If you’ve been looking at how we do our Switcher Spotlights on our social media channels, this is going to seem familiar; this week we’re taking a long look at our internship programme and our current intern’s 20-week experience doing all things digital marketing as part of the Switch family.
Disclaimer: Femke was randomly pulled into a five minute chat with our copywriter without any prior warning, but having spent a good portion of her time at Switch getting used to random events took it in her stride. Here’s Femke, and here’s everything she did at Switch.
Hey Femke! You ready to talk about your internship experience?
Yes! Well, I really liked it. I felt very welcome from the moment I started my internship – everyone is so nice, and, uh, when you do a task for someone, everyone really appreciates it, and thanks you, which I really, really liked. My degree is about marketing, and digital marketing is a part of my degree which I’m really interested in, so it is a very big field, but Switch made sure that the stuff that I was doing was—tied, a little, to my degree, and that it would help me with my research.
Was there a task you really enjoyed doing in your day to day?
Hm… I had to find, ah, artistic pictures of Malta, which I really enjoyed, because I got to see a lot of nice things. I like having different things to do in a day, and Switch really makes sure that you do a lot of things in the day that is just—varied. I also take care of the Instagram page growth for some of the clients, so I get to understand what goes into growing a community through tags and interactions. Oh, once I also did a comparison of two pages for Ernesta, which was really fun to work on because I got to analyse how those two pages from different organisations differed from each other, even though they used social media platform.
How did you found out about Switch, anyway?
Through another intern, actually, who was also on the same programme at my school. This intern was also very enthusiastic about Switch!
How did you find the days at Switch?
There is… a lot of food. I was worried, at first, because I am vegetarian, but there is also food for me, so that’s nice!
I found the dogs very, um…. Strange. Like, in the Netherlands, I don’t think you would find a company with dogs, and my first day I walked in and there was Pablo, and they told me he was always around. It was really funny, because I would not find that in the Netherlands, and I really liked it.
Was it hard coming to a different country for your internship?
A little, at first… I was supposed to stay with another intern, and go to work with her and everything, but then she, ah, decided she didn’t want to do the programme anymore, and so I had to do everything alone. Walking to work the first time alone was really scary, and I was worried that I wouldn’t get along with my housemates but it was all—very good, in the end. It worked out.
I’m so glad it became easier for you. Do you have any advice for future interns?
Um… It’s really important to take the initiative — like, you are not getting tested every day, but you will need to ask, sometimes, for more work when you’re done with your task list, and if there is anything you can help with they’ll pull you into other projects. Also, people are very patient with you, and it’s okay if you make mistakes. Nobody is really pushing you to complete things, so you set your own pace, which is… really nice.
There are many, many dogs in the office.
Holidays and costume days are very important! I wore light things because I didn’t think people would dress up, and then people came in really over the top, extreme costumes, which was really good to see.
Would you recommend the internship for anyone else?
Yes! Especially for people who are interested in digital marketing and social media – it was really helpful, and Switch really helped me with my thesis and with doing my coursework, so… yes, I would recommend it.
Thank you, Femke!
Femke only has a few more days with us, and while we’re sad to see her go, we’re also pretty thrilled about welcoming a new addition to the Switch family – watch this space for a quick intro to our newest interns!
