Programme of Study and Year: History (MaHons), going into 4th year
Hobbies: Reading, making social media content and battling with the Stairmaster
Intern Position: Admin and Marketing Intern
Fun fact about your internship: Now I can really say I’m ‘proficient’ in excel!
Describe your role in 4 words: Social media and Stats
The Internship Hunt
For the past 2 months, I have had the pleasure of working within the University’s Digital Imaging Unit (D.I.U) as an Admin and Marketing intern. I found the internship through the University’s Career Hub and I thought it would be a great opportunity to try something new. I had previous admin experience from my part-time employment, but I had never ventured into the world of Marketing. Before the internship, I had created a TikTok account dedicated to the books I enjoy (and sometimes dislike) and after having a few successes, I found myself really interested in the strategic side of creating content. This interest was truly taken into the tangible, professional world throughout my time with the D.I.U!
All About Admin and Marketing
The role itself involved developing a social media presence for the digitised items on offer from the D.I.U by creating a campaign of engaging and consistent content. Before beginning my work on the campaign, it was important to complete a comprehensive audit of the social media presence of other digitisation bodies. From reviewing some of the best Twitter accounts, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of how engaging content was made. With this knowledge in hand, I then completed a review of the digitized collections and picked my favourites that would be transformed into a month of content on the @EdUniLibraries account, under #EdUniDigitised. This campaign gave me an indispensable understanding of the complexities that arise when creating professional and appropriate marketing content. Also, as a History student, I have really enjoyed getting to research and utilize so many of the fantastic items of cultural importance that have been digitized by the team.
Alongside this, I also worked on the administrative side of the Digital Imaging Unit. From the beginning of the internship, I was introduced to UniDesk, the operations manager for many services within the University, with the aim of being the first point of contact for requests that come into the D.I.U.
However, one of the larger administrative tasks of the internship revolved around data. I undertook a statistics project that collated data from across the D.I.U into a single Excel project. The main objective of this project was to consolidate the details of order payments and to provide the team with more insight regarding project turnaround times. Gathering this information offered me a greater insight into the specific work completed by the D.I.U and allowed me to put my Excel theory into practice.
The Working World
During my time with the DIU, I have gotten to experience the 9-5 life – albeit remotely. This has differed enormously from all the late-night shifts at the library or the part-time jobs that have marked my past three years at the University. Apart from logging into Teams every morning and getting to gradually meet my colleagues over video calls, my time has been my own to manage. It’s been a great opportunity to learn how to prioritize tasks and improve my working style outside of the academic world.
I have learned so much over the last two months in a completely new working environment. I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to work within the Digital Imaging Unit and I cannot encourage students enough to apply to intern under ISG!
