Careers podcast Jimmy’s Jobs Of The Future is currently looking into launching its own live events, creator Jimmy McLoughlin has told PodPod.
McLoughlin, a former Downing Street business advisor, launched the podcast in 2020, after leaving his government role when Boris Johnson became Prime Minister. The show involves speaking to leading entrepreneurs about where they think the future of employment is heading, and is based on McLoughlin’s desire to play a role in tackling the post-COVID unemployment crisis.
“I think there's a massive opportunity. I think we are so early in the podcasting foothills,” McLoughlin told PodPod on the latest episode. “We are exploring different shows as well. We are also looking at how we move Jimmy’s Jobs Of The Future to a live event, which is obviously what a lot of podcasters do, but we are quite a serious show - how do you make that happen?”
Many podcasts have diversified their revenue and audience engagement strategies by holding live recordings, and while McLoughlin says the team is looking at ways to make the show more entertaining, he also expressed interest in hosting a ‘job fair’-style event to give attendees practical insight and networking opportunities around prospective roles and employers.
“We've had a couple of comedians on lately, which is just a job that I'm fascinated by,” said McLoughlin. “A lot of business and corporate content is quite boring, so how do you make that more interesting, more accessible, and so on - but yeah, a jobs fair I think would be really interesting as well.”
McLoughlin’s contribution to growing the job market includes expanding the team working on the podcast behind the scenes. However, he told PodPod that the process of editing the podcast itself has become less time-intensive thanks to the development of AI, and that his team’s focus has now shifted more towards guest booking and research.
“This is how much the industry has changed in the last three years,” said McLoughlin. “Editing is becoming a smaller and smaller part of what we are doing on a day-to-day basis, right? AI with Descript, Riverside, et cetera, is just becoming so much better at being able to do that.”
“Trying to speak to lots of creators and other podcasters, it can be a real challenge sometimes to know the actual channel to get in touch with these people - so that's actually what a lot of time is spent on. It’s amazing how much the job of a traditional producer is actually changing.”
In addition to expanding the main team and working with a range of freelancers, McLoughlin also launched a rolling paid internship programme which provides applicants with the opportunity to work on Jimmy’s Jobs Of The Future and get involved in the industry at an early stage in their career.
McLoughlin said he also makes a point of paying applicants for full-time production roles a half day rate for working on tasks like editing a trailer or creating a social media campaign as part of the application process, to ensure that they’re submitting their best work.
“Class is a major thing for us in terms of accessibility, getting people on the podcast and getting people to come and work here,” said McLoughlin. “It doesn't matter what your background is, talent is spread equally and we need to be encouraging people to be ambitious for their careers.”
“I think it is going to be one of the biggest challenges that we face in the 21st century: how do we utilise our talent more? How do we use it better? And how do we give people more opportunity?”
