Lucy's Marketing Internship with UEA Writers' Service -- Final Update

How have you found your experience? Was it what you expected? What did you enjoy the most?

These past three months have been an incredibly positive experience for me, I’ve been able to really engage with the University Writers Service project and gain invaluable skills in both marketing and employability which will benefit my future career.

I expected the scheme to meet with some scepticism from the students but ended up being surprised by the positivity and support that was shown. It also allowed me to see how the university functions on a daily basis and understand the level of hard work that goes into the student experience.

My favourite moment of the internship was our first workshop: this was an opportunity to see all my hard work come together and it far surpassed expectation with over 100 students turning up. From this, we were able to provide seven students with paid freelance employment alongside their studies.

What do you feel you have gained from your internship? Have you developed new skills?

I feel I’ve gained a lot more confidence in my own abilities by undertaking such a wide variety of tasks. Although I had some experience in event management and promotion as a social secretary, the internship pushed these skills further and I was able to learn about marketing techniques and how to maximise my social media presence.

I was also able to work closely alongside a local business, which helped me learn how to maintain a relationship of communication and trust. I had to see the scheme through the lens of our business partner and prospective clients and importantly, the lens of our students, making sure I had effectively tailored the marketing and promotion to appeal to both audiences.

Did your internship help you to put skills learned from your degree into practice?

As an English Literature graduate, I was able to relate to the students who partook and were employed by the University Writers scheme and this enabled me to provide effective support and assistance when needed. Also, being able to hone in my research skills were applicable when I was marketing to our target market and creating class presentations aided me when I had to promote the scheme in seminars and lecture talks.

I found the main thing that I found invaluable from my university experience, was my involvement in societies alongside my degree. Not only was I able to organise and manage my time to better use, I was able to use my student contacts to draw in a good team of people to assist with the promotion of the scheme.

What are you going to be doing after your internship? Have you secured employment? Do you think your internship experience helped you to this employment? How?

I was lucky enough to be offered an internship working with the Norwich for Jobs parliamentary campaign, a scheme which is designed to help reduce levels of unemployment amongst Norwich young people. My internship with the University Writers Service was an incredible help with the application in that it allowed me to gain experience in all three sectors this internship required of me: marketing, mentoring and employment. This felt like an ideal step as it will allow me to work with a greater number of businesses and provide a larger number of young people the chance to get paid employment. I can’t wait!