March 28, 2017, by Laura
18 Blog Posts About Showers: And Other Happenings During My Internship
By Laura Sage, final year, BA Hons English
This time last year I set my sights on a marketing internship I spotted through the Nottingham Internship Scheme. This is an initiative that hooks students up with local companies in paid roles.
When I saw that a position as a copywriter for the digital marketing agency, Distinction, was available, I decided to put my heart and soul into getting the job. I have wanted to work as a copywriter ever since I found out what it involved. I knew this would mean lots of writing and coming up with creative ideas. This is something I love doing in my spare time, and I couldn’t believe I might get paid for it.
Well, thanks to this scheme I managed to make my dream a reality for a whole summer. And I didn’t even have to make too many coffees.
Thinking creatively: my first big assignment
One of the first assignments I worked on was an internal project – a project to promote the company itself. I and three other interns were set to work generating ideas. We were tasked with creating a website that would celebrate both the fifteenth anniversary of the agency.
The first step was to write a creative brief for the digital designers. Not that we knew what a creative brief was at that point, but we gave it a good go! After writing what we believed to be compelling copy and sourcing hilarious images, we were told the brief had to be changed. Goodbye all our brilliant writing.
Lesson one: there’s no room for sentimentality in marketing: simply let go and move on to the next idea.
Trying my hand at digital marketing
While we spent a lot of our time working on exciting, large scale projects, we also spent plenty of low-key days in training. As Distinction is an SME – a small to medium enterprise – I was often asked to pitch in to help with other tasks. These might be fun projects such as maintenance on a client’s social media account. This meant that although I was hired as a copywriter, I also got the opportunity to give digital marketing a test drive too.
Lesson two: you need to be flexible, as an intern you may be asked to do all sorts of different tasks.
Writing 18 blog posts about showers
One of the tasks I was assigned was to come up with blog posts for a few different clients. Among them was a gift company, online estate agent, and shower retailer. Over the course of a few days, I was pretty much left alone as there wasn’t anything urgent that needed my attention.
I got quite carried away researching ideas, discovering a passion I never knew I had: showers. In a matter of days, I managed to churn out around 18 blog posts about showers. From ‘how to have the perfect shower’ to ‘how to decorate your bathroom’.
Lesson three: challenge yourself; I had no idea I could produce that volume of work, but I did and I enjoyed it!
The experience has helped me to realise what I want to look for in a job, what I enjoy doing and what I don’t so much. While my marketing internship was interesting and fun, I don’t think I’m going to go into digital marketing. It’s made me realise my skill set is more suited to advertising or PR.
This is why internships are so important. They give you the opportunity to experience a taste of a career, without fully committing yourself. So even if that particular industry or role isn’t perfect for you, you’re on your way to finding something that is.
If you’re looking to get some work experience, look no further than our website. You’re also reading this post at exactly the right time as 90 new internships have just gone live here.
Image credit: Martin Abegglen.
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