Woah! What a journey these past few months have been! As a part of my degree, I was required to spend one semester doing an internship as to get the “on the job experience” along with the theoretical study undertaken at uni.
Well, this internship is basically at an end. I have spent the last 3 months as a marketing intern and have learned so much about a whole range of things. My marketing knowledge have expanded through the practical experience that I have gained. At the beginning of the internship, I had some self doubt around my abilities and was very cautious as to not make an “idiot of myself” or not to stuff up. But, it wasn’t long until I realised I wasn’t going to really stuff up. It was expected of me (only being an intern and student) that I was going to make mistakes, but the key thing is, that I learned from those mistakes. I was told that they “don’t care how many mistakes I make, as long as those mistakes are followed by key learnings about what I was doing. It was fine for me to make mistakes but afterwards I would learn about what to do or, more to the point, what not to do!
This process made me realise how much potential I do have. With the risk of sounding like I have a massive ego (which I don’t), I noticed how many things I could do without too much guidance and without too many explanations. I managed to produce call centre briefs just by looking over the production notes and creative on the database and very few campaigns required me to have the campaign explained to me by my supervisor. I also came to the conclusion I can talk alot! Given the opportunity, I can talk on a wide variety of subject areas without too much prior planning and without too many nerves. Talking seems to come naturally (have you noticed?? LOL) and once I start...I keep going...and going...and going!!
From a marketing perspective, being given a hands on opportunity to actually try the job has made me realise that this IS what I want to do in my career right now. This may change in the future, but this is what makes me happy right now. I have seen how real organisations put their marketing efforts into perspective and learned how different aspects of marketing works in the “real world” rather than purely in a university classroom.
All in all, this internship has been so beneficial for me and I have seriously enjoyed every minute of it!! Lots of lessons learned, lots of laughs, lots of AMAZING people and lots of great experiences.
To all of you who have supported me through this, I thank you! Whether it be supportive tweets, emails or physical conversations, they have all been muchly appreciated and I am so lucky to have so many people supporting my choices. All your support has been equally important and it has helped me through the past 12 weeks, especially at those times of self doubt. Thank you! This post is especially dedicated to two people who, although aren’t here in the physical world anymore, would have been right by my side all the way through this and would have supported, hugged and cheered me on everystep of the way. Grandy; Hamish...thank you! I love you both!!
As usual, thanks for reading. It means the world!! xx
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