In late November 2017, the Scottish Government announced that it would be celebrating Scottish youth throughout the following year in its ‘Year of Young People’. mtc has many employees fitting in the under 26 category (with a few team members grudgingly not quite making the cut), and so we decided to give them the spotlight for this week’s blog post.

The year of young people "aims to inspire Scotland through its young people, celebrating their achievements, valuing their contribution to communities and creating new opportunities for them to shine locally and on a global stage." We’re taking this opportunity to talk to Ryan & Lennox, two members of the mtc team, and discussed with them how they think mtc has given them the opportunity to learn and give their own input into campaigns throughout their careers.

Ryan is 23 and began his career in a host of small freelance and volunteer roles to gain as much hands-on experience as possible, whilst studying at Dundee & Angus College and then Abertay University. Whilst attending a local design conference, Ryan approached mtc to discuss the possibility of a design internship. After a successful summer internship, Ryan returned the following year after completing his studies to become a full-time member of the design team.

Ryan thinks that the biggest hurdle young people must overcome whilst starting their careers is so often getting their foot in the door of any industry. More and more companies are looking for as much experience as possible; and with limited roles in many areas of work, this can so often be disheartening and lead to a dead-end scenario. However, there’s also many advantages to growing up in this generation, which is so different from any other. "We have the ability to learn from our peers and develop opportunities throughout the world through the use of social media and digital applications. These have been vital to me in sharing my work with a larger audience and gaining freelance and employment roles in my short time in industry to date".

We asked Ryan what the highlight of his career at mtc has been so far.

"Getting the opportunity to design and develop some of the UK’s leading football site's online presences, including my own team in Dundee United FC. Being able to create digital solutions for clients such as Heart of Midlothian, Motherwell & Derby County has been invaluable and has been an incredible experience, given my love of design and sport… The fluid nature of mtc. has allowed me to take active roles within the business development, marketing and project management of client projects, meaning I have never been purely limited in my role as designer. This has allowed me to gain experience that I never thought possible within my chosen career path and I am grateful to have been given the freedom to do so."

Also using a combination of skills and interests in her career is Lennox, 25. She began her career with mtc as a front-end developer. Three years into her job she wanted to change to something more client facing, and so was given the opportunity to join the Business Development team within mtc.

Agreeing with Ryan, Lennox thinks that the biggest challenge for today’s youth is getting initial experience, however graduate jobs and apprenticeships helps combat this. Within apprenticeship roles at mtc, there’s a great insight into all working aspects of the company; allowing you to find other areas to enter, which you never would’ve thought!

"My transition to Business Development has been fantastic; sometimes a role just isn’t for you, and I feel this is what happened with me in frontend, however, mtc didn’t give up on me and gave me new and exciting opportunities which use my personal qualities as well as my gained skills from my original role."

"The company has a very relaxed environment, I can write blog posts if I fancy, come up with new documents and processes for myself which is really refreshing. I feel like I am my own boss and mtc has enabled that… This gave me so much confidence in my skills and has pushed me even further."

The directors are proud of the involvement and ideas that the younger members of the team often provide, Managing Director Mike Callachan thinks;

The digital industry is very fast paced. Scotland is leading the way globally and the talent pool we have in this country is incredible. We are in the heart of Scotland with many of the team at mtc being very young. This fits with the industry, as often we are dealing with clients at Director level who are typically not part of the "technology generation"

We think that celebrating the input and potential that the current generation have within today’s society is great, and we encourage Scotland’s youth to follow their ambitions when it comes to their careers and interests. If you’re interested in digital web, from developing, design and digital marketing, have a look at the current careers within mtc to see what role could allow you to contribute and create new opportunities.