Before my first day at GRA I was nervous, heading into my first look into the industry that I chose to spend 5 years studying, but as I made my way into the office, I was feeling less nervous and more excited because I was finally getting the opportunity to use what I’ve learned and, more importantly, learn even more that any college or university could teach me.

Straight away when coming into the office, I was sat down and told that no two days are ever the same, and I had heard about this, as every lecturer and friend I had in the industry would say this, but seeing it yourself, you really do realise how different every day can be.

My first day was great, meeting everyone at the office and seeing how nice everyone was relieved the worries of being the new intern and realising that they came from similar places to me made it easier to settle in and get stuck into the tasks set for me.

On my work sheet there was a load of different types of tasks, from SEO tasks, social media and content to PR tasks like monitoring publications and writing this blog. This was perfect for me, as I wasn’t 100% sure of my place in marketing or what I wanted to focus on, so getting a taste of everything from little random tasks to big jobs that were ongoing helped me home in on what I found interesting, and they could tailor the tasks being sent my way to my liking. Little things like this shows how great the team is here, even providing me with things to further increase my understanding of marketing, such as inviting me to webinars and different coursework.

I always felt involved when it came to discussions and any chats in the office, work-related or not, they have been incredible and spoiled me, from the welcome doughnuts to being invited to the summer social with everyone. I’ve been blessed and couldn’t have asked for a better place to get my first proper look into agency life in Glasgow.

My internship at GRA has brought me a lot of knowledge on the industry and how agencies actually work behind the scenes, being involved in weekly meetings and listening in on how everyone communicates has given me a deeper understanding of the marketing life and how campaigns come to life from start to finish and the amount of work that goes into things. I really do believe that over my 4 weeks here at GRA I’ve learned more here than I did in my 3rd year of university, the knowledge of not just how things work when in the industry, but the processes that go into each individual job that you won’t learn about in an academic setting. Learning these tools and processes is so important, and I’m realising now that when jobs are looking for you to know what you’re doing, they don’t mean that you’ve learned about it in university, they want you to have hands-on experience with them.

Now after my internship, I’m going into my 4th year at university with a completely different mindset, actually thinking about where I want to take my career and focusing on the things I find interesting and want to pursue. I wish I had gotten my internship years ago, I feel like my thought processes are different, and my understanding of marketing has changed and gave me a better view on what I’ll be learning about in my most important year before going into industry, and I’ll be applying everything that I’ve learned here at GRA to anything I do in university, and I’m excited to head back to university with my new mindset. If there’s one thing you should do as a marketing student, it should be to get an internship during summer and get a taste of the life you’re working towards.