A summer's internship at my university: a wild surprise!
First things first – I went from graduating in Commercial Music to jumping straight into an internship with the Careers department at Bath Spa.
As we all are, I was anxious about where I would go next after finishing my course, especially in a creative subject (which our university is renowned for). It definitely seemed like the edge of a cliff. A friend from my course had got herself a work-from-home internship doing digital marketing through the Bath Spa's careers hub and I thought well, I might as well apply for some - because I really wasn't sure what I was doing next. I found a Digital Production Intern role at the careers department at the University. I thought that the course I'd been doing had no relevance at all to the role, but after googling what "digital production" was, I applied for it and several others.
I went for a nerve wracking interview and managed to get the job – which was the first surprise! I wondered what relevant skills could I – a young musician – possibly bring to a careers office? Which brings me onto the second surprise – Digital Production was a loose term used for a job that really let me think outside the box and apply my skills to help the Careers team. They needed me to create different resources for students and see what I could do with bringing a fresh recently graduated perspective on things. They assigned me jobs and really just allowed me to create whatever I was good at, as long as it had the information the students needed.
They basically let me run wild with skills that I had just been using for my course but in a different context – music – and I ended up recording several voice overs for presentations and videos on resilience when applying for jobs, as well as information on their mentor/mentee workshop schemes. I'd only ever worked in retail before, so to jump into an office that runs efficiently and lets their employees bring what they're good at to their own role was a really great thing to see. The crazy thing is, if you'd asked me a year ago what would I be doing after I graduate, the last thing I would've said is working for a careers department at my university. Another crazy thing is I came to uni to study acting – I dreamed of doing voice acting for animation or video games – but quickly found that it wasn't the course for me and switched to commercial music. And you'd be surprised how common that is – as a student you really are just a young wide eyed person with only a vague idea of what you want to do.
Obviously, every internship will be different, but this one really let me apply my skills that I'd brought from acting, recording with commercial music, and my passions such as video editing. They let me fuse it all together to create something beneficial for them, which is what they were looking for – a young person to create something accessible for other young people looking for jobs, and looking for what the uni can offer them before the big vast world of post-graduation.
I am now currently still at the office, working as their Digital Information Coordinator – the third and final surprise! Not only did I have a great summer applying my skills, but they wanted me to come back and run their social channels and weekly newsletter. Being a careers department means jobs and opportunities are coming into the office all the time, and these guys are the first to tell me if there's some kind of role that I would suit. I've already gone for an interview for an audiobook editing role which seems right up my alley, and I'm waiting to hear back from them.
So, if you're reading this and you're thinking "what am I going to do next?", well, why not just apply for a few internships – whether you're a 1st or 2nd year or if you're about to graduate – that one summer internship could lead you down other avenues. I genuinely thought I wouldn't suit the role of digital production, but it's allowed me to be creative, get paid doing it and my future is now an open ended book! There are always opportunities cropping up left right and centre at the university.
Going for something new and different to what you're currently studying can seem scary - but if you make that leap, just like me, you may be pleasantly surprised!