The FT Talent Challenge is a series of global events where students and early career professionals from diverse backgrounds work closely with teams across the FT to solve real life business cases related to the world of news media. The 3-day competition style event gives participants access to unique FT content, workshops and people. It helps foster new creative thinking within the FT, develop potential solutions to strategic business issues and stimulate disruption within the media ecosystem.
Ahead of the New York edition in December, we sat down with Virginia Stagni, the founder of FT Talent, to find out a little more about the programme and their plans for the future.
Virginia, tell me a little bit about why you launched FT Talent Challenge and what its main aims are?
I started at the FT as a junior manager in 2018 after finishing university, and I could instantly see there was a gap between people’s perception of the organisation and what we are actually like to work for. So I pitched the idea of creating a hackathon type event which was aimed at attracting talented early career professionals who were interested in the world of news media. The FT Talent challenge helps individuals get a better understanding of how to break into the industry along with equipping them with the skills they need to kick start their careers. It also enables the FT to reach new diverse audiences that see the world through a different lens and can bring fresh perspectives to some of the challenges the industry faces.
Where are the FT Talent Challenge’s currently held? Do you have plans to add any other locations?
We held our first Talent Challenge at our London headquarters, Bracken House, and have gone on to host a number of other events here too. Due to covid, we have also held them virtually, which involved a lot of coordination and technical expertise, but by being virtual, it also allowed us to open up the challenge to a much wider selection of participants. In our last virtual challenge we had participants from 96 different countries, which brought a huge amount of variety to the thinking and meant that the networking opportunities were hugely varied. In December this year, we will be holding our first Talent Challenge in New York at the FT’s offices in Manhattan. In 2023, we have lots of exciting plans to host events in other locations, including Miami and Milan.
What do individuals get out of participating in the Talent Challenge?
I think the most important thing that participants get is real life experience of what it's like to work in a news organisation, and a greater understanding of how they function and all the different types of work that goes into running a company like the FT. By meeting lots of people from across the FT, challengers are able to get a sense of the type of skills and experience it takes to be successful. The challenge provides lots of learning opportunities that people can use to upskill themselves and take into whatever career they pursue. Another real benefit is the networking opportunities that challengers are exposed to as part of the event. They get to meet up to 150 like-minded individuals from all different backgrounds, form connections through alumni events and be part of the Talent Challenge community. We also offer the Talent Challenge in partnership with other brands, so participants can also get first hand experience of different industries outside of news media.
What’s next for the FT Talent Challenge over the next few years?
We will continue hosting Talent Challenges at the FT in order to meet with and support young talent coming into the news media industry, but we will also be expanding the challenge into other industries by partnering with other organisations to allow them to address some of their challenges around talent attraction. The challenges are very different to traditional careers fairs or recruitment marketing activities, as they allow both participants and companies to interact with people on a much deeper level and form stronger bonds as a result.
FT Talent aims to provide useful resources for students and early career professionals that anyone can access without having to take part in one of our challenges. By providing engaging and educational content tailored around kick-starting your career, FT Talent is aiming to help people bridge the gap between academia and industry so that they are more prepared for the world of work and are able to navigate the early stages of their career more effectively. We have recently launched a podcast which features interviews with experts in lots of different fields. The interviews themselves consist of previous FT Talent challengers asking these experts questions related to the world of work, in order to better understand how different industries function and also to break down some of the barriers young people face in accessing senior individuals.
How can you find out more / interact with FT Talent?
FT Talent aims to provide useful resources for students and early career professionals that anyone can access without having to take part in one of our challenges. By providing engaging and educational content tailored around kick-starting your career, FT Talent is aiming to help people bridge the gap between academia and industry so that they are more prepared for the world of work and are able to navigate the early stages of their career more effectively. We have recently launched a podcast which features interviews with experts in lots of different fields. The interviews themselves consist of previous FT Talent challengers asking these experts questions related to the world of work, in order to better understand how different industries function and also to break down some of the barriers young people face in accessing senior individuals.
Click the link above to subscribe to our recently launched podcast, The Talent Show. You can also find out more about FT Talent by visiting our website, following us on Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.