A review of my internship at Magnetic North Travel

About me:

I’m Vanessa a student of International Communication Management at the Hague University of Applied Sciences. For the last three months I have been working for  Magnetic North Travel. Now that my time at MNT has come to a close I decided to give future interns a bit of an insight of what working for a small tour operator could possibly look like.

Why did I apply?

As an extension of my semester abroad I decided to apply for a summer internship in the UK. As my minor partly focused on Social Media and Web Writing, PR and Online Marketing I was keen to get some practical experience under my belt. Despite looking into larger corporations as well my gut feeling has been to focus on smaller businesses hoping to get a broader insight into the world of corporate communication along with more responsibility, which was when I stumbled upon Magnetic North Travel. As a person who has caught the travel bug with New Zealand being my favourite country on the planet my application was quickly written and sent.

So what have I done?

During my time here I focused on multiple projects evolving around corporate communication and web presence. One of my first projects has been the launch of the new website I was responsible for the selection of image material for the new company website. Later on I went on and updated the website with tour details and picture material. Besides, I have been copywriting tour itineraries

As the launch also to fell into place with the launch of an Instagram account I prepared a report on how we could utilize image material and present the brand visually.

Furthermore, I spent a lot of time reading up on social media channels in a corporate environment and based on that developed a plan on how to update and use social media in a more structured and systematic way. Finally, experimenting and figuring out what kinds of content would work best has been quite intriguing. To determine  what works on social media has been a learning by-doing process full of surprises. With almost full control over the social media of the business has been exciting and taught me about the fine differences between different social media channels and gave me a comprehensive impression of the Nordic tourism industry. Other than that I worked on a new lay-out for the newsletter and wrote several blog posts while learning about SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

My highlight

A personal highlight has been the Friday afternoon-(not for the obvious reason) but as we had Paul co-founder of the Luxury Academy coming by. With him we discussed ways to improve sales by focussing on manner of speech, communicating on the phone and our social media web presence. These sessions were insightful as well as challenging as the procedures and strategies had to be tailored to MNT’s company  profile. Seeing how a few tweaks and tricks could actually affect the quality of service has been eye-opening.

Working environment

Situated in the idyllic English countryside I travelled to an office out in the green, a former estate that was turned into a business park. The surroundings have been ideal for short walks with our two office mascots Otto and and Bart. Working with three full-time and one part-time colleague has introduced to a very open and inclusive working environment. Generally there is a pleasant friendly atmosphere in the office and the managing director has an open ear to issues you might face during your internship.

What to expect when you work as an intern for Magnetic North Travel

As most of my activities were not related to the everyday sales the team mainly focussed on, I mostly worked independently and had to figure out most things by myself. To independently acquire the knowledge required made me miss a few short cuts but has proven to be the better learning experience. Expect to identify tasks and plan your time independently.

Furthermore, since you’re working for a small business expect to work on a limited budget. While my university mainly focusses on the corporate communication of large internationals working methods for large-scale projects with multiple Managers, working for a smaller businesses has forced me to rethink and adjust to the smaller scale. Changing my perspective from large-scale to small-scale gave me a more practical, hands-on notion of how I could put my skills to use on the job market. 

I hope that his has been helpful but feel free to message me on Linkedin and now if you excuse me there is a flight to Iceland to book.