My Experience as an Intern at Marketing Eye

One of my main objectives when moving to Melbourne was to find a part-time office job that could potentially help me develop and learn new skills, as well as the opportunity to network with various professionals. I believed that this would be a good stepping stone to building a new career. It was by chance that I came across the Marketing Eye internship advertised on indeed.com. I applied for the role without much faith, as by that point, I’d faced many rejections. However, to my surprise, I got a call, and after a brief interview, I was selected for the internship. Hurrah! Thus began three months of work experience that I now know I can take with me into the world.

It would be a lie if I said the internship experience for me was smooth sailing. Apart from what I consider a disastrous first day - I missed my tram, the second tram broke down and I walked by the office twice before finally finding it and walking in almost 45 minutes late – there were the more obvious challenges during my time at Marketing Eye. I did feel that not coming from a marketing background put me at a slight disadvantage at the start. It took me a little longer than I hoped it would to fully settle into the role. However, I think I lucked out with a great team at Marketing Eye who was always willing to guide me and explain things when I found myself stuck.

It was great to finally experience what a real office environment felt like after a year and a half of writing university essays, and it was encouraging to feel like I was finally contributing to something, even if it were small. One of the best things I experienced at Marketing Eye was that all the tasks given to me were important and relevant to both Marketing Eye and its clients. I never felt that I was given a task that was just for the sake of keeping me engaged with something unsubstantial. No two days were ever the same with the different tasks I was given. My daily tasks included SEO searches, social media engagements, creating social media calendars and content for different clients and Marketing Eye, research for strategies, proofreading content and more. The varied tasks also allowed me to work on different areas of my skills and allowed me to reflect on my abilities. This was also thanks to the feedback that I was given for the tasks I worked on.

Marketing Eye encouraged me to explore the different aspects of marketing that I had not known before as well as the chance to see what kind of tasks I liked working on. They gave me more work aligned to what I liked working on, which I truly appreciated because it meant I could focus more on specific areas of marketing that interested me. It also helped that the team was welcoming and always willing to help me learn more when needed.

I know that many people are often sceptical about internships, but if you score a good one at a reliable company, it can help you in so many ways. These are my little bits and tips for making the most out of an internship:

Ask Questions

It’s ok to ask questions! Whether you have a doubt or you’re just curious about why or how certain tasks are done. This was something I should have done more frequently, but it took me a little while to break out of my shell regarding asking questions. It’s a great way to learn more about the company as well as the work you’re doing and its relevance. The team at Marketing Eye was always willing to answer whatever I was doubtful or curious about and always ensured I was learning as I progressed.

Ask For Feedback

Sometimes, your supervisor will give you feedback without you asking, but most often, because they’ll be held up with other work, they might likely forget to give you feedback. Take the time every few weeks or so to see if there’s anything you could improve on. It’s a good way to assess where you are with your skills. This helped me understand if I needed to change something I was doing before spending more time doing it ineffectively.

What do you like working on?

One of the great things about Marketing Eye was that they encouraged me to find out which parts of the work I liked more and gave me more similar tasks to work on and improve my skills. Internships have the benefit of having the flexibility to work on different tasks in a day. While you might not always get to choose what you work on, there might be opportunities to explore what interests and excites you. You should utilise such chances when you can.

Network, Network, Network!

One of the best parts about an internship is the people you get to meet and interact with. Depending on your internship schedule, you might not see them every day, but on the days you do, make the most of it. Try to engage in conversations with both the full-time employees as well as other interns and learn from them. You never know when an opportunity could arise where you might have to help each other out, especially in terms of potential future jobs. Marketing Eye had interns from various degrees and universities employed around the same time I was, this gave me a chance to get to know some of them a little better.

When I first started the internship, I wasn’t sure what to expect from it but after three months, I can say that there is a hoard of learning experiences that I can take with me to whatever I pursue next. A lot of it was challenging, where I learned more about myself and the areas on which I need to improve and focus more on. I learned that I tend to take a bit of extra time with some tasks, time which might not always be available, and I also had to learn how to write blogs with quick turnaround times. While I struggled to ask questions initially, I did learn the value of it, especially for feedback which I think did help me work better.

I won’t be able to tell you now if there will be more marketing as a career in my future, but I am grateful for this experience which made me get out of my comfort zone and understand a different industry. It gave me the opportunity to learn a lot more about myself as a worker as well as good experience of working in a professional environment. I know I’ll be leaving with a lot more skills, experiences, memories and connections than I started with.

I would like to encourage anyone who has an internist in media, communications and of course marketing to try out Marketing Eye’s internship program. Whether you want a career in marketing or are just looking for a chase to learn more, Marketing Eye can help you along on your journey.

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