How I Went from the Theatre 🎭 to a Tech Startup 📱
Meet the team: Content Creation Intern — Andrea 🌸
Hello there! 👋
My name is Andrea and I’m the Content Creation Intern here at Tick.Done!
While in the midst of completing my placement year at a fringe theatre in London, I found that I still had a decent amount of time on my hands. So, I embarked on a journey to explore new pastures — a quest to find a new role that I could fill my time with. That’s when I stumbled upon a job posting for an internship at Tick.Done.
On a day to day basis, I work on graphics and videos for the Tick.Done platform as well as other social media platforms. I occasionally help the community team out with competitions and work on various content pieces Tick. generates (watch Tick.Does, it’s my new favourite thing to work on!).
A little bit about me!
I grew up in Singapore and eventually moved over to the UK for University as I was determined to pursue my passion for the performing arts. At some points my life I really wanted to be an actress, for the most of it however, I really just wanted to be involved in the theatre scene. Recently, I’ve been looking into business, entrepreneurship and its link to the arts. Therefore, my concept of a dream job or “what I wanted to be when I grew up” was constantly changing on a very regular basis. So, I decided to commit a full year to focus on exploring my options, hence the placement/sandwich year.
Back in September, when I first started working at the Theatre, I made a commitment to myself. I wanted to make the very best out of my time away from University by grabbing every and any opportunity that came my way, experiencing new things and exploring new potentials. Looking back — this was one of the best commitments I’ve made to myself thus far.
Wandering straight into the unknown…
When I was searching for a new job, I knew I wanted to try something new. I guess I didn’t expect to go into an industry that was this foreign to me… and almost the polar opposite of working in the arts!
I had a lot of doubts, especially in my own abilities/capabilities, even from the application process. I knew nothing about the tech industry or about applications (besides Facebook, Instagram and so on) and began to question myself a lot. Would someone who had a lot more experience doing customer service/working in theatres really be that useful to a tech company?
At the end of the day, I completed my internship application and clicked send — what’s the worst that could happen anyway?
A few messages back and forth and an interview with Franz and Cameron later, I was hired!
I guess my biggest takeaway from this was that you’ll never really know where you’re going to end up, but not taking a chance and staying in your comfort zone — your own little bubble, essentially closes many more doors than you think. I stuck to the promise I made to myself in September to take whatever was placed in front of me.
I went into the job not knowing what to expect at all but I was ready to face new challenges.
Why Tick.Done?
Tick.Done. drew me in because the platform felt like an empty playing field waiting to be populated with content of different genres. From creating my very first story, I realised that there was a huge array of content I could create with the skills I already had. I realised that the platform gave me the ability to teach people about the things I knew — which I was super excited about!
Being someone who’s worked in the (struggling) arts sector, I always believed in working on something that would benefit others, whether it was benefitting a single person, an organisation, an industry or the whole world (eventually)! The idea of working for a company that served a wider social purpose made the content I created a lot more meaningful.
The lovely people at Tick.Done are also super supportive and being in an environment where I’m not afraid to voice out my ideas has definitely helped build my confidence (and given me some validation). I’m given a space where I am able to contribute, based off the skills and knowledge I already possess and to me, this made the tech world seem a lot less intimidating. Working at Tick.Done has really opened my eyes to the versatility and applicability of technology, especially in the modern world we live in.
What I’m working on now
Aside from the occasional repurposing and creating Tick. Official content, I’m so glad I got on board with working on our brand new segment Tick.Does! (Stay tuned we might have a few more interesting segments up our sleeves!)
Tick.Does is a video series where we test out some of the stories created on the platform, which I have the great honour of picking out for my co-workers and bosses to try (hehehehe 😈)! In the first episode, Franz & Cameron tested out a cool iPhone hack to make your phone less addictive and in our second, Jess & Cameron tested out a banana face mask! Yes, I managed to get them on board with doing a gooey face mask in a fishbowl meeting room of the whole office… 😎
If you have any ideas on what I should make them do, create a Tick. Story and send it my way (andrea@tick.co) and I promise, if it’s not too crazy, I’ll convince them to do it! 😉
