Work Experience at The Eleven
A guest blog // by Livvy Penrose
For the first time, The Eleven has offered the opportunity of two-weeks work experience to a student who is in the process of working out which career path they want to pursue. This week, Livvy Penrose, 17, joined us and here is what she had to say about her first week with us…
Over the past week I have been doing work experience at The Eleven, more specifically this week with their social media management agency, BORN SOCIAL. So far I have had days experiencing life as an Account Manager, a Content Creator and also a New Business Manager.
On entering the office on my first day I was greeted by a French Bulldog called Frank who caused all my worries and nerves to vanish as he perfectly captured the atmosphere of the company; relaxed and friendly. On my first day I was given the chance to be an Account Manager. This meant I got to experience social media community management and what is involved in replying to tweets and comments on Twitter and Facebook. The most exciting part of my day was a ‘Brand Immersion’. This is the first brainstorm meeting with a client when they are about to start with BORN SOCIAL. I really enjoyed it because it gave me the chance to really see how brands work and how much social media can really benefit a company. Although I enjoyed my day as an Account Manager enormously, and loved learning about how consumers love the little gestures of personal communication, like replying to a tweet, I enjoyed my second day even more.
This was a shock to my system as it was my time to be creative. I thought I distinctly lacked the ability to be creative or have any artistic talent at all. It was because of this that I thought I would not enjoy my day as a Content Creator but the opposite happened! What I thought was useless knowledge or just a fun fact, turned out to be pretty useful as I used them, along with some quotes, in some of my content I created. What I learned was that each brand has a different tone and voice and you have to cater for each brand separately. I also learned that you might actually be creative, even if you didn’t think you were — the saying, ‘don’t knock it till you try it’ is still applicable at my age.
Next up I learned about business development with the new Business Manager. This was an incredibly interesting and fun day as I researched possible brands for BORN SOCIAL to work with, as well as learning about the sales process involved in getting a new client on board. I learned how to pitch and how to sell, and that with business development confidence takes you a long way and you should never be afraid to put yourself out there and talk to someone.
Overall, in my first week at The Eleven, I have learned a range of valuable skills and life lessons. I have learned that people really value personal communication and that you should never judge something before you give it a go. I have also learned that anybody, even if they are not arty, can be creative, and that you should always put yourself out there. Lastly I learned that you will only ever get as much out of something as you want, so it is always worth making an effort.
