A Day in the Life of an Intern.

First Day.

(Image from camp4collective.com) 

As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post, my University (MMU), offers a unit in our degree which gives us the option to go out and get an internship at a marketing/advertising/PR agency. We either go out and work for one day a week, unpaid, at an agency/company and get marked in a number of different ways and it ends up going towards our 2nd year grade. If we don’t go out and get an internship you then have to attend lectures and seminars, and get marked in a different way. All in all – the ‘Agency Life’ route sounded so much more interesting so here I am…

I ended up getting an internship at a small, yet growing, digital marketing agency in Manchester city center called 3 Door Digital (which I was very happy about). I wasn’t really sure to expect, especially since I haven’t done work in this sector before – my previous job was a waitress/bar worker and now I work in a shop so you can’t really compare them. I started a week later than my friends at Uni did so as soon as I got the opportunity I asked them what their days were like, what they did and did they like it, so I could prepare myself for mine. Since one of them said “I got given a huge stack of paperwork to read through as soon as I got there”, it made me slightly less excited to start mine.

After an early start to get there for 8.30am I found myself in the office, full of chatty friendly people and realising it probably will be a pretty good year with this company. I went to a meeting with my boss at 10am, and spent 9-10 going through a strategy plan that was made for the client and added anything to it I thought was necessary. Once the meeting was over, back to the office to type out plans that had been spoken about in the meeting. Then that afternoon the person who deals with content strategy showed me how to do content writing (I think that’s what it’s called). And sooner than later the day was over! 4.30 it was the mad dash to the bus stop and the hour ride home.

Pretty good start if you ask me, can’t wait to go back. For the first time in ages I actually think I’ve gone down the right career path…

Agency Life….What Should I Expect?

“Agency Life”

As I’ve just finished my 1st year at Manchester Metropolitan University, obviously the next step is 2nd year. Man Met have invented a unit for 2nd year student which involves going to a marketing/PR/advertising agency for one day a week doing unpaid work, all to give you a taste of what life will be like when you finish University. This carries on for 2 terms and at the end you get graded on it, also some placements could employ you for extra part time work should they want to. I have already sorted out my placement for that unit, so now it’s just a waiting game.

What should I expect???

In the 1st year of University I have learnt the basics of marketing, we learn theories and concepts and are introduced to basic marketing philosophies. But all this knowledge doesn’t tell me what I’m going to be doing on a day to day basis. Dealing with clients, handling business’s social media sites, maybe blogging – I have an idea what I may be up against but I won’t know till day one…

…and I can’t wait! I have a really dull summer in store for me, full of job hunting and handing out CV’s to take up some of these 3/4 months till I start back at Uni, so I’m just waiting for summer to be over so I can start the placement. Bring. It. On.

Do you have any tips or first-day-at-work experiences? Let me know!