Getting internships is very competitive but I was fortunate enough to be taken on as a Marketing Intern at Contract Scotland. At the beginning, I did not know what to expect, I was not even sure what Contract Scotland did. I knew it was something to do with Construction and Recruitment but that was about it. Due to the fact, that Contract Scotland is a SME I was quickly thrown into the deep end which turned out to be a good thing. I was told from the beginning that everyone works hands on and the same would apply to me. I was lucky enough to work in a great team with Amy and Graeme who were both really patient with me and never stopped teaching me new things. Another thing I realised was that all the theory you learn at university only helps you so much. Coming up with strategies is important but what they don’t teach you at university is how to properly implement those strategies and what to do when things don’t turn out the way you expected. Every marketers task is to come up with a Plan B and C.
One major benefit of working for an SME is that you quickly get to know the business and all the people working in it. Contract Scotland has an open plan office so I was seated right opposite the Chairman (a bit intimidating at the beginning). All the Directors, Managers and Senior Consultants sit amongst us which gives the office atmosphere less of a sense of hierarchy which I found really refreshing. During my time, I participated in General Meetings and a Sales Meeting as well as visited a few sites with one of the Senior Consultants. I was keen to get to know all the aspects of the business to proceed with my job as a Marketing Intern.
I was given more responsibilities and tasks than I expected. I was put in charge of most of their social media activities which I really enjoyed. My main task was creating and partly implementing a strategy for internal recruitment. This included creating marketing material which can be used when recruiting Graduates, implementing a customer journey for applicants to make the process as smooth as possible, working on a campaign which outlined the many reasons why people should choose Contract Scotland as their employer as well as creating internal content for blog pieces. A major project I was working on during my time here was a campaign on how to change the perceptions of construction and recruitment. On top of that I learned about SEO, learned how to use a photo editing programme and was involved in updating their website. It was extremely motivating seeing my work “come to life” and not just staying on a piece of paper as a plan or strategy.
10 weeks did seem long at the beginning but time just flew by when you are busy and having fun. Doing this internship has taught me so much and enhanced my skills in marketing immensely. For everyone considering doing an internship – go for it. I don’t feel like I have wasted my summer at all just the opposite I have gained valuable experience which will put me ahead of the game when it comes to pursuing my future career. I would like to thank everyone at Contract Scotland for my wonderful time here!
Graeme Brown, Marketing Technologist -ﾠ
“Working with Denise was a blast! Denise brought a real breath of fresh air to the marketing team at Contract Scotland. Her enthusiasm for all things marketing could not have been rivaled and she has a real hunger to learn. I had a the pleasure of teaching her some basics of SEO, how to use Inkscape for content creation and image manipulation and some of the secrets when it came to social media. Denise has a bright future in marketing and hopefully we’ll get to work with each other again in the future.”
