A New Adventure: Journey as an ArcLab Intern
Editor’s note: In mid-2019, we received an internship request from a Temasek Polytechnic (“TP”) student. We’d never worked with TP before and weren’t sure what to expect. But we took the chance anyway. Nicholas started his stint knowing not very much about tech, startups or B2B marketing. By the end of it, he was managing all our online collateral, mailers, social media and produced 2 ArcLab videos.
Here’s Nicholas’ story — suitably, he put it in an ArcLab module, embracing what is known in #StartupWorld as ‘dogfood-ing’.
My whole journey was put into an ArcLab module:
As simple as it seems, that was my entire 4 months of intern into a short module. Imagine how learning can be made easier and simpler with nano learning, built with ArcLab.
Anyway, here’s the full blog…
With little to no experience in the ‘Adult World’, it was definitely challenging having to adapt to a new lifestyle; working in an office and commutes to work with the bustling crowd. Being a Digital Marketing Student, I wanted to showcase my skills as a marketer and successfully ‘market’ a product well. Interning at ArcLab gave me this opportunity and I was able to accomplish it. Here’s my journey in ArcLab as a Digital Marketing Intern…
On my first day, I came to the office with butterflies in my stomach, not expectant of anything. Questions of “What even is Nano Learning?” to “What if I’m not living up to expectations” flooded my mind. Thankfully, I was given tasks that I was familiar with and subjects that were already learnt in school.
My first major ‘project’ was Content Auditing. I was tasked to audit ArcLab’s pages (LinkedIn, medium blog, website) and assess the current score of the pages. From scoring the pages’ impression counts and bounce rates to scoring its clickthrough rates (CTR).
Content auditing was relatively straightforward and I was done with it quickly. Immediately, I moved on to the next and also, the most arduous task, SEO.
I was tasked to tweak the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for ArcLab’s website. SEO was relatively foreign to me even though I had learnt it before. Could it be because I failed to pay attention during class? Or it could just be the onerous and intricate topic by itself. Regardless, I gave it a go and had to do more research to back up my findings.
Ultimately, the long-dreaded research ended and I came up with web titles and alt texts for ArcLabs home and showcase page. The challenging part about SEO is not just the research and execution but rather understanding Google’s algorithms and proper keywords usage in order to rank higher in Google.
(and also the constant fear of whether your page would someday rank higher)
Keywords such as “nano learning” and “mobile learning” were important as this gives the website a boost in SEO. Thus, in order to understand SEO better, I made sure I studied guides on Google and be more profound in SEO.
My third major task involved a speck more creativity, and it was definitely one that I enjoyed working on. Ever since I had an interest in photography, it sparked the passion of film-making and photography in me. I enjoyed the filmings and editings of short films for my past school projects, not to mention taking photographs and short videos whenever I go on a trip. It definitely grew the passion in me and I always seek to learn new ways to produce nicer and better quality work. For this task, I had to create a short basic promo video that will introduce the new features for ArcLab. However, this time round there is no filming required and I edited a short infographic video with images that explain the new features. Although it wasn’t relatively a film-making experience, editing a short video was equally as enjoyable for me. Watch it here!:
A couple of weeks later, I was tasked with a new company promo video. This time, with a more professional touch. The shooting experience was interesting as I got to experience how professional shoots were done. Although it wasn’t a long shoot, it was definitely an eye-opening experience. Do check out the video on ArcLab’s channels when it’s ready!
The last ‘big’ project that I worked on was the tweaking of ArcLab’s website. I was tasked to overhaul the showcase page and pricing page by having the pages look less sophisticated and better looking. It was challenging at first as I was unfamiliar with the website builder ArcLab was using, and it was a little less user-friendly compared to other website builders. Despite the issues, I made it look to the best that I could. Finally, I managed to construct a simpler and slightly more aesthetically pleasing page layout. Now, we are able to better showcase different ways ArcLab users are training their workforce through bite-sized nano learning modules like these.
Learning is made so lengthy nowadays, articles and textbooks are pages worth. Who even has the attention span to absorb everything that was written? I, too, when in school, can only absorb so much in a 2-hour long tutorial. With shorter modules and more targeted learning, information can then be absorbed effectively and ArcLab empowers bite-sized learning to be done on demand. With ArcLab’s modules, deskless workers/learners are able to learn and train without the need to be there physically.
My intern journey was definitely fruitful and I learnt many new and intriguing things. From lunchtime talks on career and football to attending events and shows with James, it was definitely a brand-new experience for me. I must say I have fully experienced the “Adult World” and achieved my goals. Interning at ArcLab gave me the opportunity to work in a Start-up and B2B company, which without a doubt, opened up my view to the market and industry. It is not the usual B2C company where “I sell, you buy” but the whole unfamiliar and foreign B2B industry. Interning has taught me things that school would not have and my experience here has been worthwhile. This has been a great journey and it has equipped me with the skills and knowledge that I will need for my future endeavours.
