In Your Shoes - Zane Powell

My name is Zane Powell and I am 23 years old. I am originally from Fife (unfortunately Ha-ha) but I am now studying Law at Dundee University. Before I went to University I played football professionally, having youth level spells at Rangers FC and Motherwell FC, and first-team level at Cowdenbeath.

Last year when I was searching for internships I became frustrated with the traditional job searching methods available in Scotland for students. My business partners and I decided to revolutionise this process by creating an app that is built around both students and employers. The end result being an easy, efficient and engaging experience.

We are due to launch our service around July/August 2017. We will be offering 6 months free use of our platform to early adopting businesses and anyone who is interested can leave their details at www.unijobapp.com

The Converge Challenge

Today was a 7AMer sadly – and I’m freezing! My main objective today was to finish off our Converge challenge application and get it submitted by 12pm – this is a great opportunity to get extra funding for our business.

I finally managed to submit the converge application in time, and then it was off to Dundee University library to study and do some promotional stuff. We decided we could hand out leaflets to everyone because the library is packed at exam time. After this I got down to some studying myself – better not forget I have exams in two weeks!

Promo Day At Abertay

Same again, up with the birds! Today Emanuele and I decided to go early to Abertay University library to study for our upcoming law exam; alongside this we decided to do some PR again. Overall it was a successful and productive day, and we managed to engage with students, which was the main thing.

In the evening, I was practicing my one-minute pitch, which is for my meeting with senior management at RBS and DELL. This opportunity came through our business accelerator entrepreneurial spark and it is a chance to get these two companies on-board with my venture.

Road Trip To Glasgow

Today I drove through to my girlfriend’s house in Glasgow to stay over – this will make travelling to the entrepreneurial spark HQ in Glasgow easier!

Once I got to Glasgow I spent most of the day preparing for my one minute pitch as well as spending time going over potential questions they may ask me.

Will from our marketing team gave me a late night call to discuss the progress they have made on devising our marketing plan. Everything seems in place and they are due to put our marketing strategy into practice at the start of next week.

Pitch-Day

The fourth early start of the week – I am starting to miss sleep! I had a one-hour skype meeting at 9am with our design team in India to discuss the final amendments to our website prototype.

After the Skype meeting I got some last minute practice in to try and get my pitch and answers perfect.

My 12 PM talk with RBS and DELL went great, the senior Scotland lead from DELL said my pitch was excellent and that I was a good speaker. Both companies have invited me to engage with their graduate recruitment manager to discuss them potentially using our platform. Also, I am getting to meet their B2B sales teams to get some key tips and advice on selling to businesses.

After such a hard day I needed a chilled night - My girlfriend and I ordered some pizza and went for a walk around Pollock Park.

T.G.I. Friday

This morning I had a telephone meeting with Kevin Graeme who is a graduate recruiter at Pinsent Masons. Kevin operates his own graduate recruitment website too and seeing as we are in the same industry, we have decided to do some cross-collaboration to help each other out. Kevin has also organised for me to speak to the graduate recruitment manager at Pinsent Masons about using our service.

Overall I had a really busy but rewarding week – sadly this weekend will be filled with law revision. I cannot wait to get these exams finished!!!