves a few years off the career ladder. Any ideas?

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