A major part of the book publishing industry is retail of course – the shops that get the books directly to consumers – from the supermarkets and high street bookshops to the many fine independent book stores around the country.

While some independent book sellers will tell you the publishers don’t put enough effort into talking to them, those who work in book retail can nevertheless offer some valuable insights into the wider publishing industry and how it works.

To this end, unicornjobs.com spoke to Jason Burley, the owner of a brilliant independent book shop near our Shoreditch HQ in London, Camden Lock Books, to find out what it’s like working in the independent book retail sector, and to get his take on the wider world of book publishing

Louise Steggals is a recent journalism graduate, having studied Journalism at the University Of Central Lancashire. While studying Louise took advantage of various industry-based resources and schemes, including joining the National Union Of Journalists, and taking part in and getting shortlisted for the Press Gazette Student Journalism Award 2008. unicornjobs.com Student Contributor Lorna Coward spoke to Louise about her career so far, and found out about the benefits of the NUJ and Press Gazette programmes to media students.

unicornjobs.com Student Contributor Victoria Edwards puts recruiter Emily Aldrich on the other side of the interview table, and questions her about her firm Aldrich & Company, what a job in recruitment involves, and what kind of graduate would excel in her industry.

Dan Milmo spent a year as a runner in TV after graduating from Edinburgh University. Realising television wasn’t for him, he turned to journalism, gaining a diploma in the subject from City University, and soon finding himself working for the MediaGuardian website. Print journalism clearly was his calling, because eight years on he is still working from The Guardian, now as Transport Correspondent.

We sent unicornjobs.com Student Contributor Lorna Coward to The Guardian’s London HQ to question Dan on why he enjoys being a journalist so much, to find out what exactly a Transport Correspondent does, and to ask him for those all important tips for aspiring journalists looking to break into such a competitive industry.

So, you fancy being a DJ on a music radio station do you? Well, let’s get some tips from someone already doing that very job.

Lucky Londoners and digital listeners get to wake up to the voice of Lucy Ambache every weekday morning, on the breakfast show on Choice FM.

unicornjobs.com Student Contributor Reena Devi Sewraz managed to catch up with Lucy to talk about early starts, late nights and making good tea.

Faye Wenman discovered an interest in psychology after her first degree, so began her training in the discipline through a post-graduate ‘conversion course’. With a specific interest in clinical psychology, she became a Support Worker for the Home Treatment Team at Homerton Hospital in North London.

It was while doing that job that she developed an interest in the area of psychoanalysis. It’s a discipline which requires not only five years of training, but that you yourself take to the couch and explore your own unconscious self with another analyst. Faye has now begun that process, while supporting her training by working as a Researcher at leading head hunting company Taylor Bennett.

unicornjobs.com Student Contributor Steph Sharples got Faye back onto the couch to ask her about her experiences of the psychology profession, from working in the NHS to embarking on a career in psychoanalysis, and also found out how a background in psychology can help in some very different jobs too.

So, you fancy being a broadcast journalist, or maybe even a news reader? What does that involve, and how do you go about launching a career in TV news?

unicornjobs.com Student Contributor Reena Devi Sewraz spoke to BBC News presenter Chris Eakin to get the low down.

He gave us a real insight into how his industry works, and how it has changed since he accidentally-on-purpose got his big break.

So, you fancy a career in diplomacy or international relations – or simply in the wider Civil Service – where exactly do you start? You surely can’t just ask for some work experience in the Foreign Office can you?

Well, actually you can. The Civil Service runs a special placement scheme each summer offering students paid work-experience in one of three places – the Foreign And Commonwealth Office, the Home Office or the Houses Of Parliament. A place on the scheme means you will be working for the government for up to eight weeks, and in doing so gaining some great experience that could put you ahead when looking for your first graduate job in this area.

Through some espionage of our own, we tracked down one of the undergraduates on the scheme this year – Reading University student Tom Bacon. Well, we discovered that one of our Student Contributors, Victoria Edwards (also pictured), who is also studying at Reading, knew him!

We sent another unicornjobs.com Student Contributor, Corinne Redfern, down to a park in Westminster to soak in the sun, enjoy an ice cream and tap Tom for information.

There has been a rapid growth in the number of cultural festivals in recent years, with most major cities and many smaller towns now boasting one or more arts-based festival each year. These festivals offer a number of opportunities for anyone considering a career in the arts, from short-term roles during the festival itself, to full-time jobs where you are involved in the year-round planning and production of a whole event.

Holly Payton is founder and Managing Director of the World Festival Network, a new website and organisation that aims to bring together people working on cultural festivals across the world, from some of the world’s biggest programmed arts festivals to smaller music, theatrical, literary or film events, and the growing number of ‘anything-goes’ Fringe festivals.

Holly has a lot of experience in festival management, having spent several years running and developing the Brighton Fringe, and having recently joined the Edinburgh Fringe in a freelance capacity.

We caught up with Holly just before this year’s Edinburgh Festival and the official launch of the World Festival Network to talk about what working for a festival involves and how you might go about getting into it as a career.

Marcus Clapham enjoyed a long career in book publishing, specialising in particular in republishing classic texts, spearheading Wordsworth’s budget-priced classics series and then the Classic Penguin reprint series.

Although semi-retired, he continues to publish classic texts, now through a company he co-runs called The Collector’s Library, which offers impressive hardback versions of classic books, but at paperback prices.

unicornjobs.com Student Contributor Alana Hebenton shared a glass of wine with Marcus, and asked him about the highs, lows and prospects of publishing.

One area anyone looking to work in the political sector should consider is ‘political consultancy’, or ‘public affairs’, which is basically about where the political and corporate worlds meet. Political consultants and public affairs specialists will advise a company or organisation on how they should respond to political or government initiatives (local, national or international) that could have an impact on their operations.

These people will also often represent their clients or company in political circles, and as such perform a PR role. Here they are trying to persuade any politicians or civil servants with relevant decision making powers (from major changes in the law to simple planning applications) to share their company’s viewpoint and, should it come to it, vote in their favour.

Some public affairs professionals work for agencies or consultancies who advise and represent a number of different companies, but big organisations, and especially those who are subject to government regulation, will also have people representing their political interests ‘in-house’.

We spoke to Richard Mollet, who is Director Of Public Affairs at the BPI, the trade body that represents the UK record industry. One of the jobs of the BPI, and Richard in particular, is to ensure government initiatives don’t harm the interests of the record companies the body represents. We found out what that involves and how Richard got into the job in the first place.

Sam Hopkins is an Encoder and Video Technician at an Oscar-winning production company. He spoke to us about his career to date and gave us his tips to succeed – and on where to find the best jobs in broadcasting and film.

With the Olympic torch now properly handed over to London, work to prepare for the 2012 games is well and truly underway.

The Olympics are big news, of course, for the construction industry, so we thought we’d have a look at some of the graduate roles in that sector, and met with Miriam Leathes, who works as a ‘town planner’ with one of the construction firms involved in building the Olympic village, Arup Group.

So, what exactly does a planner in the construction industry do?

Do you want to get into radio but are not sure how? What should you study – if anything at all – and is it all glitz and glamour? Do you have lots of questions, but not many answers?

Marsha Shandur has been working at London’s favourite alternative station Xfm for four years and has had a vast amount of experience. unicornjobs.com Student Contributor Seri Davies asked her about her job and how she got started.

Have you ever wondered what a theatre producer does? So did we, so we sent a unicornjobs.com Contributor into the heart of London’s West End to speak to Adam Speers, one of the producers of ‘Into The Hoods’

Lots of aspiring journalists want to write about music or entertainment for a living, but how do you go about getting the kind of job that lets you do just that?

After studying English Literature and Film Studies at the University Of East Anglia, Jody Thomson initially began her life as a journalist on an in-house journalism training scheme, before working for local papers the Eastern Daily Press and Lowestoft Journal for two years.

She then scored her dream job when she became Assistant News Editor on the NME. She later helped launch and became Deputy Editor of Xfm’s X-Ray magazine before joining BBC 6Music as a freelance music news reader. She recently moved to the Daily Mirror where she is Online Showbiz Editor.

We tracked her down to run her through her career to date, and get some tips for other aspiring music journalists out there.

Amelia Green talks to Jeannie Brown, an Assistant Trainer in the flat racing world.

Imagine turning your sporting passion into a career on the world stage. Lucinda Green, or Lucinda Prior-Palmer before she married, did just that becoming a champion equestrian, and winning the Badminton Horse Trials a record six times, on Be Fair (1973), Wideawake (1976), George (1977), Killaire (1979), Regal Realm (1983), and Beagle Bay (1984). More recently she has also pursued a media career based around her passion, writing for Horse & House magazine. unicornjobs.com Student Contributor Amelia Green, and aspiring equestrian herself, spoke to Lucinda about both her sporting and journalistic careers.

Mary Middleton is EMEA Head Of Talent Resourcing, Leadership And Talent Manager for city firm Merrill Lynch, which means she is especially well placed to tell us about getting a graduate job there. We spoke to her about the ins and outs of Merrill Lynch’s graduate recruitment, found out exactly what you need to do to have the best possible chance of launching your city career with them and discussed what you could expect if you got a job there.

With seventeen years’ experience in BBC journalism, George Eykyn jumped ship to the business world, settling into one of the largest consultancy firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. UnicornJobs.com caught up with George at PwC’s swanky offices in central London to find out about consulting in the public sector, and the latest graduate opportunities at PwC.

Given that management consultants seemed to be even more mysterious characters than was first thought, Unicorn Jobs met one – Libby MacIntyre – to find out the truth once and for all. We were delightfully surprised, although we were a little disappointed we never met her horse, who she looks after when she’s not hard at work as a freelance consultant.

In music, PR activity is split into two distinct parts.

First there are the PRs or publicists, whose job is to get print media, reviewers and news journalists writing about artists and releases.

Second there are the pluggers, or promotions people, whose job is to get DJs, radio presenters, producers and heads of music in TV and radio playing and playlisting new songs.

In large record companies these two parts of PR will be handled by completely separate departments, and many music PR agencies will concentrate on one or the other. Some agencies, however, work in both areas. One of those agencies is Darling Department.

To give you an idea of what it is like to work in both PR and plugging – and how to go about getting a job in these areas – we spoke to two guys at Darling Department, one doing PR, the other plugging. As it happens, they are both called Leo!

Ben Matthews went straight from university to a great job in PR, becoming an associate at Waughton. unicornjobs.com finds out how he got there, why he chose PR, and why he decided against pursuing a career in journalism

So, what is working in recruitment all about? Well, who better to ask than unicornjobs.com’s own MD and chief recruitment consultant Sarah Stimson? Ali Haidar, Charmaine Hibbert, Karen Jensen and Abdelkader Nechat all threw in some questions.

We spoke to Steve Moss, a copywriter at ad agency RKCR/Y&R about the day to day challenge of writing ads, and how he got into it in the first place

Internal communications is a part of this sector you may never have thought of before. We speak to Gillian Tong, most recently global head of internal comms at Deutsche Bank, about what being an internal communicator is all about.

Gillian Tong, former global head of internal communications at Deutsche Bank, discusses the significance of cultural issues in corporate communications, and especially internal communications.

We spoke to David Telling, a director at market leading PR consultancy Bell Pottinger on his PR career, his biggest challenges to date, and his tips on how to get into the industry

We spoke to Gillian Tong, a senior communications professional and former head of global head of internal communications for Deutsche Bank, on the pros and cons of working in-house and in agency (and what on earth is consultancy?)