Section 4 – Reflective Summary

Here is the job I applied for: Sales Advisor job – H&M – Dundee _ Indeed.co.uk

Here is my CV, and my Cover Letter.

Reflection:

My placement at zenelements Ltd. was very successful overall, and I greatly enjoyed working with Alex. Alex and I got along quite well, we could have casual chats and grab a coffee for a break, so it wasn’t too professional. I also believe that I performed well, judging from my employer’s feedback on my work. I do however feel that the placement was a little too short to learn everything that I hoped. Before my placement I wanted to learn quite a lot about the marketing and branding industry. That’s not to say I didn’t learn anything, but it is the industry in which I am looking to pursue a career. Therefore, I wanted to learn a lot more about marketing and branding. I did learn how to create customer profiles, how to dissect a creative brief from a client, and how to create a marketing strategy. This only scratches the surface of what marketing and branding really entail. Because the time spent with the firm only consisted of 30 hours, it hasn’t quite made an impact on the choice of my future career. The experience was a positive one, and therefore I still want to work within marketing and branding. If I were to stay there longer however, it may be revealed that it’s not what it seems. I can’t tell as of yet. The internship module has been quite helpful and has given me a lot of insight as to what the professional environment is like, and how to behave within it. After my placement, I created a LinkedIn, which I will be successively expanding and working on throughout my future career. I have also asked Alex to be a reference of mine for future employers, to which he has agreed. So in the future, I will contact him if a future employer would like a reference. In the future I will also consistently update my CV based on new activities and work experiences. Through LinkedIn I will make sure to network with more people and add as many people as I know on the platform, as this may boost my employability. I may even ask Alex and my other previous employers to write a recommendation for my page, as this would make me more likely to be seen by potential employers and headhunters. For my last year at university I might also look into the careers service at the University of Dundee to help me find a job after graduation. As for this summer and the next, I will apply for several jobs back in Sweden. I have even asked a few friends back home to talk to their employers to see if there are any vacancies that I could fill for summer. Getting any work experience is key to get a desirable entry job for my future graduate career.

Evidence:

Here is my first piece of evidence. It is my new LinkedIn profile.

Nils Person LinkedIn profile

Here is my second piece of evidence. It is my Careers Investigation Interview notes.

Career Investigation Report

Section 3 – Reflective Summary

Here is my Updated Internship Learning Agreement, my Hourly log, my Performance Review, and my Internship Group Presentation https://uod.app.box.com/embed/s/y5y8f0rbxuviui78b6to3xe8is5fefpm .

I have now received my signed Hourly log and Performance review, which you can find above.

Reflection:

I believe that during my internship I showed strengths in overcoming my own concerns and learning quickly. As I mentioned in the previous reflection, there was quite a large variety in my tasks. I had to create a questionnaire, create customer profiles, design logos and logotypes, and help develop a marketing strategy for one of zenelements’ clients. Before my internship I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect in regards to the difficulties of my tasks, as I expected to receive some tasks that I haven’t before. I also wasn’t entirely sure what the work environment was going to be like. At first, I was a little concerned that the culture at a workplace would be more professional than I hoped. I knew a workplace was meant to be professional, but people aren’t robots so I figured that it would be quite casual as well. So, when I first began my placement, I was nervous and fairly quiet. However, just after a couple of weeks I learned that there was nothing to be concerned about. My employer was friendly, and was easy to talk to. So, my confidence boosted and I overcame my fear of speaking to my boss. Thus, I learned that one should be comfortable to speak one’s mind at a workplace and not be afraid to speak. I primarily feel that I showed my ability to learn new things quickly. Whenever Alex taught me how to do something he never had to repeat himself and he always seemed happy with the work I had completed. Creating a customer profile is something I had never done before, but with a bit of self-management and using my research skills, I managed to complete the task with positive feedback. Self-management was something I had a lot of use for during the internship. Alex would quite often be busy working with clients, so in the beginning of my shifts he would give me instructions, and I would then work independently. Then I would present my completed work at the end of the session. So without too much help I managed to complete most of my tasks to a satisfactory level on my own. However, one thing I didn’t know how to do on my own was to create a marketing strategy for a campaign that one of Alex’ clients were running. Alex guided me through the process of creating a marketing strategy but often asked for my input as he wanted more than one opinion on the matter. Even though this wasn’t something I had done before, he was happy with my input and actually took a lot of my ideas onboard. For the same campaign, he asked me to design logos and logotypes. He liked one of my ideas a lot, one that was based on the Dundee Carers Centre logo (the client, and one of the partners for the campaign). He even pitched it to the client, but it was deemed too focused on the sole partner rather than representing all the partners. Alex and I considered this, but were hoping that the other partners would allow it to gain some good publicity for supporting the carers of Dundee.

Evidence:

This is my first piece of evidence. These are my final logo designs for the Carers of Dundee campaign, which I uploaded to mine and Alex’ shared Google Drive folder before my placement ended.

This is my second piece of evidence. It is the marketing strategy that Alex and I created for the campaign.

Section 2 – Reflective Summary

Here is my Star Statement Worksheet.

Reflection:

During this semester, I have developed some of my skills quite a lot, and even learned a couple of new skills. Initially, I expected to learn one or two skills more in depth, but due to unforeseen circumstances I managed to use several skills and learn several more. For the first couple weeks, my employer, Alex was expecting to re-brand his company during my placement. So, for the first week he wanted me to create a questionnaire to reveal what zenelements’ true new identity was going to be. I have created questionnaires before, but this one developed my questioning skills and my knowledge of branding as I had to do some research on branding strategies. It also elevated my comfort and confidence when speaking to more powerful figures. It seemed that I did quite a good job from Alex’ reaction and I would’ve done it the same way if I had to do it again. During the second week Alex and I discussed what was to be done next. I wasn’t quite sure, but Alex taught me that a good starting point is deciding which type of clients you want to work with. So, I had to create three customer profiles based on short briefs that Alex and I had gone through. This developed my creativity as I had to come up with three completely different fictional people with fictional personalities and characteristics. I had never done something like this before and it was therefore quite exciting. Again, my research skills got better as I had to look at several examples of customer profiles. Alex seemed happy with my work once again, which boosted my confidence even further and I felt very encouraged to do the best I could for the next task. After a short break from going into the office, Alex had decided to postpone the rebranding as he was too busy with his clients. He therefore wanted me to help him with one of his three current clients. The client was the Dundee Carers Centre, who together with several other partners were going to run a campaign titled, “Carers of Dundee”. My task was to design several logos and logotypes within certain guidelines set by Alex and set by the creative brief we received from the client. I believe this was the task in which I had the most experience previously. Creating logos is something I had done for my youth enterprise in high school. I still managed to develop my IT skills while using Paint S, an app similar to Microsoft paint. This task also boosted my creative skills. After I presented my ideas to Alex, the next step was to create a marketing strategy for the campaign. The strategy was largely web-based, using social media, e-mail, and a website for the campaign. I believe this is the task that taught me the most, as I didn’t have much experience in this and it was more comprehensive than I thought. During my placement, I developed my questioning skills, research skills, creative skills and my IT skills. I also learned some completely new skills such as, creating customer profiles, and creating a marketing strategy. However, I believe the skills I developed the most were my social skills in a work environment. I was quite nervous going into the internship, but I was very confident with Alex at the end of it.

Evidence:

This is my first piece of evidence. It is a creative brief from our clients and campaigners, Carers of Dundee. Creative Brief for Carers of Dundee – v1

This is my second piece of evidence. It is my initial logo designs for the Carers of Dundee campaign.

 

This is my third piece of evidence. It is my secondary logo designs for the Carers of Dundee campaign.

Section 1 – Reflective Summary

Here is my Internship Learning Agreement.

Reflection:

Last semester I had to find a company where I could work as an intern for the current semester. I approached this task with a lot of excitement as I have been interested in professional workplaces. The main industry I’ve been looking at is the branding and marketing industry. It is something my mother has been working with and is a big reason why I am doing the Business Management course at the University of Dundee. Due to the deadline being quite early in the last semester, I decided to contact quite a few companies. I didn’t get too many replies, so I decided to walk into Alex Mitchell’s (the founder of zenelements Ltd.) office and introduce myself. During my visit, we discussed a potential internship and talked about what sort of experience I was interested in. He has since agreed to let me work for him as an intern for my Business Management Internship Module. I believe that this experience has taught me that showing engagement and initiative is a good way to grab an employer’s attention. It also gave me an idea of how to speak to potential employers and what they would like to know, which is a valuable transferable skill. After my place was confirmed at the firm, I sat down with Alex to fill in the sheets required for the module. We discussed what we would be working on during my time at zenelements. Alex told me about a re-branding phase that they are undergoing. He believed that they would be done by the time I returned to university, so we talked about developing clients’ brands and their marketing strategies. However, zenelements got flustered with work from their clients and they haven’t quite started their re-branding yet. In the light of this, we decided that I’d work with zenelements’ re-branding as well as with clients. I started my internship on the 24^th of January and we agreed that I’d spend 4 hours a week at the office over 8 weeks. The first task I was given was to create a questionnaire. The purpose of the questionnaire was to get Alex’s vision of his brand written down on paper. I spent a few hours at the office writing up the questions and then posed the questions to Alex. He answered them extensively and I revised my notes into full answers. Alex seemed pleased with my work and liked the challenging questions that he hadn’t thought of. This is something I’ve done many times before so it was nothing new. The second task I’ve completed is creating customer profiles for zenelements’ future customers. Alex gave me a couple examples of customer profiles from which I took inspiration. We discussed which type of individuals Alex would like to work with, and I added detailed descriptions of each one. Seeing some of the samples that Alex had made before taught me what sort of information is good to include in customer profiles, and that’s something very useful for future careers within marketing and branding.

Evidence:

This is my first piece of evidence. It’s an email I received from my employer, Alex, the day before I started my internship.

This is my second piece of evidence. It’s a screenshot of the customer profiles that I created for my employer at his request.

This is my third piece of evidence. It’s the questionnaire that Alex asked me to make, regarding the re-branding of his company. Questionnaire for Alex