TSV Alumni and Young Mayor of Lewisham Joins The FT For Work Experience
TSV Alumni Adam Abdullah shares his experience at The Financial Times.
The Student View met Adam Abdullah in 2017 at his school, Addey and Stanhope in New Cross, Lewisham, when he took part in our series of media literacy workshops.
Adam showed a natural flair for journalism, current affairs and leadership, the latter of which he proved the following year when he was elected as Young Mayor of Lewisham 18/19.
Adam reached out to The Student View to further his journalistic ambitions, having already been published by VICE. He was subsequently accepted for two weeks work experience at the Financial Times.
Here, Adam writes about the experience:
This summer, I was lucky enough to have two weeks of work experience at The Financial Times!
My two weeks at the FT was an eye-opening experience that granted me insight into an industry where I would not have had an insight before. It allowed me to understand how the world of journalism works and has spurred me to look further into writing as a career.
My time ranged from shadowing different departments across editorial, a tour of Parliament and even web development. It was a wholesome experience which let me see how people could enjoy and be fulfilled from the job that they do. Furthermore, seeing the variety of work that was done in the FT like customer support, accounting and IT gave me an understanding of these worlds too.
Between all the amazing departments I was at, I’d say my favourites were the House and Home desk and the Capital Markets desk. On House and Home, I was able to help and see how articles were edited, and on the Capital Markets desk, I got to see how stories unfolded in real-time. To see the thing you were talking about yesterday be on print the very next day is almost surreal.
To see the thing you were talking about yesterday be on print the very next day is almost surreal.
There were challenges like overcoming the battle that was Bank station every day! On a serious note, however, learning how to adapt to a busy journalism environment was a bit difficult, but given how welcoming everyone was, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.
It was a teaching experience that I would recommend to everyone as I was able to walk out with new skills and a better mindset towards my future. I was lucky enough to stay in contact with those I met afterwards and have an opinion piece published! For other young people, experiences like this are invaluable.
Congrats, Adam. We can’t wait to see what you accomplish next!