Sarah's Marketing Internship with the UEA Graduate Internship Programme

Weeks 1-3: 26/3/12-13/4/12

I’m Sarah, and I graduated from UEA in 2009. After completing my Master's in 2010, I spent over a year doing various temporary jobs, and struggling to start my career. I became convinced that my lack of experience was letting me down, and so decided to apply for an internship to help me break the no experience, no job cycle.

At the moment, I’m working as marketing intern with the Graduate Internship Programme here at UEA. The aim of my internship is to promote and increase graduate awareness and engagement with the programme. I started my internship on 26^th March, and I’m enjoying it immensely! So far, my activities have included  drafting content for newsletters and ezines, creating an advert for the digital campus screens, creating surveys to collect feedback from applicants and past participants, proofreading and critiquing new adverts and promotional materials before they go live, arranging promotional opportunities, such as places to leave leaflets, and our attendance at various careers and university events, and generally thinking of fresh ways to promote the scheme and raise awareness. I’m also involved in developing and maintaining the programme’s social networking activities, as part of which I’ve created a LinkedIn group, re-established the programme’s twitter account, and set up the blog you’re reading now. I also maintain the existing Facebook page.

Three weeks in, I feel I’ve gained a good grounding in real-world office and administrative procedures.There’s always something new to tackle, so working as an intern is certainly never boring or predictable. I’m given plenty of opportunities to use my initiative, prioritise my own work, and to be involved with real projects. Promoting the programme has a genuine impact on graduates, so it’s rewarding, and shows real results. Applying for an internship is certainly one of the best things I did, and I’m gaining valuable experience with every day that passes.I'm definitely looking forward to the next 9 weeks!