Published - 4th March 2019
If you’ve been following us on Twitter for a while, you might remember that last summer we hosted a work experience student for a week – it went so well that we’ve decided to welcome another student, Tori Pollock, for two weeks. How’s she spent her first week? Read on to find out!
Coming to Harris I didn’t know what to expect, who I’d meet or what I’d do, but the usual movie stereotype came to mind: a line of cubicles with one way of communicating (email) and a very vague, blunt manager handing me meaningless, robot-like tasks.
But this was not the reality I stepped into. I was made to feel like I was a part of the Harris team; being given intriguing work that made me research and analyse in-depth to exercise my knowledge of marketing and each of the specific disciplines.
At the beginning I was unsure if marketing was really what I wanted to do, but now having been exposed to working in a marketing office environment, I have made the decision that it’s definitely for me. This is all thanks to the Harris team for showing me different aspects of the business and allowing me to become a part of their daily routine, giving me time to grow and discover my passion alongside them.
My first day was nerve-wracking but I was excited to see what the team had in store for me, and I wasn’t disappointed. I was greeted by Amy who helped me familiarise myself with what the PR team does and who the clients are. We also talked about which aspects of PR intrigued me the most, making it an easy-going but very interesting first morning in the office.
My first afternoon consisted of the most challenging task: photography. I’ve always been a ‘wordy’ person and not so good with a camera, but Josh talked me through how it worked and showed me how to take the best photo by adjusting the exposure and shutter speed. Coming in with little knowledge of photography to feeling more confident with a camera was definitely not expected, but I’m glad I got a better insight into a different side to marketing.
Later on, with the photos we took of the building, Josh showed me how to edit them to bring out the best qualities (which was both fun and surprising). It interested me a lot how a picture could be brought to life with such subtle changes to the saturation, exposure, clarity and vibrancy.
By my second day at Harris I was already feeling more confident walking into the office, as I felt comfortable talking to everyone. My day started off with some social media analysis with Ruth which is one of my favourite parts of marketing. Giving Ruth my ideas on how to help promote and advertise an upcoming competition was really my forte, and I spent a lot of time researching and analysing social media platforms to get a rough idea of existing techniques.
Tuesday afternoon was spent with Emily talking about design. With Emily’s help I worked on creating a mood board to come up with some rough ideas for an anniversary logo for a client, which really tested my creative side and I enjoyed finding different designs and different colour contrasts to fit the client’s taste.
Wednesday was filled with tasks set by different teams so I was typing away! As dull as that may sound, I liked it as I could really get stuck into learning about clients, and the different work the teams do. I was kept busy with Matt in the morning on Google Analytics, which was new for me but I was interested by how everything could be tracked. I was also involved in an internal meeting to talk about a small project, giving me the opportunity to show my abilities in marketing, using everything I’d learned so far this week.
As my first week started coming to an end, Thursday brought my first brainstorming meeting, which took an unexpected turn when my ideas were actually taken into consideration! This improved my confidence as it showed there’s no wrong answers in a brainstorming meeting. It motivated me more to get into this industry and continue learning about marketing strategies.
After a pizza-filled lunch with some of the team, Josh and I went out to video the office building and surroundings for a short video to ‘sell’ the new location. After we had finished gathering footage, we started to fit the short clips together, adding effects and editing them to make the video look better enhancing how the building looks. Josh helped me become more confident with the camera by giving tips throughout the process
And that was my first week at Harris. Working a 9-5 job isn’t a gruesome thought to me anymore, which is the best outcome I could’ve got from my experience here. I look forward to using my knowledge in my future working life, and seeing what else I’ll learn during my second week here.
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