“The expert at anything was once a beginner”. A beginner at school, a beginner at the work floor, a beginner in the industry. 4 months ago, I made my first steps into the marketing industry. The first footprints of my professional career were made as I started a marketing internship at Schouwburg Het Park. Schouwburg Het Park is a regional theater located in Hoorn, the Netherlands. They are the home base of more than 250 plays a year, ranging in genres from cabaret, dance, musical and more.
The life of a marketing intern
I joined the marketing team as an all-round intern. Their team consists of two junior marketeers and two senior marketeers. From the first day onwards, I felt very welcome in the team making myself feel comfortable and at ease. A main advantage that I experienced from conducting an internship within a relatively small team, is the room for extra challenge. In other words, I was not only employed for merely simple intern tasks. The marketing sector is prone to many ad-hoc situations; thus, my days were never completely the same. Nonetheless, there were many tasks that I was assigned daily or weekly. I always started my day making the gain and loss statement of the ticket sale form the previous day. Afterwards, I would update the visitor evaluations. Weekly tasks included making socials posts (Instagram, Facebook and TikTok) and writing direct emails aimed to increase the ticket sale of a designated play. Making project plans for plays that needed a boost in ticket sale is one of the tasks that I considered challenging, one that exceeds the intern parameters. I greatly enjoyed writing these project plans as I learned a lot from analyzing useful data and accordingly, implementing the right marketing tools. Moreover, I learned a lot form brainstorming sessions with my colleagues. I can encourage every future intern to snuggle into the brain of experienced marketeers by carefully listening to their thought processes.
Trial and error
Obviously, your internship is a tool to learn, learn from experience instead of a book. An exciting time to put theory to practice. Though, just like any other new skill you would learn, practice goes by trial and error. Personally, the biggest challenge I experienced was to maneuver in the bottom-tear position of the organization. Although accepting this position also means it is more socially accepted to make mistakes, I thrive more in a position that offers more responsibilities and creative freedom. Nonetheless, I am extremely grateful to have gotten the opportunity to experience an intern position as the conclusion for the need of responsibilities teaches me a lot about what position I aspire in the future. To all future interns, take this experience to learn and gather those puzzle pieces to shape your future career.
In a nutshell, I look back on my internship with a big smile on my face. Though there were times where I longed to get back the freedom to plan my own weekly schedule, I would not have wanted to miss out on this experience. Not only have I acquired new skills from the marketing industry and figured out what (not) I seek in my future job, I am also a footstep closer to “being an expert”.