My twelve-week internship, without sounding drab and borderline pathetic was all that I ever expected and a little bit more. It was challenging, engaging, emotional, a complete Disney World roller coaster learning experience. Would this have been different if my placement was not at ZigZag Advertising Agency? Probably, but it was all the better for happening at ZigZag Advertising under the careful guidance of Managing Director Mr Vince Dickson.
Why did I decide to do an internship? Was it because of the amazing workplace opportunities, networking possibilities and the rewarding nature of the program, promising to offer me endless hours of extended learning? I would honestly like to say that I chose to partake in the internship because of all those things, but rather my decision was far more utilitarian than that. I needed another 20 credit points to receive my degree and rather than take two subjects I chose to take the internship, which is a 20 credit point subject.
The internship at Griffith University is intended to be as demanding as two subjects together and is ideally taken in a student’s final semester; it has a GPA requirement of 5.5 and is convened under close observation by a leading marketing professor who guides students from beginning to end in the writing and production of an industry report.
I did not select my placement at ZigZag rather it selected me! I had a choice of course but my suggestions were actually given to others and I was recommended to go to ZigZag as I would enjoy the experience of being placed in a Boutique Advertising Agency with an intimate team of ten. An Advertising agency I thought, wow what an opportunity, it will be just like Mad Men (The American CBS T.V show recreating the events of an Advertising Agency in the 1960’s) with all the dramatic highs and incestuous lows, smoking in the office, receptionists in tights skirts and trying to build relationships with homogenous business men. Yes I agree, my daydreamed version of an advertising agency is far more fictional and rather grotesque in current employment relations standards, but there is something about that era of creativity and marketing to the masses that has an innate appeal to me. Something raw and naked about the marketing conditions that fills me with excitement and reinforces the art of relationships needed to survive in the industry.
So once this dream was dispelled, I quickly became aware of what I needed to do to stay ahead in the project. I would like to mention that my final mark for my report has not been posted so I do not know how I have been graded and wether the work I produced was to the academic standard required. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the task and was very happy with the quality of the report produced.
My industry report was on Blogging and producing Blogging guidelines for of Boutique Advertising Agency. It started as a general analysis on the functional effects of social media on small businesses. This task was interesting but completely impractical for a twelve week university course where I only spent eight hours once a week in the ZigZag office. This was then narrowed down to the specific information that MD Vince Dickson wanted. Vince already had in mind the social media tools he wished to use but wanted a thorough analysis of the tool before he was to implement them in his business. From here I started my research into Blogging.
I really had no previous concept of social media in business and certainly no logical idea of what Blogging was when I started. I am voyeur on facebook and I dabbled in Twitter and Myspace only to find I much prefer communicating with people face to face! I do however see the benefits and the progression of social media in business and I believe now it should be adopted as part of a businesses E-Marketing strategy.
As previously stated, my internship required me to spend eight hours once a week at ZigZag. During this time the hardest part was to remain sitting still at my desk for eight hours straight and not really talk to anyone. I am social person I like listening and interacting and learning. At ZigZag I remained silent unless I attempted to speak to the kind graphic designer Gavin, about technology related topics, which I thought would be of interest to him. Even then, it had been drilled into me that when you’re at your internship you are seen and not heard, and the placement is doing you a favour by having you in, so you must not disturb those around you. So basically I obeyed this rule as much as possible without trying to seem completely insignificant.
The internship at ZigZag was an experience I am happy I conquered, I may have grumbled and cried, sworn and winged, but I found the process at the end to be far more fulfilling than any other previous University subject. My only irritations came from the University itself and the teaching method employed to get students through the program. I felt neglected by the University and left in the dark about how I should achieve the objectives I had set in place in the beginning. I new it would not be an easy subject, but I did not believe I would have to quite literally figure everything out for myself. Maybe this was the intention of the University to develop students to stand on their own two feet in the business world. However, after paying $2500 for the course I did expect a little more guidance and one to one supervision.
This aside I cannot really complain about what I have achieved. The relationship I have made with the Agency itself where I feel apart of me is left behind in the report, which hopefully in someway will be used. Also the relationship I have built with Vince who has taught me more valuable lesions in four conversations over twelve weeks than I could ever have imagined. To where I am now, two months on, where I am about to embark on another internship, where I will help develop in a more hands on approach the social media strategies for a rapidly growing personal development company in London. I would like to think that in five years time (or sooner) I will reflect on this period of my life and say that my internship at ZigZag has really helped shape my carer and develop my abilities in marketing in a way which has helped me succeed over others.
Time as they say will tell. I know it will take hard work, perseverance, rejection and determination but I keep my fingers crossed all the same. Hoping that the experience I have gained from ZigZag and the completion of my Business Degree, can transcend further than University to the rapidly changing business world that now awaits me.
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