Can you inspire 10,000 young people to create a brilliant CV in one day? A look at Barclays' ambitious Do It Day challenge
At Plan It Day in London tomorrow (24 September), 10 of the world’s biggest brands will invite the cream of the creative industry to dream up ingenious solutions to 10 real world problems. For Barclays, the ambitious mission is to inspire 10,000 young people to create a brilliant CV in a day.
Those of us who got our big career break before the advent of Facebook and Twitter should breathe a sigh of relief that our indescreet social media accounts were not around to trip us up.
According to research published this month, nine out of 10 recruiters now check their candidates' social media profiles before making a hiring decision.
And for young people accustomed to living out their lives online – one in five post pictures from nights out, and one in 10 admit to posting photos of themselves drinking – the prospect of the already daunting jobs market becoming even more challenging will come as unwelcome news.
But at Plan It Day tomorrow, Barclays will outline an ambitious creative challenge to help thousands of young people stand out for the right reasons on social media. And that's where you come in.
"We thought, wouldn’t it be awesome if we could get 10,000 young people in one day creating a brilliant digital CV," said Barclays' brand agent programme lead Jeanette Lloyd.
"That’s a really powerful thing – we can help 10,000 young people make their CV look super awesome and make themselves look really desirable to employers."
Barclays is already running a TV campaign encouraging young people to use its LifeSkills CV Builder tool, which connects to their Facebook and Twitter accounts to help them build a digital age resumé and question exactly how they want to be seen by potential employers.
And so at tomorrow's event Barclays will call on the UK's top creative minds to dream up imaginative ways to persuade 10,000 youngsters to grasp the initiative and create their digital CVs en masse on Do It Day on 2 November.
"We’re really passionate about LifeSkills but sometimes it’s difficult to connect with young people directly through our own audiences," said Lloyd.
"So is there something we can do that’s really different, that’s really eye catching? Is it a nationwide thing? A digital thing? An event?
"At Plan It Day we want to harness the power of this group of people to come up with some really different thinking. Perhaps helping us really recognise the channels these young people are playing in and get them fired up about this personally."
And like the other nine Plan It Day challenges that will be unveiled tomorrow, creatives and marketers from all walks of the industry will be encouraged to push their imaginations to the limit to come up with bold solutions to these challenging briefs.
"We’ve got the TV ads, loads of great press ads, there’s a lot of collateral that can be used. This is a great way to connect with those young people directly. I would really like to see all manner of ideas. I don’t want to shut any doors. Let’s go wild and see what we can do that’s quite different."
If you want to help solve some of the hardest, most unique and rewarding briefs of your career, today is your last day to sign up for Plan It Day tickets by visiting the dedicated website. The Drum will also be running a live blog during Plan it Day on its homepage to keep readers up to date with the action.