An Interview with Holly Hobbs

Can you share a bit about your background and what inspired you to start your company? 

I’m an ex degree apprentice at Microsoft, and I really struggled to get into that apprenticeship. I always knew that university wasn't the right thing for me, so I started to apply [to apprenticeships] with little support from my college because they weren't very educated on that route. I faced over 30 rejections before getting into the scheme [at Microsoft], and started to document my journey when I got into the scheme on TikTok. When I did that, I got 1000’s of comments from other young people across the UK saying, “I'm going through the exact same thing here, I'm really struggling”. And I thought, wow, I'm not alone–I've just been through all of that, and I couldn't believe everyone else is feeling the same way. 

I decided to use my experience to help other people get into apprenticeships. I started my business Apprentivia off by writing some eBooks; I used to sell those ebooks and then eventually it's grown into an employer branding agency and I now help corporate employees to attract new apprentices through TikTok. It's full circle, because I started on TikTok–that's how I gained the business idea, and now I'm building my business through TikTok, and also supporting applicants as well.

Initially, Tesco was your dream apprenticeship. How did you deal with not getting an apprenticeship there?

Tesco's was my vision for where I wanted to be because I worked there, and I absolutely loved it. I just love being around people, I love the buzz and the energy of retail. It was really fast-paced and I don't know how to describe it, but it felt almost as though I was on stage at a show, because you've got to show up for your customers, provide the best customer service, work really fast, think really fast, and problem-solve–you've got to perform as a professional person. I was a dancer when I was younger, so it was like second nature to me; I really enjoyed that aspect. When I didn't get in there, I was absolutely gutted. But I always tell people that rejection is just redirection at the end of the day. 

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing professionals working in that sector at the moment? 

I think one of the most obvious ones are the targets around diversity and inclusion. It's on a lot of employers' minds, and a lot of them come to me and [say], ‘we just want to increase our female applications’ or ‘applications from ethnic minorities’ or ‘low socio economic background’, and that's a challenge for a lot of employers, because they're having to change some of their misconceptions that are out there [such as] that employer only accepts people with degrees. That’s challenge number one. 

[Another challenge] is the fact that a lot of young people don't understand what corporate businesses do. They'll see a company like PepsiCo and think they just make cans of Pepsi; or Microsoft, and think they just make laptops - but there's so much more to these brands and these companies! So that's another big barrier, because these employers (a lot of the time) have restrictions on social media and they'll have strict brand guidelines so it's difficult for them to really get their brand message out there. And I guess that's where my business helps! 

How do you stay updated with the latest developments and trends?

LinkedIn is the biggest thing for me - I'm always connecting with new people. I post quite a lot, so I'm getting people engaged with me that are new in the industry. I also go to events - like the Institute of Student Employers conference - to keep up-to-date. I also keep an eye on industry news and trending articles; I set up Google Alerts as well, I type in words [such as] ‘apprenticeships’ and ‘early careers’, and then every day I'll have the Google Alerts come in so I can keep up-to-date that way.

How do you choose the topics for your content, and what types of content have you found resonate most with your audience?

I choose what content I'm creating with my employers by understanding exactly what the interests of the target candidate are. People are interested in health, wealth and relationships, and that’s what I tell my clients, and then we work around that. For example, wealth will be things like: the salary (when does it increase?), the progression (what does that look like?). Relationships might be things like: What is the work life balance like? What are the benefits like? And then health are: What are the benefits for working at that company? Do they have private medical insurance?

To give you an example, I did a video with British Gas on this, and we spoke about all their benefits that an employee would get joining their scheme. I then made a video informing people of the benefits for British Gas apprentices, and I said “salary progression is revealed at the end”. That video ended up getting over 500,000 views - all organic, no paid ads. Then we did two other videos that featured two women that were apprentices there; they spoke about things in relation to those three key points that I mentioned. The whole campaign ended up increasing their female applicants by 300% and candidates that came from the TikTok campaign resulted in 20% of the whole British Gas 2024 cohort. 

So, if you can do anything within your marketing, these three key things are the most important things to really appeal to young people–but most people are interested in that anyway because that's just what we're wired to be interested in as humans. 

Another thing to say is that, respectfully, candidates don't care about your business, about your company–you have to make them care. You have to tell them what's in it for them. And that's actually what's changed with my generation and the generation below me. Before, it was all about going to a company and you're loyal to that company. It's not that anymore. It's you're loyal to yourself and what your career path is and that matters more. We as a generation are a lot about self growth, self love, and we're prioritising ourselves.

How do you choose which brands or organisations to collaborate with?

I’m really picky with it. I have a framework on a discovery call where I really understand the client's pains, wants, needs, urgencies, interests, etc., and then I can work out if I'm in line to help them resolve their problems. I just make sure they're a good match in terms of that–in terms of I can actually help them. Values are really important to me as well. 

Also, if a client's going to be very, very, very strict on content, we're probably not a great fit. There is a very structured process to it, but you do need a little bit of fluidity, and you can't just be filming in one room. You need to be able to film in the office, because we need to show people what it's like. 

And then there's also what I know my audience would want to see, and I know my audience want to see from these big brands that they might have heard of or that they use every day. I know my audience very well, and a lot of people have asked me why I don't go and work with SMEs and smaller companies. They're great, and they should take on apprentices, but I know that's not what my audience wants–they want to hear from these massive companies. Because a lot of the time, people think they won’t ever be able to get in there, and it's about changing those perceptions. If one of our clients is a bank, people think that you can only go into that if you are in finance or accounting, and it's just not true. There's so many roles in companies–not just finance and accounting.

What do you think companies should focus on when trying to attract early career talent?

I think something that employers overlook quite drastically is application support. They're very keen on attraction: What can we do? What's the next new thing? Onboarding, etc. I think onboarding and that interim ‘keep warm period’ is still a part of attraction, whereas application support just isn't really thought about in terms of recruiting new talent. I think they're missing a lot of talented young people through not providing that application support because there's so many people that are at school or college, and their college doesn't know about different routes other than university, so they can't really support them. They're then having to navigate this process (especially if they don't have family or peers around them that have been through it and can educate them) all by themselves. I had to do this as well, as I mentioned to you before, I went through over 30 rejections, my application quality was very low until I got to the very end of it, and I was starting to realise what I did wrong here and there. I was putting all those pieces of the puzzle together until I got to the end, and obviously got through. I actually now work with some of the companies that I actually got rejected from! 

Instead of employers worrying about how young people are using ChatGPT or things like that, they need to be asking themselves why they’re using that? It’s because they're struggling, they don't understand the process, and they need your help. So creating some video resources or eBooks/workbooks, maybe an online mini masterclass to really walk that person through every stage of your journey can be really, really helpful. 

I think employers should also focus on highlighting their lower level apprenticeship opportunities as well as degree level. Students have misconceptions about lower levels not being as ‘valuable’ which needs to be shifted. Because there simply aren’t enough DAs for the number of students who want them, this is equally as important. 

How do you help your followers navigate the job search process and career development? 

Job search process–I post every day on TikTok, that's one of [the ways I help my followers]. I create content answering people's questions, and post that to my TikTok. I also have my eBooks, which overview the whole application process, what that looks like, and tips for each stage. I give them out for free, and they've got about 3,700 downloads now. I also do webinars - with British Gas, I recently did a webinar to educate people. For me, it's not just posting one or two or three TikToks, it’s bringing them through this journey and helping them through each stage. 

What motivates you to continue doing what you do?

The number one thing is my family. From a young age, I’ve always wanted to provide my parents with a specific lifestyle that they’ve haven’t necessarily been able to get themselves. I’ve always thought ‘this is my fuel’, this is what I want to do, I want to be able to treat my mum and dad to really nice things, I want to give them new experiences, just as a thank you for bringing me up! Also, my sisters and my friends [motivate me]. 

Secondly, I enjoy it so much and I enjoy giving back to other people. I used to go into schools in person and the warmth it filled me up with, and the energy… I just absolutely love it!

What are your future goals as a business owner and an early careers professional?

Growing my platform so much bigger, getting my name out there even more, getting more press and opportunities, and working with more massive brands to get results similar to British Gas. Also debunking the myths of apprenticeships and having an apprenticeship revolution… getting them on a level playing field with universities. If you don’t go to university, it doesn’t mean you’re not worthy, it doesn’t mean you’re not successful in life–people need to get out of that mindset. In my opinion, you’re the creator of your own destiny. If you’re gonna put your mind to it, if you’re gonna network and put in all this hard work, it doesn’t matter if you’ve not gone to university.

I didn’t get a degree–I didn’t go to university. I left my apprenticeship early to go into my business full time and I’ve built up what I had because of me, because of what I’ve done. It’s about what you know, who you know, and who knows you. That’s something that’s really important to me, showing people that it’s all about your mindset.