I am a second year student at Manchester Metropolitan University studying Advertising and Brand Management. As part of my second year I study a unit called ‘Agency Life’, this is to give us real life experience in a working environment. There are two options; either get an internship at a company and attend one day a week, or attend lectures and seminars about working in the industry instead. I chose the first option and chose to do my internship at FireCask as they offered experience in everything I wanted. This way I get the opportunity to see what it’s really like working in a digital marketing agency and knowing that things that I am doing with benefit a real life company not just go towards a unit grade. After speaking to people within the industry since I started my placement I’ve realised getting work experience is invaluable for getting future employment, as I will be able to show real life examples of work that I have done.

When I came to the interview at FireCask, [intlink id="6742" type="page"]Anna[/intlink] asked me what I was hoping to get out of Agency Life and told me what experience I could gain here. I said I am quite interested in the field of PR – talking to new and current clients, putting out a good impression of the company and attending meetings and Anna was able to tell me I could attend meetings with her to see what goes on and also attend networking events to try and get new clients and meet new people. This is experience that I have only heard being offered at FireCask and suited me perfectly. I also wanted to learn about SEO, content writing and social media – all of which FireCask do so I knew I would be able to learn everything I wanted to and more here. As soon as I accepted the internship I couldn’t wait to start.

Now I have been here just over a month and have been gaining experience in content writing, content strategy and also starting to look at the basics of SEO. I can now confidently write a blog post for numerous different clients, and quite enjoy doing it too. I also got to attend a meeting with a client on the first week and help to come up with a marketing strategy for them, I was able to put across my own ideas for them and listen to what kind of things get discussed.

The office itself is relaxed and really friendly. Anytime you need a helping hand there’s always someone to ask but the work always gets done. If I want to learn something new everyone is more than willing to teach me anything and set me with tasks.

I have also learnt how to create pages for a client’s website and use Google Webmaster Tools to view the analytics of a site and where traffic is coming from. All these tips and tricks I have been taught I have been able to use on my own personal blog to see where traffic comes from and how to increase it.

After being here for over a month now I can tell I made the right decision to intern at FireCask and I’m glad I was offered the opportunity. I am looking forward to what’s in store in the next year with them.

Written by Jo McGrann

@jomcgrann

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jomcgrann