We’ve had Emily in the office for the last few weeks completing a Marketing internship with us. Emily is completing her History degree at the University of Birmingham and will be graduating this year, so she has a flair for writing and research. She’s put these skills into action and turned her hand to writing a blog for us on her internship at Digital Glue.
What attracted you to want to work for Digital Glue?
Digital Glue’s personality really shone through on their website, and I thought that their working environment would be full of hard work, creativity, and learning from each other. I really value this as I have a strong desire to improve and love being creative!
The internship programme also really appealed to me because of the chance to work with a fantastic charity, St. Basils. I was aware of the levels of youth homelessness in Birmingham, and so I really wanted the chance to get behind a great cause. I thought I could really develop my event planning skills whilst raising money for a much-needed charity.
Of course, as a marketing agency, I wanted to learn marketing techniques and skills, especially as I want to go into that field!
What were my first few weeks like?
On my first day I arrived with my desk all set up for me and I even received an exclusive Digital Glue pen!
In the first few weeks, I was focusing on getting to grips with the different programmes they used, such as Hootsuite, Canva, and Campaign Monitor. It took me quite a few attempts to create an eye-catching graphic, but the team were happy to give me pointers and advice! I had weekly one on one meetings to ensure I could talk through my focuses for that week and ask any questions. I also scheduled social media, using Hootsuite, and got stuck into creating a plan for my fundraising event.
I also appreciated that I was encouraged to reflect on my achievements, what I had learnt, and my greatest challenge at the end of each week. This meant I really was growing in my skills and that is what every student wants in an internship! It goes hand in hand with their core value of self-awareness and is an excellent strategy to recognising your strengths and weaknesses to improve upon.
What did I enjoy?
I really loved some of the research focused tasks, where I was able to use my history degree to my advantage. This was beneficial when looking into catering, quiz masters, and prizes for the event I was running. I also loved using Canva to create bright and eye-catching polls and graphics for my social media campaigns.
It was also lovely to receive some great prizes from local Birmingham companies who want to support this local area. It was a great feeling to see my event become a success and then raise a fantastic amount for St. Basils.
I also really valued their focus on honest communication, as they were honest about the quality of my work and how to improve. I also got to witness their open communication with their clients, and their emphasis on delivering the best quality work.
I felt I had begun interning at Digital Glue at a very exciting time for them, with new team members joining. I got to see how sociable and welcoming (with plenty of sweet treats and cups of tea!) they are as a team. We completed quizzes every Friday, which completely put me to shame, but highlights how fun they are to work alongside!
What would you recommend to students looking for an internship?
I would recommend really doing your research before you apply for a role. I basically read everything on their website! I found their insight in their blog refreshing, interesting, and loved that their sense of humour came through. I thought I would fit in with their company culture and enjoy the workplace, which I believe led my enthusiasm to come across in my interview. I also was pro-active in thinking about how I would approach the tasks in this internship, which seemed to impress them.
I also recommend getting any kind of experience in a part-time job or extra-curricular activities, so you can demonstrate that you have the skill set to take on responsibility. This was beneficial because I had completed some social media work before in a previous internship, and could come in knowing I would enjoy this role.
