When in my 3rd year of uni I heard the words ‘6 month work-based placement’, my initial thoughts were “Finally!”- I was excited that I would have the opportunity to apply my academic learnings into a real-life working setting and to be able to put myself out of my comfort zone instead of sitting quietly in the back of a lecture hall. When I secured myself a placement at GearedApp, it just felt right (call it a gut feeling), the position was for a Marketing Assistant at a quirky ‘bespoke app and web development company’.
Now, I’m no tech whizz so I have to admit I was a bit worried about not being able to keep up or understand the jargon, but hey I’m doing this to learn as much as I can, so might as well two birds with one stone this and try to immerse myself into the tech industry!
I learned more than I had ever anticipated. There was a little expectation in the back of my mind that I would be sent to go make coffees, photocopies and tasked to do the work that no one else wanted to do, but that was far from what I actually experienced. The following is what gave me a sense of relief was that on my first day; I was asked what my goals and objectives of the placement were and what it was that I wanted to learn. They told me:
“We don’t try to milk work out of our interns – we want you to get the most out of your time here”
The best part was that they stuck to this and every month in the 121 meetings I was checked up on to make sure I was making progress with my personal learnings and gaining enough experience to write about in my portfolio.
As an Intern at GearedApp, I was given a voice, respect, my own projects and I even held a meeting! My main responsibilities were:
- Write/edit blogs
- Create/proofread content
- Develop a Marketing plan
- Manage Social media accounts
- Conduct Market research
Most of which I did not have much experience with beforehand. However, GearedApp believes that as long as you are driven, a good fit to the team and willing to learn, they will provide the training necessary for you; and although challenge you, never outwith your comfortability. They encourage your growth, have a lot of patience and never forgot that I was a student and was here to learn. It was due to this mindset that made me not afraid to ask for help, ask questions and to make mistakes (like almost deleting the company website and actually deleting parts of the new website. Sorry Josh, I swear WordPress hates me). This elevated my confidence, both at work and even in my day to day life.
There was an abundance of support from everyone in the company. From the moment I stepped in, I was warmly welcomed into the GearedApp family by everyone on the team. I went from not having any experience working in this type of business environment and not knowing the difference between frontend and backend development, to publishing blogs on the emerging PWA technology and the impact of GDPR. My knowledge of technologies was improving slowly but surely week by week, although still not a tech whizz, I find the tech industry much less daunting and intimidating. At the same time, I was learning about lead funnel processes, how to write blogs and how to create business documents. Every time I was getting recognition for my work.
The most memorable achievement being the time I co-directed the elevator pitch video, submitted to and judged by the Bright Red Triangle. Where we came home from the Bright Red Sparks awards ceremony with an award; an oversized cheque and a bit too much wine in our systems (mostly mine).
This amazing experience has laid down a great foundation for my future and I am very excited as I was also invited to continue my work here at GearedApp. I’m looking forward to developing my skills even further and learning more about our industry. This open-minded safe space will no doubt nurture my growth needed going forward in my life. Thanks GearedApp! 🙂
Want to hear more about internship experiences at GearedApp? Check out Armands blog on their experience here.