One of the best things about having a passion for marketing – besides watching clients succeed with your work of course – is meeting a young budding marketer full of creativity and brand new ideas which is exactly what we saw when we met Lydia.

As part of giving back to the community, we took on yet another year 10 student to help her get some experience in the marketing world and see what it’s all about before she heads off on her GCSE’s.

Take a look at how she got on here:

Over to Lydia

My name is Lydia and for the last four days I have been helping out in the All Things Web® Swindon office as part of my work experience.

Work experience?

As a Year 10 student my school decided that before we get overwhelmed with revision for GCSEs, they should give us a preview of the working world (just in case we weren’t motivated enough already). The aim of work experience is to give students an opportunity to experience what life is like after school and give us an opportunity to try a week at one of our chosen careers.

Now I’m going to be honest with you, I wasn’t very confident with the whole work experience idea. Like any other 15 year old I am desperate to gain more independence and to experience the world for what it is without my teacher stood over my shoulder.

When you have no idea what you want to do in the future and you’re are asked to select one career from a list of 50, the pressure is on. So of course my first choice was Astronaut, but apparently they didn’t have any openings (Who would’ve thought?). So I went with marketing instead. I thought that was a pretty secure choice since I really enjoyed the media GCSE I did in year 9.

Life at the Office

The differences between the office and the classroom are huge, so making the transition between the two took a while to get my head around. I won’t tell you how many times I waited for the lunch bell to ring, and then realised it never would. Overall the working environment was easy to adjust to, all the members of the team were welcoming and helped me if I had any problems or queries.

The actual working part of this week has definitely opened my eyes to the variation of roles and responsibilities that different members have. I can confidently say that I was never bored, I always had something to do, whether that be Social Media posts or updating invoices, the list goes on. But I’m not complaining, because it means I have been given the opportunity to use lots of different types of software and I get a thorough understanding of the types of skills needed for this industry.

I was surprised to know that a lot of work that is done is based around the relationship you have with a client. I’ve seen lots of members of my team form personal relationships with their clients so that they can get the most out of the partnership.

One of my favourite things about working this week is that on my assigned desk I was given two computer monitors. For someone who has lived a single monitor life for all of my fifteen years, this was a huge revelation, but now I never want to turn back. I will never look at my ICT classroom the same way ever again.

How has this experience influenced me?

The most important thing that I learned this week is that the relationships you have with the people you work with is really important. You want to be able to communicate and be friends, but a certain level of respect still needs to be there in order to get anything done. I really enjoyed working with people at All Things Web®, I could see from their commitment and enthusiasm that they really do enjoy what they’re doing.

I don’t think that a week was long enough for me to really settle in and learn what actually working is like. But it has given me foundations of basic skills that I can work with and build upon later. I have definitely enjoyed my time here. I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity and is has really made me think about if this is the correct path for my future.  Marketing is a complex industry with lots of different sub categories, and I still have yet to explore lots of them. If my Space endeavours don’t work out I definitely feel as though I would continue down this path.

The team here went out of their way to make me feel welcome and I can see how much they care for each other even in my short time here. I would like to say thank you to the team here and I can’t wait to see how this experience will influence any future career decisions.

Are You Interested In Work Experience?

Lydia was fantastic and we’d love to congratulate her on the work she did. At All Things Web® we are always looking for ways to give back to the community through charity work, work experience or working alongside local schools with activities and career days.

If you’re interested in speaking to us about an opportunity, please give us a call on 01285 50 55 50.