Editor of Glamour, Jo Elvin, speaks at University of Westminster

Hi ladies!

(image taken from Google images)

Last week, I was lucky enough to attend a lecture by Jo Elvin, the editor of Glamour. She was generous enough to come to Westminster University and speak to us about what it takes to become a magazine editor.

Now, recently I've decided I'd like to write for a beauty magazine about...well, beauty! So while I suppose the topic of this lecture wasn't exactly related to what I want to do, I still felt it was essential to attend, because some of her tips can be applied to just about any job. Plus who turns down a lecture by the editor of Glamour!?

Besides giving helpful tips on how to become a magazine editor, she also shared some funny stories from her career, including when she turned down the Spice Girls for a cover of Sugar magazine (which she recalls as one of her biggest mistakes!) and when her and Samantha from Sex and the City went over to meet Usher at an event and he very suavely asked "Well ladies, what are we doing after this?" and they left blushing and feeling very uncool.

Overall, I'm glad I went. And now I leave you with some of Jo's top tips:

-Be a good listener

-Be accountable

-Have a bit of an ego

-Have thick skin (your employees may not invite you out to the pub, but you'll have to deal with it)

-Have a life outside of the job

And finally:

-Love the job, even the dirty ones!

Basically, you're not going to get your dream job straight out of university. So Jo suggests you must enjoy all the jobs to get to the top. If you roll your eyes when you're asked to answer a phone, chances are you won't go far in that company.

She even said the most recent hire she did was a woman who had worked for a year at an off roading magazine and had done so much research into it, even though it wasn't her dream job. Jo said that it impressed her so much that it's largely why she hired her, because it showed just how tenacious she was!

Click HERE for a clip from the lecture, where she speaks about work experience (not my own footage).

Hope that was helpful to any of you aspiring magazine editors!