"Grad Scheme" - Sales Executive Condé Nast Employee Review

Essentially, this isn't a grad scheme as I understood it would be. It's a media sales role which involves cold calling people to sell ad space in classified (the section at the back of the magazine). I found the office a really strange and outdated environment to be in. (It's almost school-like... everyone faces the front of the office to face the director, you have to make X calls per day, you can't leave the office for regular breaks etc.) Most girls who work there (it's an all girl office) seem overly stressed. I was at the company for over nine months and turn over is unbelievably high. My guess is that many people (like me) didn't find the role challenging enough. During the time I was there, there was no opportunity for me to go out and meet clients face to face, as promised in the job advert. There were even some girls who had been there for more than 18 months who had never attended a meeting with their clients. Oddly, meeting clients is discouraged by the management team. In terms of training, other than your induction week which is spent in the classroom learning sales techniques taught to you by senior sales executives and managers, I was offered very little training and I believe that zero digital sales training in classified. Progressing within the company itself is really hard, although people have done it in the past. This is because you're competing with people from other media companies who have digital and face to face sales experience. As such, many people leave to go to competitor titles. Also, hardly any account manager roles inhouse were advertised during the time I worked there. Working for the 'Grad Scheme' you feel very isolated from the rest of the company- for instance, Classified is apparently the only department which has to pay for their own Xmas party! We were rarely invited to events and talks or even to meet the editorial and, or advertising team representing the magazines each person worked on. Although I did attend one hour-long talk at The Condè Nast College.