Read about the Manchester Graduate Internship Programme from someone who knows all about it – an intern!

When I came out of University, all I really wanted to do was somehow be involved in the film industry. I didn’t know what position, how to get in, or what sort of role I wanted in the industry. All I knew was that I enjoyed watching films, making films, and (in my opinion), knew more about films than most of the people I know! With this vague idea, I decided I was instantly qualified for anything that they could throw at me!

Of course, the reality of this was much different to the fantasy. And after a couple of weeks on the dole, combined with some half-hearted online applications, I decided to go for a visit to The Careers Service. I was put in touch with a very friendly Advisor who gave me a leaflet of links to different media/film organisations, and helped me narrow down my job search so it wasn’t quite so fuzzy. She also told me about the Manchester Graduate Internship Programme, which was set up by The University to create short term, graduate level internships for students in my exact position.

I registered with the programme and forgot about it for a while, occasionally getting the odd email through about a new position. I had a couple of interviews for some other companies in the meantime, with nothing really coming of any of them. Then I saw a position as a marketing assistant at The Careers Service that looked fairly interesting; it involved marketing a programme to students through presentations, online methods, print, etc. So I applied by sending in a copy of my covering letter and CV, went to an interview, and ended up getting the job!

Now, on paper it would seem as though a marketing job at University is about as far away from the film industry as you can get. However, the reality is that I’ve been able to get an incredible amount of experience, contacts, and knowledge of the film and media industry as part of my daily role. I decided one of my first tasks would be to create an informational film about the programme that we could use in lectures (to save on man hours usually spent presenting), and to put on our website. This meant that I was able to go out and film with some of our HD cameras, and was able to edit with Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects and Soundbooth as I put it together. This has given me some brilliant filming experience, and has led on to making more films for The Careers Service and other organisations.

As part of my day-to-day work, I’m also involved in a lot of design work, creating advertisements for newspapers and business magazines, which involves the use of Photoshop and Illustrator, and occasionally Flash and Dreamweaver. I’ve been able to get on the job experience working with these, and my portfolio has grown considerably because of this. Social media is also a very important way of communicating with students nowadays, and on top of my regular duties I have created and managed a blog site, facebook and linkedin groups, and twitter. Being able to see what does and doesn’t work in these areas (through monitoring the click through rates and registrations for these methods) has meant that my experience in online and digital marketing has taken a massive leap in the past 7 months.

Due to the short-term nature of the Manchester Graduate Internship Programme (4-12 months), I have been applying for other jobs in my spare time – working at The Careers Service has been very helpful in this respect! I’ve recently been offered a position on the Marketing Graduate Trainee Scheme at L’Oreal, and I’m fairly confident that the experience I’ve gained through my internship has been a major factor in getting this position.

If you are still unclear about what you want to do after graduation, or want to see what it’s like working in a certain sector, then you can register with the Manchester Graduate Internship Programme here: http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/students/graduates/mgip/graduatingin2010/

There is a wide variety of different internships out there, and it’s worth remembering that with many of the SME’s on the programme, there are loads of opportunities to get involved in projects above and beyond the role you apply for. It’s just up to you to take the initiative!  Chris Sowter