Fishburn Hedges’ first two graduate trainees joined the agency last
week. Amanda Prosser and Alan McCormick had to go through a gruelling
selection process before being picked out. An advertisement placed in a
national newspaper initiated 600 responses, including some from
waitresses, scaffolders and bricklayers.
The agency set a challenge for applicants in its ad: ’Interested? Then
interest us’.
Responses ranged from the witty (a button stapled to a covering letter
with the words ’I’m bright as a ...), to the surreal (a cartoon of a woman
at a desk in a canoe sailing over a waterfall), to the downright
disgusting (one candidate sent in a bacon sarnie to be eaten while their
prospective employer perused their CV).
Eventually eight candidates were selected to spend a day at the Fishburn
Hedges office in Trafalgar Square.
Against all this madness the two successful trainees shone out as
wholesome examples of British youth. Prosser has a degree in English from
the University of Leeds and has worked as an editorial assistant on China
Monitor magazine.
McCormick has a degree in politics and history from the University of
London, and has worked with various campaigning organisations in Britain
and the US, and spent a year in Colombia working on a project to help
street children.
As a final test, Prosser and McCormick were sent down into Trafalgar
Square to pit their communications skills against the resident army of
pigeons. It was not until they began demonstrating their dancing skills
that the birds eventually took flight.
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