become giving

Throughout January, our Sydney and Melbourne offices agreed to donate $1 for every hour each freelancer was booked out.

In the end that amount totalled $3000, which is an incredible donation!

As I’m sure you can imagine, we are really proud of them. Well done!

In January 2012, we partnered with the credible youth organisation The Reach Foundation in an initiative to donate $1 for every hour our freelance talent were booked.

The initiative proved successful and raised over $3,000 that was donated to Reach, a national organisation that inspires young people to believe in themselves and get the most out of life. Reach works with over 57,000 young Australians across metropolitan and regional schools and communities across the country.

Become is committed to supporting Reach to continue to make a positive impact and enrich the lives of young Australians, with consultants at become recruitment involved in volunteer work.

We’re 15 years old today

Today marks 15 years since the exact day we first set up our London office.

We couldn’t be happier with what we’ve achieved and all the relationships we’ve formed.

Thank you so much for your support, from clients to candidates, and we look forward to continue working with you in the future.

What’s Pinterest?

So if you’re engaged in social media enough, whether it be Linked-In or Twitter, you’ll see this new word “Pinterest” banded about. Writers are getting their early bets in about what Pinterest will become popular for, from the military to recruitment, but I’m not sure they’ve got it right yet.

I got myself an invite to check it out. First I’m asked to select categories that might interest me, Design? Check. Geek? Check. Technology? Check. And so on I select my desired areas… apart from mis-clicking “Weddings”. Pinterest follows for me some people who it thinks I like. I’m a big fan of recommendation algorithms. There’s nothing worse than signing up to a social network and wondering where everyone is.

Now it’s time for me to create my first Board. There are a few suggestions, I’m going to choose “Books Worth Reading”. I’m asked to add the “pin it” book mark to my favorites bar and I’m ready to go.

Five minutes later I’ve created a little Board with some captions about the books and I can share this with my friends and peers.

You can see it here:

http://pinterest.com/dangrech/books-worth-reading/

If you’re a massive Instagram fan like myself and believe that pictures and photos speak a thousand words then this is definitely for you. I think it’s a little farfetched suggesting that everyone who uploads an infographic CV is going to have job offers building up at their door, but once the early adopters shape the culture of using Pinterest I’m confident it will go forward to be a great platform.

Sian Couchman: 15 years in the Creative World.

15 years is a long time in the creative world and is a huge achievement, It has flown by and brought its challenges with huge highs and a few lows.

When we launched Become (then Macpeople) in 1997, it was a hugely exciting time, and the timing was key as the next two years were boom years.

They were incredibly heady days, and with little competition from specialist agencies in our field, we felt we were shaking things up. And we did!

It was about this time that Adobe indesign was making inroads into the creative industry, but due to ‘glitches’ within the software and Quark being the industry standard, it was a slow transition. However, once the big publishing houses bought into the new CS software, the big corporates such as the BBC and large agencies soon followed, and Quark was in decline.

In 2000 the dot com crash happened, which with the benefit of hindsight was the result of mass media hysteria, thus the impact on the design industry was not nearly as severe as first feared.

However, the past 15 years in the creative industry has seen a multitude of changes and exciting movement, and although more subtle in the early years, the last five years has seen a digital revolution, with the huge growth in social media, meaning companies having to be much more engaged with business and consumer needs.

The creative bar has increased hugely, largely in part to the expectation of
the consumer/audience. Steady growth within the retail sector (both online
and instore) has meant an increased demand for experiential Designers and
experience from a shopper marketing perspective

2009 saw a massive slump in vacancies and growth, with many creatives faced with redundancy. The print industry has undoubtedly suffered, and shrunk as a result, replaced by an explosion of channel marketing, mobile apps, gaming and social media.

The Uk’s creative industry was then, and still is undoubtedly a world leader and generates huge revenue and economic growth. However, its a constantly changing industry, and with the advent of social media added into the digital mix it is all important to stay ahead of the digital game , and embrace emerging technologies, whilst celebrating the different mediums we can all enjoy.

It can only get better, and I am proud to be a part of it.

Sian Couchman

Video Infographic

Check it out!

 

Sydney’s 5th Anniversary

Happy Australia Day Everyone and a massive congratulations to become Sydney who are celebrating their 5th anniversary today!

It was 5 years ago to the day when we opened our doors for business and we can’t thank all our clients and candidates enough for all their support during the last five years since those early days.

The great news is many of you are still very much part of our business and continue to work successfully with us on a regular basis.

As a group we are celebrating our 15th anniversary this year and we are delighted that we have received such a positive response from the Australian Creative market first in Sydney and more recently with our new opening in Melbourne.

We are all dedicated to helping our clients and candidates make the most of their opportunities and help their careers and businesses grow and flourish and we are really looking forward to the next five years and beyond!

15 years recruiting creatives

If you haven’t heard already, we’re going to be celebrating our 15th year down to the exact day in February, from when our London office first opened its doors. Since day one we’ve had a wonderful journey taking us global and building a strong team of creative recruitment pioneers, some consultants working with us for ten years plus. Even some of our candidates have been with us from the start, be sure to see them featured through the year as we shine the spotlight accordingly

Keep an eye here for special goings-on throughout the year!