iMayflower internships
The scheme partners students and recent graduates like me with local businesses for short-term, paid internships.
Having
now completed two internships myself, the skills I have polished and
lessons I have learnt, from writing to a specific audience to working to
a brief, and the experiences I can now list on my CV, have been
invaluable.
My first internship was travel writing about UK
staycation locations and attractions to visit across the UK. Being given
the creative freedom to find hidden gems to share with readers for
their holidays or walks was not only enjoyable but it helped me to see
how copywriting is a big part of marketing through the task of writing
engaging blogs to grow traffic to a website. This in turn helped the
client with their start-up business and led me to go on and complete an
online marketing course to build my understanding of copywriting and
marketing strategies.
My second internship was with Dartmoor
National Park authority. The focus was to help the community and its
economy after the pandemic. I was able to autonomously research and
create an accessible document that detailed the heritage, environmental,
and historical groups within the national park. This was incredibly
rewarding to work on as the document is already being used to benefit
many local communities.
Experience beyond the internships
The
internships have given me the confidence, skills, experience, and
knowledge to go beyond my part-time work as a shop assistant and build
my own freelance copywriting business, ‘Abi’s Life in Writing’.
‘Abi’s
life in Writing’ started and is still predominantly my own personal
blog but, with the guidance and encouragement of The Bridge team, it has
expanded to become a website detailing my copywriting services and
referrals from previous clients.
Working on entirely different and
new exciting copywriting and marketing projects gives me the time to
develop my skillset further while I continue searching for my ideal
full-time job.
A new hope
Engaging with The Bridge team at
the University of Plymouth gave me direction and support when I had lost
faith in my abilities and future prospects. They reminded me how strong
and resilient the class of 2020 are and have encouraged me to celebrate
every victory, no matter how small.
I was reminded that getting
even just one writing gig in three months was still a huge
accomplishment, and that everything I was doing and working on was
moving me in the right direction.
The anticlimax of pressing 'submit' on my final assignment, sat at my parents' dining room table
while they were out on their daily half hour walk, was not the end of my
university experience that I had imagined. However, it was the beginning of a
new chapter in my life.
I’ve come a long way in the last year and
grown a lot, not only as a writer but also in myself as a professional
adult in the real world. I’m extremely grateful for the support from the
University of Plymouth, which provided me with the opportunity to realise
this.
