About Me:
My name is Raymond, and I am a digital marketing apprentice based in London. I began life as an apprentice in September 2021. I decided to look for an apprenticeship instead of going to university because learning in a classroom whilst paying over £9k a year was not for me. Getting experience in a work environment as well as getting paid to do so was the best decision. This apprenticeship was my first job after finishing college so naturally there were lots of differences between the two. However as time has gone on I have gotten used to this.
About My Apprenticeship:
My apprenticeship will last between 12 and 18 months depending on how quickly I complete all the criteria for the course. I must complete 4 projects during this time which includes activating both a Social and Display campaign. I must send out a monthly newsletter using Mailchimp. My portfolio will also contain a step-by-step guide of one of the reports I complete. This will get added to my portfolio which also contains certificates of any training I completed, screenshots of clients asking me questions through email. I must include all my certificates of the exam I pass.
Day to day life:
A regular working day for me consists of commuting to work at 8am, arriving at the office before 9am. This is so I can get settled and prepare for the day ahead. At the start of everyday I write my to do list, so I know what I need to do throughout the day. During the day I will join internal team meetings so we can discuss what needs to be done on each account and if there are any pressing issues. Sometimes I will have client meetings that I need to join and during those meetings the clients will feedback to us any issues they have and any pressing questions they have on campaigns being run.
Mornings and Afternoons:
After these meetings I will get working on any reports that need to be done and sent out to the client normally this can take between 2-3 hours to complete and after I have done them, I will send them to my manager to double check. Once these have been done, I will make any changes that need to be made then they will get sent out to the clients. During my lunch break I take a walk around the area to chill and destress. I take a seat on one of the benches and watch YouTube and eat my lunch.
The afternoon tends to be less busy than the mornings because there are less meetings and this time is used to complete any work I have. Sometimes I attend webinars that are run by my apprenticeship provider to hear about other apprentices’ experiences on their job. I also block out an hour of my diary to work through any course work/objectives set to me by my apprentice coach. It is very important to have a balance between working and apprentice work because falling behind is bad for your final grade and falling behind on work could affect if you are offered the full-time role after the apprenticeship.
Why an apprenticeship?
The best thing about doing an apprenticeship is that you have one foot in the door within the industry you are working in, you will have a years’ worth of experience and you will not have any university fees and loans to pay off. Going to university is good if you want to become a surgeon or teacher but for the media industry an apprenticeship is way better and more beneficial.
