Alumni - Kristen Scott, MA Publishing

Now settled in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, I am currently working as a Digital Copywriter and Editor for a marketing and design company in the city.

Embarrassingly unexperienced before my MA, nonprofit publishing peaked my interest through an internship at New Internationalist in Oxford. The internship in Geneva at the ILO was not only an eye-opening experience but it opened doors that I otherwise wouldn't have even been able to knock on. I had the pleasure of spending the six months with Sophie Hall, a fellow MA student. I was lucky that she had the same sense of humour but different strengths which was the perfect recipe for stressful times.

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My timing of arrival couldn't have been more perfect as I got to work very closely with the Head of ILO Publishing on a pilot ebook of The Global Wage Report 2012/13. Witnessing the project from start to finish, I had my hand in scheduling, taking minutes in author meetings, copy editing and proofreading, new publishing software and working with third-language manuscripts.

I took every opportunity that I could, including accepting the invitation to help on the UN stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair (despite the fact that my intern stipend couldn't support it). This simple step lead me to find myself on top of a lavish German hotel at a party hosted by the World Bank and IMF Communications teams.

I was surrounded by incredibly intelligent individuals in the field and witnessed publishing lead by the idea to change the world. The introductions that night later gave me the opportunity to work with publishing teams in Geneva, Spain, France and even India on major projects for education, gender, the environment, and health. The internship helped me to realize how important our role as publisher is and was one of the best career decisions. Thanks to Angus Philips and the Publishing team for setting up the opportunity.

Posted on 24 Jun 2014 around 12pm