Life as the St Andrews Business Club Marketing Communications Intern
Comora Love-Mitchell, the Club’s first Marketing Communications intern.
Hello everyone, this is my first blog post for St Andrews Business Club.
I’m currently in my final year at the University of St Andrews and I can’t believe how quickly 4th Year has come. I now truly understand the phrase ‘time flies when you’re having fun.’
Interning with the Club has been a whirlwind. I have learned a tremendous amount from the Club, but also from my mentor and current Club President Alan S. Morrison.
As this post is about my time as the Marketing Communications Intern, I’ll now give you a glimpse into what it’s been like since the start of my internship.
This time last year I was looking for work experience to busy myself during the term in my field of choice – marketing. When the job posting for this internship popped up in my email from the Careers Center in November I’m be the first to admit it came at the worst possible time – I was stressed out with deadlines and nearing revision studying. When do great opportunities come when it’s convenient?
Responsibilities
Fast forward through the interview process and subsequent acceptance, I dived head first into my responsibilities, which is exactly how I’d want it.
Comora talking to Flora Selwyn, Editor of St Andrews in Focus, at her first event.
I attended my first Club event – a tour of The Old Course Hotel – in December 2017 (pictured right). This was my first interaction with Alan since my interview as well as my first meeting with the rest of the 2017/2018 Committee. Everyone was extremely kind and ready to talk. It was a perfect beginning.
Another huge part of our early meetings was giving me insight into the goals of the Club for the year.
I not only learned about the Club and the businesses they supported, but also about businesses in general, different strategies implemented by them, and business models. Some of these included the Disney Strategy for creative ideation, Agency Problem, Stakeholder Map and 80/20 Rule just to name a few.
After the holidays, Alan and I met up to commence my training. Hitting the ground running, we outlined the areas I was really interested in learning about and what I wanted to get from this experience. We agreed to first focus on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and Alan sat with me in Starbucks for two hours once a week to train me on the ins and outs of social media and marketing tips of the trade.
Duties
My duties for the Club most heavily focuses on creating posts for the #MemberMonday meme as well as weekly Member posts that feature different Members, which is one of the perks of Membership with St Andrews Business Club.
I learned what times different posts should be scheduled at to receive maximum views and clicks and also general ‘How Tos’ for scheduling and formatting posts in Hootsuite and Facebook.
As time went on I gained more and more responsibility as I became comfortable with my position and learned about the industry. I was given the opportunity to draft copy for press releases and compile the Club’s monthly KPI reports for the Committee. At events, I helped to set up before the start of each event, sign in all of the Members and place out badges so it was easier for everyone to interact in the networking environment.
I’ve valued this experience because it has allowed me to expand on my past experiences with marketing communications as well as to learn new things and be given the opportunity to explore areas of interest I have within the marketing realm.
Everyone has been more than happy to answer any questions or concerns I have had and this internship has equipped me with the tools I need to be successful in whatever field I choose to go forward in because of the fundamentals the Club has given me.
I cannot recommend this internship and this club enough to people who are unsure if they want to get involved.
