Dearest reader,
The final step before graduating from university (I can't believe I'm saying that) was to complete my second internship which proved to be a lot harder than I imagined. Namely, I struggled to get an internship place and it wasn't until the last period of the study year when I finally managed to secure a place in my university as a social media intern at HAMK Design.
It is safe to say that I was very relieved and thankful for getting the place because it meant that I was able to graduate on time and do what I genuently like doing anyway which is content creation for social media.
What Content Creation Means in an Organisation such as HAMK University of Applied Sciences?
For me, it mostly meant communicating and informing @hamkdesign Instagram followers on what was happening in HAMK's Design Degree Programme during spring 2023. Basically, my job was to post about students' projects, work and events; show behind the scenes of what is like to study design at HAMK, interview staff and students as well as document the moments when we had quests visting lectures or projects. I also wrote blog posts and was incharge of the creative layout and look of HAMK Design Instagram account. In a way, I was a kind of private reporter or a blogger.
My Usual Taks During the Internship:
Filming and taking pictures of events and projects
Editing filmed material (Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Premiere Rush)
Creating posts for Instagram
Publishing posts
Answering comments and reposting posts
Communicating with students, teachers and other staff members
What I Learned
Since I had been working as a blogger around seven years before this intership the basic rythm and needs of the job were familiar to me and I had already developed a rutine for posting which definelty helped me to jump on the job in a short notice. However, there is always more to learn and this case was no exeption.
Particularly, this internship gave a lot of opportunities to develop my communication skills since I had to be writing emails, ask questions and interview people continually. It required me to keep my eyes and ears open for everything that was happening today, tommorrow, next week or next month. Sometimes I struggled with this side of the job because I could get very frustrated when my emails weren't answered, when tasks were given very last minute and "bothering" people while they were working on projects made me feel a little bit nosy and annoying sometimes. What is more, I am used to working on my own with social media which is why it was sometimes hard for me to accept that I couldn't do certain things exatly when I wanted to. Fortunately, these were extremely important lessons for me and I feel like I learned a lot of patience because of them.
Towards the end of the internship I felt a slight sift in my attitude towards the job. Previously, although I definitely liked the job I had been feeling quite stressed and anxious about numerous things and while, in some extent, those feelings will never go away, I still noticed getting a little more comfortable with day to day tasks and requirements of the job. This made me glad because it ment I had already made small process in the areas I personally find difficult in life and work. Once again, super important lessons for me!
What I felt I succeeded at was beign able to still produce somewhat high quality contect for HAMK Design's Instagram. Judging by the feedback I heard, people seemed to really like the posts I made, so even when I wasn't 100% happy with the posts they were still consistently good and interesting. In fact, our account grew from 910 followers to 1000 followers over the course of two months when I was creating content. So that was super lovely!
All in all, the internship was a very useful and interesting experience and highlighted both my streghts and weaknesses which I can now begin to work on. There was a good balance between using and developing my existing skills and learning new ones. Over all, I really did enjoy my time as a social media intern. I got to meet so many wonderful people and attend super interesting trips and events. I feel like I grew a lot as a person and feel very greatful for this opportunity.
L a s t b u t n o t l e a s t
THANK YOU
To all teachers and students from HAMK Design Degree Programme whom I had the pleasure of working with this Spring. And special thanks to our Head of Degree Programme Anna Huoviala who guided and helped me through this intership. You are an awsome lady!
There are many more learnings I could share with you but I shall leave them for another post. Therefore, would you be interested in hearing perhaps what are (in my experience) the core skills for creating documentative social media content?
Yours truly,
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