My Internship Journey at Avery...

Hi, I am Asvini. This past year I had an amazing opportunity to complete my placement year at Avery UK as a marketing intern. As an undergraduate student, doing an internship has always been one of the key experiences recommended during University. Work experience is key for boosting employability, especially as a business and management undergraduate.?

Over the last year working at Avery, I have learned so much, it’s crazy! I’ve developed new skills; a lot of experience and made unforgettable memories with great people. Read below, to find out more about my internship journey including; what I completed, experienced and even a day in my life as an intern!?

Overview of my internship journey:

At the beginning of my internship, I was very nervous to start as it was my first job in the business/marketing field. However, I received a warm welcome from the team and helpful inductions with the different teams at Avery which gave me a great introduction to Avery. The people at the office were very friendly and supportive which made me feel at ease.

During my internship, I got the chance to work on a variety of different campaigns, tasks and projects which helped me gain a wide scope of new skills and knowledge. The team introduced and taught me how they manage the different campaigns.

I worked on events in which I got to plan, prepare and set up for the events. I was also given the opportunity to attend events including the PA Show 2021 and Stationery Show 2021. Attending these events really helped me network with people and grow my confidence in communicating effectively.?

This was another one of the key experiences during my internship as we had a lot of fun so on top of gaining skills, I also got to spend more time with my colleagues.

Throughout my internship, my manager supported me a lot and helped me to achieve the goals I set and for me to gain as much experience in the different sectors. I got the chance to work with her on launching a campaign 'Think Safe Work Safe'.

Launching this campaign was one of my key achievements in this internship, I was given responsibilities within this campaign to help launch the 360 plan and working with my manager, we launched the campaign successfully.

A day in the life of an intern:

8:45 am – I get to the office and start my day with a coffee (to wake me up)!

9:00 am – I check through my emails, reply to any emails and make sure I am up to date with my actions. Then, I make a list of tasks that I have to complete for that day.

9:15 am – We have our weekly team meeting with my manager and one of my colleagues. We share what our top priorities are for the week so we all know what we are working on and then my manager will let me know if any other projects are coming up that I will need to help with.

10:00 am – I usually have projects that I will be working on so I will be completing the remaining actions and tasks for the project or campaign.

12:00 pm – Lunch time, I have an hour lunch break so sometimes during this time I will go for a walk with my colleagues to refresh our minds and the views are worth the walk. We do have our lunch too!

13:30 – Sometimes I will have meetings around this time, e.g. for our campaign we will have monthly meetings to catch up on actions and plan ahead for the year. This includes planning our social media content and any other actions within our 360 plan.

14:30 – Work on any actions from the meetings I have had that day and also have a 10-minute break with my colleagues where we have a snack or drink coffee (or both).

15:30 – I open our content calendar, which is a plan that includes all our social media plans that is months in advance. I use this to see what posts I am responsible for the week and I will get started. This will include creating, writing the content or blogs etc.

17:00 – The day is over, time to pack up and say goodbye for the evening!

The best part of my internship experience:

I have had many amazing experiences during my internship which is the best part of my internship journey. I set goals at the start of my internship which I wanted to achieve, with my manager, and I feel I have achieved far more than what I set. Although I was a marketing intern, I did not only work with the marketing team but I got the chance to work with all departments on a lot of different projects and tasks that I didn’t expect. I feel I have experienced every aspect of the business including working on marketing campaigns, creating collateral with design agencies, completing trade marketing requests for the sales team, working on new product development projects attending different events and many more. I am more than fulfilled from my internship experience :)

Avery has a loving and fun culture, and the amazing environment I’ve experienced this year has made my internship a lot more enjoyable!?

Our summer event, Christmas event, fun outings and team lunches were the best way to get to know the people more and I can say everyone that I met and have known are kind and had great times together!

Sereena, the digital and e-commerce intern has also kindly shared a few words about her experience:

‘I had the privilege to intern at Avery UK as a digital and e-commerce intern. A few projects that I got to work on are: managing the backend of the website and product pages, social media management, and Pinterest account – launched and grew.

The best thing about my internship experience was I got to meet loads of different people; I gained a new sense of professionalism and a clearer view of what it meant to be in the professional world. At my internship, I started improving my skills and learning by looking at my colleague's working strategies and seeing what I can adapt from them but also seeing what does not work and changing it in order to accomplish the goal.'

What I've gained from completing this internship:

I've gained so much from the many experiences during my internship that will be really valuable for my future career and development. The experience, knowledge and skills I have gained from this internship have had a valuable impact on not only my professional development but also my self-development. I know this experience will be with me forever and I am forever grateful! Not only that but I have made memories and new friends which I will always be able to keep!

To finish, I would like to thank Avery and everyone in the office at Maidenhead and Raunds for giving me the best experience during my internship, I really couldn't have asked for a better year!

Love Asvini x