‘Jobs in Books – My Journey’ – by The Bookseller’s Maria Vassilopoulos

Posted on July 27, 2015 in Uncategorized

Maria Vassilopoulos, Business Development Manager at ‘The Bookseller’ tells us about her pathway into publishing…

I started working at The Bookseller in 2013 after being made redundant from my Job in publishing.  During the time I was out of work I remember sitting at the kitchen table googling things like “what do I do- redundancy” and “Publishing Job advice”.  The returns of such keywords produced the grand sum of not very much. There was one site, Bookcareers by Suzanne Collier that had a wide range of articles on working in the industry and a redundancy meet-up I went along to once.  I also had a good chat with recruitment agency Inspired Selection and also Effective Personnel Solutions and Greenhill (They are all on the bookseller jobs site). Maybe it was the way I was googling but I felt shut-out and even debated whether publishing was for me at all.

Then via Linked In (the only thing I really like on it is the private messaging),I got my Interview at The Bookseller.  I started thinking (well, I had whole days to think) did I want to sell recruitment space?  I was used to selling books to nice independent book shops and sending them bookmarks etc.  I wasn’t sure that I did.  But I was sure that I wanted a Job and that maybe I could make more of this one than the job description.  There must be more people like me out there wanting a way in (or back in) to the world that is publishing.

Previous to working in publishing I worked in bookselling and that gave me a view of the whole industry but this role has meant I have expanded my knowledge and network even further.  I have met fantastic people, become an honoury member of The Society of Young Publishers and in September am starting a PHD at UCL.  I run My Job In 5, Ask HR and  @Jobsinbooks on Twitter and Facebook.  I helped build the new Bookseller Job site and careers channel.  I commission and write blogs on the subject of careers in our industry.  I liaise with publishers and associations on their recruiting and graduate schemes and have been a judge for Rising Stars 2015 and the APE dissertation prize.

There is a reason I do all of this though.  It stems back to that day a year and a half a go where I felt like I would never get back into the industry I loved and have always worked in.  I remember sitting there and thinking that I never wanted anyone to feel like I did then.  There are much more wonderful people out there that do amazing things for the book trade and the people that work in it than I do- I mean you can hardly call me a Samaritan- I’m not. However,  I hope that now when people google “what do I do- redundancy” or “Publishing Job advice” they might get an Ask HR interview or someone doing My Job In 5 or a tweet from @Jobsinbooks and that one result in the list of results makes them not feel so alone.

The Bookseller has been the B2B magazine for the book trade for 157 years and continues to be the go-to place for industry news, previews and of course Jobs in books.  You can visit us www.thebookseller.com, www.jobs.thebookseller.com, follow us on Twitter and Facebook and take part in the careers section by emailing me at Maria.Vassilopoulos@thebookseller.com.