David Kimberley

How did CLS get you ready for the world of work?

I would say City of London School teaches you to think. Good grades definitely help you get through the door but being able to think differently will set you apart. It seems like people that go to CLS are quite argumentative, so maybe that’s why. You hear lots of different opinions and can see things from different angles, without getting annoyed about it. Even now I find that friends from school are unusual in being able to discuss almost any topic or concept, without taking it personally – a surprisingly rare trait. There is also definitely something about just physically being in the city and getting to experience the atmosphere of the place every day. It’s easy to forget most people of school age never go there.

What was your first job?

Flipping burgers at a watersports venue near Heathrow at the end of third form. It was from 7 am until 6pm for a week and I got £60 a day. It was a lot of fun. My first serious job was organising events for a large financial media company. If you are interested in running a business, I really recommend organising an event. It teaches you everything from budgeting and operations, through to marketing, product, and sales. You can learn a lot very quickly.

Your biggest professional achievement?

Last year, I began working full time on a news website I started in 2022 – TradeInformer.com. That began as a Substack email newsletter that I sent out once a week, alongside a fulltime job. Turning it into a fully fledged news site, without taking any outside investment, and being able to make a living from it is something I’m really proud of. I am conscious that we still have a long way to go though, so I’ll paraphrase Mr Levin – we’ve done good, but not too good.

What inspires and motivates you at work?

Using my journalist brain, I would say being the best, which means getting the stories people want to read first or providing analysis that readers genuinely value. I recently had two multi-billion pound companies calling up and asking how we got a story – that’s a cool feeling. On the business side, I would say coming up with an idea or product and making it happen. The other part is more unusual but making people laugh. People seem to like TradeInformer.com because we took quite a dry topic and made it funny. Sometimes I probably lean into that a little too much though and end up in trouble.

One piece of advice for pupils and other Old Citizens about getting into your profession?

I would advise not getting into my profession! A media company can make you good money but it’s very hard to scale – large media companies are typically conglomerates of lots of publications. If you worked equally hard on a successful software business you’ll probably do much better. I enjoy writing though, so I’m willing to suffer the consequences of my actions.

More generally, I’d recommend having skills that employers like – having a strong STEM background, which I don’t, opens a lot of doors for you – and remember that you have more time to start a career than you might think, particularly if you have those in-demand skills. Someone I used to work with did not really begin their career until their late 20s. Before that they lived in a couple of different countries and had some amazing experiences along the way. They were no worse off career-wise than other people their age, except they had those interesting life experiences and their peers did not.

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