My experience
Halfway through my internship, it is safe to say for me that The Student Hotel has provided me with the best internship I could ask for, especially it being my first one. It has been the ideal transition point from academic life into the professional world. Initially, I had my own doubts and fears because I was nervous to step into the 9-5 world after being a student for almost the entirety of my life. And especially when one is constantly surrounded by friends and family who work themselves to the bone and are extremely unhappy with their jobs. However, I have been privileged enough to work at a company that showed me that healthy work cultures can exist in a corporate environment. My manager has surprisingly now become somewhat of a mentor figure for me, from whom I learned so much about the in-and-outs of social media marketing all the way to values, standards and boundaries I should have for myself when choosing my next work opportunity. My ‘supervisors’ were always understanding when a personal issue would come up and I would have to work from home, understood that I also had other duties as a university student and knew not to delegate too many tasks when needed, work was often balanced with more recreational activities for its employees and so, I enjoyed waking up early and being at the office by 9 am. It does bring me some sadness that my internship will come to an end soon, but I am trying to experience it to the fullest. But the biggest contributor to my positive internship experience has been what I do, rather than my working environment.
A typical day in my life as a social media intern
Working in social media can be so versatile, and so each internship requires a different set of knowledge and abilities. Some jobs may require you to have a more creative eye, especially with organic social media, and so some of my general responsibilities included copywriting, knowing the in-and outs of social media channels and being up-to-date with the latest trends, developing and producing content such as reels. In some instances, my position also required me to reach out and contact various content collaborators to either promote their work onto our page or for business enquiries. But at times, the job also consisted of more analytical activities, such as tracking KPIs to ensure we are meeting our objectives for various campaigns, creating monthly social media reports and planning content calendars with the optimal time to publish the content to get the most reach out of them, tailored according to our private insights. But of course, any job comes with a few negative points. Some of the ‘not-so-fun’ aspects of my internship were dealing with ‘not-so-nice’ people, comments or DMs, however, it is part of the job and is a learning experience of its own. Thankfully, there was a lot of support coming from the company. Ending it on a positive note, The Student Hotel, some of the perks have been the privilege to travel across Europe for various projects, delicious lunch provided by the company and grandiose social events, TSH style.
In conclusion, I recommend interning at TSH to anyone who is not only interested in hospitality but wants to work in an environment that cares to maintain the student spirit alive. And most especially, if you are interested in working in social media, I would 100% recommend this position as you will never be bored and you will have a lovely management team