UKNM: Fresh Minds

[Charlie]

Ray and others,


Thank you for your comments on Fresh Minds. There are three main points that

appear to have been misconstrued.


1. We do not turn down undergraduate or postgraduate applicants because of

the university they have attended or their nationality. In fact we have a

number of students who are from, or have studied in Russia, France, India,

Serbia, America, Germany...etc. However, because we are a relatively new

company with limited resources it is necessary to target our recruitment.


I agree 100% that there are exceptionally able people at other universities

both in the UK and abroad. But if you look at the site you will see that we

"actively recruit" from the UK's top ten universities. This does not mean we

turn down applicants from other universities. We would love to target

undergraduates, postgraduates and MBA's from every university in the world,

but just how do you propose we go about the interview process if we got

20,000 job applicants from 10 countries? Not to mention the marketing budget

we would need.


2. Justine Koder wrote "For my part I've met people with 1st class degrees

from 'top' universities who have the common sense of a small gnat. And

people who left school at 18 who I'd employ like a shot because their brains

'work'."

So have I. There is no doubt that some of the UK's most talented individuals

never went to university (Richard Branson being the obvious example) and if

I wanted to hire someone for the long-term then I would look for experience

first and degree second. But Fresh Minds is not trying to help you find a

long-term employee who has learnt certain ways of working. We provide young

people with initiative and motivation. They can learn quickly and are ideal

for the kinds of tasks that we fulfil.


We do not claim to be consultants or pretend that we can solve all your

problems; we offer research, translation and other tasks suited to our

students abilities.


3. Ray suggested that "all applicants have to be white and talk with plums

in their gobs"

I really don't want to get into a fight over stereotypes - and there is no

covert plan to resurrect the old boys network. What we do look for when

recruiting is intelligence, motivation, initiative, business experience and

outside interests/skills. Academics is therefore just one of our selection

criteria.


Our choice of universities to target is, as mentioned before, a financial

decision that allows us to sort through fewer people than the whole world's

student population. We acknowledge that this is an imperfect sieve, but

given our resources it is the most sensible option. (and before you

criticise why students? that's because we have found many businesses who

specifically want undergraduates).


I know that there is a tendency for the UKNM list to try to knock businesses

in any way they can, but I am surprised that we are criticised for trying to

link very able young people who need temporary employment with firms who

have specific tasks to which they are suited.


Charlie

__________________________

Charlie Osmond

Fresh Minds Ltd.

w www.freshminds.co.uk

e

charliefreshminds [dot] co [dot] uk

t  020 8249 8202 (or 8204)

f  0208 467 4773



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