As Entry-Level Jobs Disappear, The Uncommon Exchange Offers a New Model
Holly Pound, U.S. marketing lead at Depop, and Albert Opraseuth, strategy director at Uncommon.
When Holly Pound set her sights on a career in marketing, a careers counsellor told her it was as unrealistic as becoming a popstar. “Good luck,” they said. “Everyone wants to work in marketing.”
But fast forward a decade and Pound is now the U.S. marketing lead for Depop, the circular fashion marketplace beloved by Gen Z. And far from buying into the competitive gatekeeping that once held her back, she’s helping to dismantle it–one aspiring creative marketer at a time.
Enter The Uncommon Exchange, a first-of-its-kind talent accelerator launched this summer in a partnership between Pound and Uncommon Creative Studio. Not your traditional internship, the eight-week creative exchange program is built on a simple but radical premise: the benefits of professional development can be mutual.
“Too many young people are told they need experience to get experience,” said Pound. “We wanted to flip that equation. This program is about creating space for new talent to build experience on their own terms.”
More Than an Internship
The Uncommon Exchange isn’t structured like a traditional internship. Participants don’t work on a single account, helping teams in a support capacity. Instead, they work on original creative projects of their own–real ideas, developed from the ground up–with mentorship and guidance from Uncommon’s globally renowned team.
In return, these young creatives serve as a live Gen Z advisory board for Uncommon’s own work. Call it a eight-week focus group, but smarter: one rooted in cultural fluency, creativity, and a two-way flow of insight.
“The talent we want to attract doesn’t just need mentorship—they have perspective we can’t afford to ignore,” said Albert Opraseuth, Strategy Director at Uncommon who led the program. “Our structure promotes two-way dialogue, recognizing that young people bring cultural intelligence, creative instinct, and fresh perspective–assets that actively shape how brands and agencies see the world.”
Participants dial in from all over the U.S. from California to Nebraska to New York. The program is fully remote, a deliberate move to make it more accessible to students without the means to relocate to expensive cities for unpaid work.
Each week follows a rhythm:
Monday Masterclasses: Led by Uncommon, these sessions break down topics like branding, creative strategy, and cultural storytelling.
Wednesday Research Labs: Live working sessions where participants are invited into the heart of the agency’s ongoing challenges–from pitch prep to brand insights.
Friday Workshops: Led by Pound, these sessions allow the cohort to build on the week’s learning and apply it to their own evolving projects.
At the end of the nine weeks, each participant presents a polished pitch deck to Uncommon’s leadership–a concept for a brand, product, service or traditional ad campaign that taps into a cultural tension they’ve identified. Judges are not expecting a completely finished output, Pound says, but about clarity of thought, creativity, and ambition.
Rethinking Mentorship as a Mutual Exchange
The Uncommon Exchange also plugs into The Peer Community, a student-led initiative co-founded by Pound. Eschewing traditional mentor-mentee hierarchy, it emphasizes peer-to-peer learning and a culture of mutual respect.
Instead of leveraging client research or conducting expensive studies, Uncommon Exchange participants became a panel for the studio to access insights, test work, and get smart on what's happening in the world of Gen Z.
“The goal is to create an ecosystem of exchange,” Pound said. “We don’t want young people to feel like they’re knocking on the door of the industry, begging to be let in. We want to hand them the blueprint for building a new door entirely.”
And with the rise of AI, automation, and the erosion of junior roles in many creative industries, that kind of future-forward thinking feels urgent. Entry-level jobs used to be where creatives cut their teeth. Now, many are vanishing altogether.
The Uncommon Exchange offers a new model. One that says: give young people respect, resources, and opportunity, and watch what they can build.
What’s Next
The Uncommon Exchange builds on a foundation Uncommon Creative Studio laid with Unrest, a purpose-driven accelerator launched in 2020 to support impact-led startups. Both initiatives disrupt the status quo and facilitate opportunity, whether for early-stage founders or emerging creatives–and reflect Uncommon’s belief that access and innovation go hand in hand.
After a successful debut, The Uncommon Exchange is set to return in 2026. And for agencies and brands serious about reimagining the creative pipeline, not just talking about it, Uncommon and Pound have created more than a program. They’ve built a blueprint for a more equitable future.
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