Applications for this vacancy are now closed. We have received around 200 applications and will call candidates for interview during April. If you do not hear from us, then your application was unsuccessful. Thank you to everyone who applied. 

We are looking for a publishing intern for summer 2024.

Our internships are designed to allow you to get to know the company and us to get to know you. Our internship programme is also one of our means of recruiting new staff, and several of our current employees started out as interns. You can read about the internship experiences of some of them here.

While we can’t guarantee that an internship will lead to a long-term position with us, we can guarantee that the experience you gain will be relevant, useful and representative of what happens in a professional publishing company. And you get to meet nice people.

About us

We are a fully employee-owned small business based in Perth, Scotland, with clients worldwide. We currently have 15 employees.

With continuous recognition as Investors In People since 2005, and Investors In Young People since 2017, we are proud of our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace. We hold a Silver Award for Investors in People and our Gold Award for Investors in Young People has recently been renewed, proving that we are among the best in supporting and developing our young talent.

We have a comprehensive training programme including both internal and external training courses, along with a scheme for providing financial support for long-term distance learning courses.

Our bright and spacious office is located in a modern office building close to the centre of Perth. All employees can take advantage of our flexible working policy, and more experienced staff also have the opportunity to work fully or partly from home.

We are an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership status, or pregnancy or maternity status.

About the job

Our highly successful paid internship programme has run for many years and includes training, mentoring and coaching as you learn the ropes of working in publishing.

As a publishing intern, you’ll help our production teams to deliver publications on schedule to the required level of quality. Your tasks will be tailored to the specific skills you bring but may include:

  • styling and preparing files for copy-editing
  • collating proofs and proofreading
  • some project management tasks.

The internship will run for a period of up to 13 weeks (start date to be mutually agreed). This is a full-time post (37.5 hours weekly) based at our office in Perth.

You will be kept busy and your contribution will certainly be valued. We can promise that you won’t be bored.

We pay our interns a salary that is at least the national living wage. This year it is £1875 per calendar month.

About you

You must have an excellent command of English and at least a basic understanding of scientific terminology.

You should have, or be studying for, a degree in an academic or publishing subject. We encourage applications from postgraduate publishing students.

How to apply

If you are smart, resourceful, and interested, here is what to do:

  • tell us why you believe you would be suitable for this post
  • attach a full CV in MS Word or PDF format.

Send your application to Dr Lucy Harrier using our application form. Please let us know where you first saw this vacancy. 

Applications close at noon on Friday, 29 March 2024. All applications will be acknowledged. We will contact you if we wish to arrange an interview, which will include a short test.

FAQ: Some questions asked by previous applicants, with answers

  • Apply as soon as possible. If we receive strong applications then we may commence interviews sooner than the closing date.
  • Follow our requirements closely (and avoid our red flags!).
  • Submit as comprehensive an application as possible. If you don’t explain why you are suitable or supply a full CV you are unlikely to be interviewed.
  • Your cover letter is vital, as it tells us how good you are at conveying information – the core service we provide. It should have impeccable spelling and grammar. Tell us what you can offer, not just how you expect to benefit from the job.
  • Please try not to ask us questions that have been answered in this list.
  • Note that possessing or working towards a degree in a publishing or academic subject is essential.

The overall objective of the test is to assess your English-language abilities. You will be asked to make singular words plural (e.g. plural of millennium) and vice versa (e.g. singular of algae), distinguish between common confusables (e.g. averse and adverse) and improve, clarify or correct sentences containing errors. You will have 30 minutes.

As long as you possess or are working towards a degree in an academic subject we have no preference. For information, about half of our employees have a degree in a science subject (mostly life sciences but also engineering and mathematics) and the other half have a degree in a humanities subject (mostly English but also languages and history). Almost half have a PhD. A postgraduate publishing qualification will be advantageous.

Yes. Reasonable travel expenses from a UK address to our offices in Perth and back will be paid. At the interview you will receive an expense claim form.

Not in the internship, which is office-based. There is an option to work from home in other roles, once you have sufficient experience of the work, our processes, the software we use and the company. 

No. The nature of the writing, editing or proofreading work we undertake makes job sharing virtually impossible: you alone will be responsible for completing the projects you are assigned, and, in general, it is not possible to share this work with someone else.

Reduced-hours posts can be requested and management team will consider these in the light of prevailing and expected business environment and the impact on the business, clients and colleagues. We cannot guarantee agreeing to requests for such posts. This advertisement is for a full-time post.

We currently have 15 employees.