Enternships Blog
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Startup Secret Santa: Wacky Gift Ideas For Your (Future) Work MatesPosted on Friday 16 December 2011 at 13:28PM by trrpaipai |
Yes, it’s that time of the year again. Whether you work in a startup already or are planning to in the future you will need to show off your creativity by any possible means. Enternships will give you a hand with this and spill the beans about this year’s Christmas gift ideas that will make the guys at work nominate you for the most original Secret Santa ever.
And because working in a startup actually allows you to get to know everyone in the team, make sure you don’t just go for the generic funny office present. Not saying they don’t make cool gifts, but at least try and make it a bit more personal.
You spend about 8 hours a day with them, you must surely have noticed some of their quirks. What does that person like? What are their day-to-day habits or topics they like to brag about? What are their near-future plans? Where do they like to go in their lunch break? What are they always getting when you go for drinks after work?
With just a couple of twists you can easily find something that will put a smile on your colleagues’ faces. Here are a few suggestions which you can conveniently customize to fit each person in part and because the work they’re doing says a lot about their personality we broke everything down to roles:
The Founder. She started a business from scratch therefore she must be very driven, innovative and passionate about what she does. These rare specimens will be very busy people and need something that can help them organise their schedule but everything has moved online now so they must surely have an app for that. Well, it’s also winter and when travelling they will probably want to keep their hands warm but be able to quickly handle the phone when needed too.
In this case why not get them a pair of gloves that lets them use any touchscreen device as if using their fingers. We found a pair over here and they’re under a tenner too!
The developer. I know what you think: ‘This is easy! Just get them a geeky computer thing or a video game and that’s that!’ Think about it, this is what everyone else is expecting you to do, right? Why not surprise them buy getting something a bit less digital that will still reflect their artificial intelligence interests.
How about this Earth-friendly robot made with sustainably harvested cherry wood inspired by the Japanese Shinto Kumi-ki puzzles. A far cry from the normal plastic and battery-powered robot army, the Cubebot will be there for him whenever his coding stress levels threaten to hit the red spot.
The Social Media Guru. Forget what I said earlier, in this case you are allowed to be predictable. These guys are the all-talkers, all-knowers and most probably the all-likers too. We thought it would be a cool idea to enable them to ‘like’ stuff in the real world too and keep the Zuckerberg signature at the same time. This set of Like and Dislike stamps should prove quite in handy for that – just cross your fingers he’ll use the right stamp on your Xmas postcard!
The COO. They are the hands-on people: speak typography and colour alignment and they’ll think you’re bluffing. Lists, planning and managing are more likely to spring up in their vocabulary so make sure you keep that in mind. These guys are like the engine that keeps everything up and running, the control tower that overlooks all operations on ground and above.
Wouldn’t it be super useful if they had a universal device to let them run the entire show with the click of a button? I bet COOs are not the only ones interested in something like that but in the meantime you can make them their very own universal remote control keychain that will at least allow them to turn off that annoying track playing on the pub’s radio.
The Interns. These guys are here to learn. Admit, you’ve one been in their shoes and it wasn’t very pleasant to always feel watched and analysed and wondering whether the work you’re doing is right. Give them a confidence boost with these magic illusions cards that will make them feel like they’re the ones who hold the secret wisdom for once.
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Friday Fun: Lunch Breaks. To Take Or Not To Take?Posted on Friday 02 December 2011 at 15:02PM by trrpaipai |
Oh how I love the early office concerto every day around 11AM… That’s about the time when everyone has already digested their breakfast and starts to get hungry again… A musical splendour to all of our ears that makes at least one of our Enternships team member take a trip to the kitchen to fool the old breadbasket.
All this grumbling serves one purpose only: to remind us lunch is on its way! And we sit and impatiently wait for that clock to strike 1pm when we can finally pamper ourselves to some delightful sandwich (or burrito – according to the latest London fancy for Mexican). You can actually hear the hands of the clock sssslllooooowwwllyyyy moving to the right…the pain!
And then you get yourself together and get going on some work immersion. Suddenly the job matrix has got to you and when you get out of it you realise it’s already 3pm. Wait a sec, what happened to all that slo-mo ticking clock? Too late, what’s the point of having lunch now?
The thing is, there is a point! Firstly, you need those calories to keep you going through the day at a productive pace and rebank the nutrients that got depleted. Secondly, you need the good calories! When you don’t eat lunch, you are more likely to snack during the day on unhealthy foods, or overeat at suppertime. We don’t want that do we?
A survey by Monarch Airlines found that as many as 58% employees in the UK take 30 minutes or less for their lunch break, while almost 6% of workers snatch just 10 minutes. Now that’s what I call a workaholic!
I know all of us are really passionate about what we do because startup life is so cool and challenging but we must keep in mind the fact that we aren’t some magical machines that run on thin air. We need fuel. Some of it is food for thought but before we get there we need some food for body. And that means not skipping lunch. Or any other meal for that matter.
Here’s my awesome 1-2-3 why
1. Food is delicious. I love food and I love exploring all types. I get excited about each and every bite and never leave anything on my plate. I make sure my food is decently fresh and tasty. That means quality beats quantity - the classic gourmet vs gourmand battle. Take the French path, enjoy your meal, top it with a dessert if that's what makes you happy.
2. Food is nutritious. Ok, so perhaps you’re one of those rare types who don’t really enjoy the taste of food that much (bless!). In this case, think about your body as an engine that needs gas to keep on working. It can work on water too but then it will have to take twice as long to get the same thing done. Don’t kill the productivity!
3. Food is fun. When I say that I really mean it. There’s loads of fun in cooking it and eating it but most of all, in burning the calories out of it. I like lunch breaks because they remind me that I haven’t taken my stroll or that I haven’t smiled at a new person that day (it’s on my daily to-do list!). Don’t look at the lunch break as a burden in your busy schedule: it’s your chance to have some quality ‘me’ time and get some more inspiration rolling for the rest of the day! So who are you in this daily battle for lunch? The luncher or the muncher?
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Friday Fun: Highlights from Global Entrepreneurship Week PartyPosted on Friday 18 November 2011 at 16:03PM by trrpaipai |
What a crazy week it has been! Global Entrepreneurship Week has brought together UK's most successful entrepreneurs together with those who aspire to reach similar levels and Enternships is very proud to have chipped in as well. With an array of workshops, pitching and networking events spread across this intense seven day period, we have managed to gather quite a few people at our own events on Tuesday 15 November.
As you can imagine, Tuesday was a big day for us and on this occasion we want to thank everyone who attended both The National Jump Start organised in partnership with NACUE, as well as our evening party at Fabric Club which was a massive success. The National Jump start was an amazing 5-hour workshop, networking and panel event where a bunch of innovative ideas were put forth, thereby proving that the next generation of entrepreneurs is one full of passion and inquisitive thinking.
More photos on our Facebook page!
Minister for Business and Enterprise Mark Prisk was more than kind to attend the event and reinforce the government’s support of entrepreneurship. He announced the government initiative to support NACUE in developing student-led enterprise societies in every university and most colleges in England.
Speakers also included marketing guru Dan Sodergren, who offered students a peak into the world of guerilla marketing, and Melody Hossaini (The Apprentice, season 7), who lead a motivational workshop on inspiring and engaging young entrepreneurs. Constantin Bjerke, CEO and Founder of online video-magazine Crane.tv, will also joined the panel together with Rajeeb Dey, our Enternships founder, to share their experience and expertise.
Have a look at one of the videos during the Q&A panel, in which our guest speakers are discussing the essential skills that every entrepreneur should have in order to thrive in his business:
Later in the evening we all went up to Fabric Club in Farringdon to set the mood of a night of fun and dance. A lot less dancing than we wanted but, on the flip side, the networking lounge was packed with people who came down to celebrate entrepreneurship altogether. It was great to have everyone over, thank you very much for your support and we hope to see all of you again at our next event
I'll leave the rest of the story to our photos.
Can't see the photo you're looking for? Go to our Facebook page and tag yourself and your friends in our photos. Don't forget to give us a like! :)
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Friday Fun: What's up at Enternships [Photos]Posted on Friday 11 November 2011 at 14:42PM by trrpaipai |
Pictures say more than words right? So what better way of showing you all the fun and games the Enternships team has been up to lately? New stuff we're launching, office humour and big inside scoops - they're there because we like to share everything with you and make you feel part of the Enternships family.
Don't forget about Global Entrepreneurship Week and the uber cool party we're putting on at Fabric Club on Tuesday November 15. If the 1000+ entrepreneurs, students, graduates, media and government reps don't impress you than at least come for a dance at one of London's best club venues. Tickets are selling really fast, so get yours here: http://enternshipsparty.eventbrite.co.uk/?ebtv=F
We launched our new website! We've worked really hard to make this happen and we hope you like it. It is much more user-friendly and it will provide you with a lot of help in finding the right enternship for you. Stay tuned for other updates in the future.
Last Friday we all went for dinner in Soho to treat ourselves for all the hard work we've been doing the previous week. I'm still clueless about the dishes we had as Hindi is not my strong point but must I say, it was absolutely delicious. Especially the kulfi dessert in the end!
We just got our new Enternships team T-shirts, yay! While Andreea has decided to go for the subtle 'Hey, look at me!', while Mike has gone full-on thumbs up showing his excitement for fashionable entrepreneurship :p
Redbull comes to Enternships! Hoping it'll give us wings and inspiration to bring you guys the best of the best internships out there and turn them around into your dream enternship.
Our new banners were delivered this week as well, really liking the new look!
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Friday Fun: Get your free ticket to the coolest party on Global Entrepreneurship WeekPosted on Friday 04 November 2011 at 13:35PM by trrpaipai |
Not such a big fan of Tuesdays? Get ready, ladies and gents, because Enternships might just change that for you. Here's how we'll chip in to bring glam back in the middle of your week: on 15 November we're putting on this awesome party at one of London's most attractive club venues during Global Entrepreneurship Week.And to make things even more awesome, we partnered with City A.M. to create a competition that will get you free entry to our event at Fabric Club.
Interested? Read on!
All you have to do is come up with the most original answer to this simple question:
What is the weirdest question (or task) you have been asked at a job interview?
In order to do that simply sign up to leave a comment on our blog or Tweet us your answer for your chance to get boogie next Tuesday night at our fab event. Have got more than one awkward interview challenge that's been asked of you? Feel free to increase your chances to win and share them with us!
But hurry up! We're closing down the poll on Thursday and will announce the lucky (and wacky) winner on Friday. Tell your friends, your mums and bosses - anyone is welcome to take part!
We've all been there, face to face with the scary suited man (or woman) behind the desk, ready to throw at us all those horrifying questions that will make the difference between affording those much wanted designer shoes and going back home to keep those CVs rolling.
Sometimes it is like that - you quiver all the way through a painstaking process of answering boring questions meant to reveal how well you can sell yourself and buy the employer on your side. It's all a game of endurance and skills retail. Sometimes you get a bit lucky and manage to get a smile or a joke out of the conversation - that surely is a good sign!
But if you're really lucky..you'll be in for a ride that will either get you out of there laughing or crying. In this case, your interviewers will not settle for the usual Q&A session. They will try to drain every inch of creativity they possibly can in a 30 minute session and test your genius to the max. They might ask you why does Adam have a belly button, play the role of a paper cut, what Star Trek® character you would be and so on. These are all a lot of fun to answer but they might get your forehead sweating when that answer has to go to a potential employer.
So this is what we're looking for. The wackiest the better. Best answer gets a free ticket to the party we're putting on Global Entrepreneurship Week on November 15 (woop woop!), as well as a spotlight in the article City A.M. will publish.
So stop wasting time and enter your answer here for your chance to win. We can't wait to read your comments and have a little laugh :)
No worries if you don't win, we'll compile a list of the best answers and publish it on our blog next week. To attend our party go to our event page and grab your early bird ticket to make sure you'll take part in a night of entrepreneurial fun at one of London's most popular club venues.
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Friday Fun: It's an awesome adventurePosted on Friday 21 October 2011 at 11:00AM by trrpaipai |
I don't know about you guys but I'm one of those people whose moods are affected by the weather. As a result, you can probaly imagine my take on this week's temperature drop. Mind you, having spent a few days in sunny Barcelona at 30C just before didn't help either (darn, that paella was good). And so this is how I got the team's official title of 'runny nose'.
In between piles of tissues and cups of tea, believe or not, I was also able to do some work. As I've probably mentioned before, our team is working hard to create a new and improved version of our website which will bring you an ever greater user experience. We've got a few aces up our sleeves that will help you turn the usually dreadful internship search into a useful lesson into the world of employment and eventually lead to your dream 'enternship'. Some of the new features will include a better application tracking system, ranking profiles, a resource zone to help you with some tips and inside knowledge and plenty more in the pipeline.
Our founder Rajeeb (@rajdey) had another busy week out of the office while he was spreading the word about what it takes to be a good entrepreneur across the sea in Poland. The country hosted two great events this week, marking its increasing interest and support of entrepreneurial undertakings by small business owners.
Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs, a programme initiated by the European Commission, held an event in Warsaw on Monday as part of their effort to bolster collaboration between entrepreneurs in Europe. The programme is designed to be a cross-border exchange giving new or aspiring entrepreneurs the chance to learn from experienced entrepreneurs running small businesses in other European Union countries.
Then the EIT Youth and Entrepreneurship - Drivers of Innovation Conference took place between 19 and 21 October in Krakow, aiming to help students and young people planning to pursue an entrepreneurial career. The conference was all about bringing together entrepreneurial students with entrepreneurial role models, academia, businesses and policy makers to interact in an open, creative and inspirational way and so I'm sure Raj had the chance to inspire a few aspiring entrepreneurs out there.
I've also been running around like a busy bee this week, meeting a bunch of really interesting people and talking entrepreneurship and internships with them. I had the chance to discuss with a few startup founders, including those of Brand Regard, Carbon Voyage and Picklive whom I want to thank on this occasion. You'll be seeing the fruits of our conversations in the resource zone when we launch the new website but more about that soon!
That's it for now but stay tuned for more exciting news in the near future. There are some interesting events coming up soon so keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter profiles for updates.
Oh, just before we call it a wrap. Don't forget to support Raj in the Real Business "Young Star of Enterprise" Awards, it takes only 30 seconds. The voting is closing on the Monday the 31st so make sure you cast yours before that. Cheers!
Have a great weekend everyone! Enjoy the awesome adventure!
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Friday Fun: Bits & bobs from the Silicon Roundabout Social ClubPosted on Friday 07 October 2011 at 11:46AM by trrpaipai |
Drawn by the smell of a sun&sandy weekend approaching fast (I’ll be off to Barcelona!), I thought it would be a shame to waste a promising Thursday evening. And what better way to spend it than by joining London’s *chilli hot tech scene for a round of interesting chats at the Silicon Roundabout Social Club.
Deep down in the heart of London’s Tech City at The Book Club, off Great Eastern Street, a bunch of tech heads either having started or working in startups are meeting twice a month to talk about what’s new in their world. As a first time goer I wasn’t really sure what to expect but must say - I was impressed!
Although we were in a basement, the vibe inside felt really fresh! Be it the brisk minds sparking great conversations or simply the booze kicking off (I'm sure it's the former!), the room was filled with buzz and excitement that lasted until the late hours of the night. Sadly, I had to bounce after a couple of hours but from the looks of it people rocked it 'till they dropped it.
The Silicon Roundabout Social Club (SRSC) is a relaxed, informal gathering for pioneering startups in the European tech scene. The guys (and girls) at Mixcloud with support from some other partners felt the need for an event that would offer their startup peers the opportunity to get together and share ideas freely and honestly. As they put it, ‘we aspire to build a community of likeminded individuals who can continue to learn from and support each other.’
I personally had a great time chatting with some of the people who attended last night, including the founders of Mixlr, Lyst, ihorizon and much much more. It was really great to see everyone bouncing ideas off each other and discussing about ways to collaborate and move innovation forward. We talked tech, employment, the cloud, music, Steve Jobs, bling-bling and surely, our cool haircuts. Next step: a new round of happy brainstorming and fruitful collab meet-ups.
Not sure if outracing our neighbours way across the Atlantic is what motivated everyone here to connect and create this shared tech culture, but what I know for sure is that this is something big. Startups and SMEs offer promising prospects in terms of rescuing the economy in times of recession and events like SRSC are a great way of facilitating that by bringing the right people together to make that happen.
More cool photos from last night's event here!
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Friday Fun: The heat is onPosted on Friday 30 September 2011 at 11:36AM by trrpaipai |
A very welcome heat wave hit us this week and we couldn’t help but delve into it. All you Londoners out there must know what I’m talking about because you probably haven’t resisted the temptation of catching a break in the park lying in the sun with an ice cream (or frozen yogurt in my case) next to you.
After a long week out of the office Raj was finally back with us and he made sure not to return empty-handed (by the way, he was terribly missed!). The other day he was out and about Sheffield to attend MADE, The Entrepreneur Festival which proved a real success and an inspiration for entrepreneurs in Britain.
Dragon Den’s Peter Jones CBE, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Vince Cable and young entrepreneur Claire Young of The Apprentice were there to give awesome advice on how to make a business more successful. Raj says it was great to see so many entrepreneurs together in one place, with a lot of spark fired up from bouncing loads of creative business ideas and advice off each other. The next day was meant to have him joining the StartUp Britain bus tour down to York St John University, but some weird illness struck him so he was sent back to London straight in bed instead. (Worry not, he is fine now!)
Last week also saw Entrepreneurship First launch their charming new website our Mike helped to build. They are a new graduate scheme for aspiring entrepreneurs providing full advice and support to final year students who want to start their own business. Backed by leading London entrepreneurs, top graduate employers and the Prime Minister Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur First is sure to make a positive impact in the world of youth entrepreneurship.
In other news, StartUp Britain turned 6 months old this week, marking half a year of amazing achievements such as a 25% rise in people searching for the term ’start up’ online, over 1,500 hours of mentoring and a StartUp Britain Bus Tour which travelled 1236 miles, visiting 15 cities and attracting 72 experts onboard to meet local startups.
Also, Tim Rogers from Silicon Britain wrote a really nice article about us and the entrepreneurial internship – worth checking out! And to finish off, don’t forget about BBC3’s launch of their Up For Hire Live show which will give young unemployed people the chance to find a paid work placement with seven top UK companies. The deadline was today at 1pm, hope you got the chance to apply!
Now for your personal enjoyment, here’s an exclusive video of our neighbours upstairs trying to move a desk down two floors through the 2.5ft wide stairway. No wonder they take lunch off to go to the gym.
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Friday Fun: Lose your internship in 5 easy stepsPosted on Friday 23 September 2011 at 11:25AM by trrpaipai |
Let’s say you finally got your dream ‘enternship’. Obviously, on your first day you are so nervous you can’t even remember the name of your own supervisor. But don’t worry, everyone is probably expecting you to screw something up on your first couple of days. Just make sure you won’t do any of the following or else:
1. Always leave without telling anyone where you're going. It gives everyone a chance to be creative when someone asks where you are.
2. Tell your supervisor that what he is saying sounds like English, but you can't understand a word of it.
Crush: Okay. Squirt here will now give you a rundown of proper exiting technique. Squirt: Good afternoon. We're gonna have a great jump today. Okay, first crank a hard cutback as you hit the wall. There's a screaming bottom curve, so watch out. Remember: rip it, roll it, and punch it. Marlin: It's like he's trying to speak to me, I know it. [to Squirt] Marlin: Look, you're really cute, but I can't understand what you're saying. Say the first thing again.
3. Introduce yourself under a different name every time you meet a new co-worker.
slim shady _ eminem (motion graphic) from seo gabriel on Vimeo.
4. On your supervisor’s birthday wrap up his desk in gift paper. Everyone appreciates a little sense of humour and so you think a joke or two might make you stand out. Out indeed!
5. Just start playing pranks on everyone, that will certainly get you popular in the office.
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Friday Fun: First 2 weeks in our new officePosted on Friday 16 September 2011 at 12:15PM by trrpaipai |
Must say, having an office in itself is already a great achievement but when it’s located 5 minutes away from Angel station and you have three wacky start-ups as neighbours it feels like a real treat!
No wonder there was a lot of excitement in the new Enternships headquarters: we had whiteboards coming in for us to freely throw our ideas on, file cabinets for the more traditional offline doc management, and not to forget the awesome 6x2ft green painting which triggers a series of funny conversations each time someone new walks in. By the way, we did a poll and came to the conclusion that what we see there is probably a group of goblins getting out of the pub where they had a few pints to kill the bore of household chores [according to encyclopedia.com] Why we picked it, still a mystery...
Obviously, another in-house highlight was the glorious moment in which we received Enternships’ first call on our landline phone and Mike had the honour to break the ice (at which point he got distracted by my desperate attempts to immortalise the event). By now all of us got the chance to answer the phone at least once so we’re not fighting to get to the phone first anymore. Peace has been reinstalled.
But not for too long. On Thursday Mike, our Head of Development, received his brand new 27inch Quad-core iMac with a 265GB SSD which, as all you tech heads out there probably know, kicks ass and turned him into a God. For a day at least. Because the next day we saw the consequences of carrying such a monster computer on his poor bruised arms (which he didn't let me take a photo of!). UPS screwed up by delivering it a few blocks away but luckily they happened to be nice people (they still exist!!) who called us the next day to come pick it up. That meant Mike had to go through a painstaking 15 minute walk to bring the 30lb titan back. Nevertheless, he says it was totally worth it.
Leaving fun and games aside - but not out of reach – we’ve also been really busy cooking new ideas in order to make your Enternships experience even more rewarding. We will soon be launching an updated website to feature an improved design that will help with navigation and an easier way to find specific roles. So our dev team are sweating their foreheads and you’ll hopefully see the result of their efforts in a couple of months.
Also, Raj and Ellen are getting everything ready for the event Enternships is hosting on Global Entrepreneurship week on November 17th in partnership with The National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs (NACUE) so make sure you put that down in your calendar. More details about that will follow later on so stay tuned for news! Next week Thursday will see Raj talking at MADE, the Entrepreneur Festival in Sheffield, and he's also going to join the StartUp Britain bus tour.
As far as I’m concerned, the first two weeks in the office have also been my first two weeks with the Enternships team in general so I can double the enthusiasm! Thanks to the whistler guys at Floxx upstairs we have a great morning playlist our ears can enjoy. Also, we’re super grateful to the guys downstairs at SpoonFed for our merry Thursday cake to make the transition towards the weekend a little sweeter.
We are busy bees but never too busy to listen to your thoughts so if there’s anything you’d like to pass on to us don’t forget you can email us at community@enternships.com. Looking forward to hearing from you!
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