Embarking on my typical bus journey to the University of The West of England’s library, it dawned on me that this wasn’t forever, and I needed to consider what to do next. Instead of settling in for my typical 8-hour slog of dissertation writing, I decided to do some job hunting.
The hunt began and as I started to look through pages and pages of advertisements, I came across the Digital Marketing intern position for All Things Web® on the UWE careers site. After reading the description and reviewing their website, I instantly knew that I wanted the position.
ATW presented itself as a vibrant creative agency that focused on delivering real results for a wide variety of clients. I can confirm through my internship at ATW that this is exactly what they do – not just what they say they do.
After going through the interview process, learning more about the agencies work, and hearing the news that I secured the position, I was over the moon and excited to begin. I quickly started to think of ways that I could apply my academic knowledge to my work as an intern.
Meeting The Team
The team was a delight to work with and were all very welcoming. During my first week, I arranged a meeting with every member of the team to learn about their roles and clients. This experience was invaluable to me as it allowed me to develop my confidence and relationships with each team member.
Meeting everyone also helped me feel more comfortable in the role, and confident to direct any questions to the most appropriate team member. Not only did I feel at ease within the team, I also was able to begin to develop my commercial awareness and gain a greater understanding of the inner workings of a digital marketing agency.
The Experience
Most mornings during my internship would begin with a call from my manager where they would check in, and brief me on any new jobs. Depending on the day’s work, I would then have any training calls so I could confidently complete my work. Everyone on the team was enthusiastic about the projects I was helping them with, and all demonstrated patience walking me through the tasks step by step.
One of the best things about my internship was the variety of clients and projects I worked on. No two days were the same, and we all know variety is the spice of life.
However, this also posed a challenge, as I had to learn a broad range of skills using different platforms and software – this included: web design, web development, website maintenance, social media, print design, content creation and SEO.
I enjoyed the fact that the internship challenged me and that every day was a little bit different. Not only did I benefit from gaining a broad skill set, but I also developed other softer skills such as communication, organisation, and time management.
The Experience Highlight
I would consider sitting in on one of the fantastic SEO training sessions the agency runs as one of the many highlights of my time at All Things Web®. The session was run by Founder and Technical Director Darren Moloney. It was very comprehensive, and was pitched at just the right level for someone like me who had little knowledge on the topic of SEO.
By the end of the session, I was able to walk away feeling both confident, and inspired to implement this knowledge into my work at the agency. In total, I wrote five blogs that were all optimised for SEO purposes some of which have gone live already! I found this work very rewarding it is great to monitor their performance on Google and learn from each piece of content I created.
Remote Internship
Due to external factors, my internship was a hybrid role. Despite not physically being in the office, the team was great at ensuring I had the support I needed and was always there to answer any of my questions.
As a result of COVID-19, remote working is a trend that I believe is here to stay. Therefore, it’s very important I and future graduates can adapt to this new working style. Despite lots of support working remotely is going to be inherently harder than just working in the office. However, this meant that my personal development continued in ways that I didn’t expect. My ability to work independently, solve problems and self-motivate all increased.
Take-aways
My experience at ATW has proved to be invaluable; it has provided me with expert constructive feedback, enabled me to identify my strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly it has given me the opportunity to apply and develop my digital marketing skill set.
I am very excited to announce that I have accepted a full– time Digital Marketing Executive position at ATW. Securing a full-time position at the end of my internship, is both the perfect ending to the experience and the perfect way to begin my career. To any prospective graduates who are thinking of applying, I would highly recommend an internship at ATW.