Graduate Management (Editorial) Trainee Birmingham 2022

Are you a English or English Literature graduate struggling to find a job that is the right fit for you? Are you tired of publishing roles that just sound like they’ll have you making tea or coffee all day? You might think that the only opportunities out there in publishing are copy-editing scripts and assisting senior editors. In a world of rapid technological change, there is of course another way.

About the role

What if you could apply your skills in a role that had you owning and developing real products from day one? A role that would nurture the skills and the experience you need to confidently develop a more entrepreneurial skillset for the long-term. An opportunity structured so that you’ll learn about real-world business as you apply your editorial insight and skills to deliver real day-to-day value. All without spending 40 hours a week doing entry-level development editing.

Packt is looking for a bright, energetic graduate to help us build the next generation of technical publishing talent. We're one of the world's largest technical publishers, based right here in the UK. Our graduate scheme is designed to help build out the skills you need to become a top-tier publishing product manager, a highly strategic role that is commonly the interface between user-focused decision-making and real-world practical implementation.

You don’t need prior experience working for anybody else, or a slew of academic qualifications. We’re looking for somebody who wants to throw themselves into a fast-paced startup environment and build out their skills by doing, who has the empathy, hustle and entrepreneurial energy to help us deliver better technical documentation for all.

Why is this role great for you?

Nobody wakes up one morning and decides to be a product manager. If successful, you will:

• Join our mission to revolutionise technical publishing and help people from different backgrounds all across the world who are looking to put software to work for them.
• Begin your own career in a flexible, entrepreneurial environment where everybody works together to create technical documentation that empowers developers the world over.
• Learn about Packt product development from the ground-up, with the expectation that you own new initiatives and put your own theories to practice with real products.
• Work internationally as part a culturally diverse and broad field of talent and expertise. Our main offices are in the U.K. and India (with opportunities for travel once restrictions ease) but we are a fully remote business with employees from several different countries.

Start your own career on the right track a role that emphasises ownership and accountability from day one. It’ll be challenging but you’ll learn more and develop faster than you would following a traditional corporate ladder or conventional training program with a large, legacy-style business.

About Packt

Packt is one of the world’s largest sources of trusted technical documentation. If you’re a technical specialist, odds are you have already read one of our books. We’re on a mission to help developers of all skill levels be more productive by helping them put software to work. That means less time spent struggling with poor documentation, trawling through old blog posts or StackOverflow answers, fighting against legacy code and Google search algorithms. It means helping software developers get the results that they need quickly, accurately and affordably.

Joining Packt means being a part of our mission to be the #1 source of trusted developer content. If helping people the world over create better software sounds as important to you as it is for us, then you’re already halfway there to being a great fit for us as a company.

What will you be doing?

We are a highly flexible and rapidly growing business, so the possibilities for where you take your career with us long-term are open-ended. As a graduate product manager, you'll be on rotation through Packt as part of our management training programme. This includes:

• Commissioning & Acquisitions. Ever wondered how a product is conceptualised? After a quick induction in this team, you’ll quickly develop and produce your own commercial product vision under the guidance of expert Packt mentors. You’ll then go out into the world and build the author team you need to make that vision happen. Along the way you’ll learn how to write great propositions, pitch to stakeholders, and own a product end-to-end.
• Product Editorial. Learn how real products are built. Put your technical skills to the test as you learn about creating a great reading and learning experience for our users. You’ll learn the fundamentals of what makes a great technical book page-for-page, working with world-leading technical experts to create the next big technical bestseller on Amazon.
• Product Management. Get hands-on with users. You’ll learn how to embrace user feedback as part of your product development process, including creating your own surveys, user interviews and conducting market analysis. Use what you’ve learned to pitch and plan your own product features and requirements documents for consideration by the platform team.

You’ll need a lot of energy and grit, but if you have what it takes there is no upper limit on the type of role that we can develop for you. By rotating you through Packt you’ll learn all about our business from the ground-up, and at the end of your rotation you’ll be able to choose where you take your next career step with Packt. Our graduate scheme is a a rapid way to learn and grow as you help us make the world better by replacing painful and unoptimized technical documentation.

Requirements

Are you the right fit for this role?

We’re looking for energy, enthusiasm and entrepreneurial flair above anything else. The rest is experience that we can build together. You should be:

• Hungry to learn and make a difference in the world, willing to both give and receive ego-free feedback and clear communication in the interest of what is right for our users.
• A pragmatist with sharp critical thinking skills, who seeks out problems to solve. You need to be objective enough to not get attached and throw away bad ideas, whilst staying optimistic enough to keep hunting for new ones that will help us deliver a better product experience.
• A good communicator and team player who can work with people from a diverse range of backgrounds and experience, from internal team members to external partners and clients.
• Somebody who can push themselves and takes pride in doing great work, inspiring and helping others around them (both inside and outside of Packt) do the same.

We’re growing quickly and this is a long-term career opportunity, so you’ll be a key part of how we shape our culture and how we work as we expand. We're looking for applications from candidates who are planning to or have recently graduated from university, across a wide range of backgrounds. Our main focus is on you as a person. If what you’ve read fills you with excitement and energy, let’s get started with your application!