Student, Sara Eribo, tells us about her Summer Placement with The Studio at Palace Yard Mews.
This summer, I undertook a 12-week internship with The Studio at Palace Yard Mews (Bath Spa University's Enterprise and Innovation Hub). I found the Communications and Events Internship through My Career Zone, and the experience has been amazing for developing my workplace skills. It's shown me where my strengths and weaknesses lie and I would suggest that everyone considers doing one!
I have always considered working in the book publishing industry or elsewhere within the media landscape, so this seemed like a great opportunity to see whether communications would suit me as a potential long-term career.
Overall, the internship was fantastic. I now have some very useful experiences under my belt and I know that this will not only help throughout my last year at university, it'll also come in handy when looking for further opportunities in the future.
"One of the most important lessons I've learnt is just how important good communication skills are and how they impact your working relationship with others. It really doesn't matter how much you know about a subject if you aren't able to communicate it to other people."
I was scared at the beginning, but now I'm so happy that I pushed myself to apply for the scheme. It has become clear that creativity is one of my strengths and something I enjoy applying to my work, and as a result I intend to pursue creative roles moving forward.
Anyone doing an internship in normal circumstances will face challenges. But now, with working from home a necessity due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there were even more than usual challenges to overcome. As I started the internship while in lockdown, I not only had to adapt my environment but also my way of thinking. The nervous anticipation of working in an office environment changed to the daunting, but quite exciting prospect of working from home. I set up my desk at home and I tried to structure my day as if I was working in the office, not in my bedroom.
"I tried to acclimate myself to the speed and intricacies of the 9-5 and once I settled into a routine, I soon began to enjoy my working day."
I would wake up with time to get ready so that I could start at 9:30am and take a lunch break as I would normally. I found that I tended to take more breaks in the day at home because my family were there, so I would usually make up for it by working a bit later into the evening. I found that this helped my productivity because breaks help to keep me motivated and alert.
Despite the big adjustment I would say that overall, working from home was a positive experience, it was nice to skip the long commute, and, after a few virtual meetings, video calls became a less intimidating way of meeting new people. Luckily for me, the team at The Studio were really supportive. Due to the nature of my work, which was often content creation or routine tasks, I found it easy to stay in touch via email, plus I often had online meetings with the team as well as my line manager.
It's strange finishing an internship remotely after initially imagining that I'd be working in the office, but the change has been another learning experience, and I've gained valuable experience in terms of being adaptive and organised to work independently.
Sara's internship was supported through Bath Spa University's Summer Placement Scheme.