The Intern Diaries
Social Media and Alumni Intern, Kayleigh, shares what it’s like to work at the University of Northampton.
When I was a student at school I had no idea what I wanted to do in the future. I felt pressure from society and people around me (plus I didn’t fancy getting a boring job) so I ended up picking a random course that I was interested in — Psychology. As the years passed at university, I found myself no further forward in terms of knowing what I wanted from my future. In my second year, my best friend and I started a joint blog and it was then that I realised I was interested in social media and digital marketing and that it was something that I could make a career out of. That brings us to now. I graduated in July but found it difficult to find a job because I didn’t have a marketing degree and I had little experience in marketing and that’s where the university came in!
I found an opening for a paid social media internship at the university on the UniTemps website and jumped at the chance. Firstly, anyone that has done an internship knows that working for free isn’t exactly ideal (and its definitely not going to allow me to keep up my lavish lifestyle — just kidding… but seriously). Secondly, the university is somewhere that I am familiar with and am comfortable with so it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
“My CV has gone from being empty to being full of new skills… I’m able to do what I love and get paid for it!”
Since starting my internship in November I have learnt so much! In just 3 months my CV has gone from being virtually empty to being chock full of new, relevant skills in the field of digital/social media marketing. I have been able to create content for social media channels that are followed by over 24,000 people AND I’m able to do what I love and get paid for it. The university (specifically the Social media team) have been so supportive in preparing me for my future career — making sure that I’m doing things that are actually relevant for my future (no tea making and photocopying, thank goodness)! I’ve gained experience in data collection, content creation, community management and copywriting all of which look great on my CV.
I feel genuinely grateful that my university has opportunities like this for current students and graduates because it gives people the chance to set themselves apart from the crowd. When I finished uni and I was getting knocked back from jobs, because of lack of experience, it could get pretty disheartening but since I’ve started my internship I feel a new motivation to keep going and work towards my career goal because now I know that I can do it.
