Someone once said that ‘preparing for tomorrow is doing your best today’, and that is exactly what my internship at The Creative Collective allowed me to do. As a final year university student studying media and communications with a major in the entertainment industries, I was naive enough to think that I was prepared to go out into the big wide world of the Australian job market. Boy was I wrong! But have no fear. The team at The Creative Collective are here!

Over the 100 hours that is I was part of the The Creative Collective team there were some pretty great lessons and methods that I learned that will definitely give me a leg up in my future career. When I decided to start a degree in the Media and Communications I had absolutely no idea of what I was getting myself into or the path I was planning to follow. I learned a lot of valuable aspects of the industry in my degree but my favourite would have to be campaigns and marketing through social media; this is why when the time came for me to find an internship The Creative Collective was my first choice.

I was so excited when I got an email from Yvette saying that they could have me at the Sunshine Coast office I couldn’t wait to start. Jumping straight in by sitting in on a client appointment on the first day I knew that I would learn a lot from this experience. Here are a few of the tips and tricks I learned that will help any intern and new employee in a workplace (especially in the digital marketing industry).

Speed, efficiency, and accuracy

In university, you have about four weeks to do an assignment before the deadline or if you’re like me you have twenty-four hours because you start the night before. The one tip that stuck with me from my first week at The Creative Collective is that writing a 600-800 word blog should only take an hour to two maximum, depending on content.…  Any more is a waste of time.

Working in an internship you are working on multiple tasks throughout the day so time management is everything. As the intern, no two days were the same I could be given jobs such as writing blogs, websites, graphics, record keeping and administration. It changes and moves from one to the other so quickly but it is important to do it to the best of your ability because if it is wrong it just means that someone has to go back in and fix it which waste time.

Ask for help

Your new and every workplace is different so I can guarantee that there is something that you won’t be sure about. There was for me, throughout my degree I relied heavily on emails and communications programs such as Slack and Trello. At the Creative Collective most of the communication is done through Skype and Teamwork, it was hard for me to get a grasp on how they work, thankfully as The Creative Collective is partnered with The Training Collective, which provides online modules for different aspects of online business, a simple video told me everything I needed to know about any program I was asked to use that I didn’t already know about. In most internship situations you are surrounded by professionals and so asking them for clarification or their input can be the invaluable thing for your skill set, it was for me!

Collaboration and Communication

I have been in a lot of different workplaces throughout my life, my parents owned a business, I volunteered at a number of organisations and worked for different places and never have I seen a workspace work so fluently online as much as The Creative Collective. There are two offices for The Creative Collective and spaces all over Australia and New Zealand although you would never know it from the effortless way that they communicate and collaborate. In one click of a button, someone in Newcastle can be speaking and working with someone in Sunshine Coast, talk about efficiency.

Reflection and Feedback

Probably one of the biggest tips for life not only for interning is to learn from your mistakes and the only way to know you have made a mistake is to reflect and get feedback from others. That is the most helpful thing that I found from my time at the creative collective was that at the end of every day I was to let everyone know what I did, how I did and if I had any issues throughout the day. The whole team provided a lot of feedback whether it be positive or constructive which really helped me perform better.

If you want a career in the digital marketing industry then I highly suggest your first stop be an internship at The Creative Collective.The team is so helpful and welcoming and I honestly couldn’t thank, Yvette and Kat and the team enough for the skills and experience I have gained over the last eight weeks and preparing me for my future careers.

x Jess

If you’re seeking an internship or work experience with the Creative Collective’s Sunshine Coast or Newcastle Office Like Jess, Apply Here. Please note, we do receive an overwhelming amount of applications so take care in applying and consider what will make you stand out from the rest!