Michael's Events Internship with Careers and Employability at UEA -- Question And Answer

End of Your First Week

How did you feel about the internship leading up to the start?

I was looking forward to working in events. I didn't really know what to expect with an internship so was excited but slightly nervous.

What was your first day like?

The first day was very pleasant, everyone was easy to talk to. I spoke with the events officer and she immediately made me feel relaxed about the upcoming weeks and assured me it was important that I benefited from it so I didn’t think I was just going in to work for someone else. I worked with the current intern and learnt the basic procedures.

What have you enjoyed the most about your first week?

Fitting into an office environment and working out new ways of doing things. I soon realised that while UEA was very professional it also excelled at being a very relaxed environment.

How do you think the next few weeks will be?

I'm really looking forward to them. I have a project that will be completed within my internship whereby I will by the end have managed 2 large events in my control. It seems daunting now with all the work to do, but I think they will be enjoyable.

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End of Your Internship

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

The internship has been great and it was over so soon, that I wish I had longer. I think it was better than expected because it had a larger variety of work than I previously thought. I enjoyed being in a small office environment the most and the fact I was doing the proper job and getting to do important stuff, there was none of the "make the coffee" or small jobs, one might associate with internships.

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

It really gives you an opportunity to develop the skills you learn at university. You learn how to plan, manage time and prioritise during your degree, these were really put into action in the internship and you develop real life skills, that can go straight into interviews and applications for big jobs.

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

I was applying for a grad scheme during my internship and I was very fortunate as there is nowhere better to work for during applications than a career centre. Not only was working with the career advisors very useful to get some quick tips but the internship itself gave various examples and case studies to use during the interviews. I have secured employment with the grad scheme I was applying for in London.

Karl's Brand and Marketing Internship with LSI Architects -- First Two Weeks

My name’s Karl, and I’m a graduate of UEA (twice, I went back because I loved it so much). To give you a little bit of information on my background, I graduated from BSc Business Management in 2012, and then went on to the MSc Brand Leadership course in 2013, a course run in partnership with world famous brand agency Wolff Olins. I had an unbelievable year on the brand leadership course, where I learned an incredible amount from experts like Peter Schmidt-Hansen, Robert Jones and James Cornford, and I have found the thing I want to spend my career doing. I’m sure many graduates will empathise with me when I say how difficult it was to decide where I wanted my career to go, so to have found something I feel passionately about, and enjoy doing so much is a big thing for me.

After finishing the course I went on to another exciting and famous brand agency, FITCH, where I got the opportunity to work with branding experts at the top of their game, on some of the worlds biggest and most recognised brands. My internship at FITCH came to an end at the end of last year, and it was time to find my next step. The graduate job hunt can be frustrating and it was something I found tough, so I’d like to share some advice on how it might be made a little less painful.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to build up your experience, it helps to show employers that you can walk the walk as well as talk the talk. If you don’t have a way of picking up experience yet, and you know what kind of area you might like to find experience in, read about it, find out what’s going on in that world.

It’s also important to keep the right attitude and be confident. Knockbacks are not something to be scared of or worried about, I’ve had more knockbacks from companies than I can remember over the last few months. If you get knocked back, ask for feedback, work out how you can do better next time, view it as a positive opportunity to make sure your next submission is better than the last.  You’ve worked hard to get a good degree and it will pay off, all you need is your chance to shine.

So picking up experience, and a chance to shine, this is where graduate internships come in. I found out about the internship through UEA, and a week after I had had two interviews and found myself starting at LSI in February.

My role here as the brand and marketing intern is to assist with the rebrand project that LSI has undertaken, working on an audit for the LSI brand, and a competitor audit as well as various other aspects of LSI’s communication with the outside world like social media for example. Once again I am really lucky to be working on the rebrand project with an external consultant, and someone who owned their own brand agency, and has years of experience of delivering work of the highest quality.

It’s been a ‘trial by fire’ first couple of weeks for me at LSI, which although a little daunting, has been exciting. Straight away I have been able to get involved in a wide variety of tasks, from creating surveys, writing case studies and award submissions to designing an ad. It’s helped me to learn a lot about LSI in a short space of time. LSI is clearly a fantastic place to be, there is a very welcoming, friendly  and supportive culture  that has made it easy for me to feel at home and get straight down to work.  

After a great start, I’m looking forward to what the next few weeks have in store.