By Elsie Didcott (Media Communication Student)
I’m writing this post as a hope to shed light on what a placement is like in the marketing industry. The purpose of this may be to show people what my time at Tandem was like, to anyone interested, but hopefully, it will also help students who are considering an internship.
For those students who are in the position that I was a year ago, I want to share my experience and portray why I strongly advise taking on this venture.
I’ll start by explaining that I was that student who was desperately trying to get out of a compulsory placement. The reason for this partly being that I naively thought it would not help progress my university achievements or my CV. But mainly because I don’t enjoy forcing myself out of my comfort zone and into a new environment. However, after being told time and time again that I will not be able to finish my university course without a complete placement, I started sending off emails to various different companies.
When Marc and Kev from Tandem replied to my email so positively, my nervous feelings towards the whole thing turned into excitement. Their email inviting me to work with them showed me that it may not be such a bad thing.
Throughout my time at Tandem, I was so glad that I made myself take the opportunity because of how much I was learning. I’ve come away with so much more knowledge on particular software and creative insight, with thanks to Marc, but most importantly they showed me what it was like to work in this ever growing marketing industry. Before this, I had no idea what it would be like to work there or what it would be like to have clients, business partners and meetings.
I learnt so so much that I didn’t think I would. The experience was truly enlightening and has helped me immensely with my direction towards my future careers. Having this bit of work behind me will make help me stand out to future employers I’m sure, over people who have not taken this opportunity.
So, to summarise. To anyone reading this, if you’re still pondering on the decision whether to take the jump and volunteer yourself into an internship, do it and you won’t regret it!
Looking for a placement?
While we’re a small unit, we love having new, eager faces through the door even if it is for a few short weeks. If you’re a design or media student looking for a glimpse into the world of advertising in a chilled out environment please get in touch!