Digital marketing is all the rave today and chances are, if you are taking a marketing major or studying anything related to marketing, you’ll probably be considering an internship at an agency. This article will cover some things that you should know before taking up an internship at a media agency and how to get the most out of your experience. What we cover here is a comprehensive, non-exhaustive list of things that we felt were key to doing well in our workplace based on our own experiences, and we’d like to share them with you.
What should you think about when choosing an agency?
Different media agencies have different focus, different clients, and most importantly, different culture. So where do you start?
1. Platforms:
When looking for a position, make sure you have researched sufficiently the platforms used in the industry and think about which skills you want to build. This will influence which positions to look out for, as some accounts may not use certain suite of tools, depending on client requirements. During your interview, make sure you check in with what the suite of tools used in the position that you are interviewing for.
This brings us to the topic of experience. There is a mixed stance on hiring interns – experience is generally not an important hiring decision criteria for internships, but without experience you need to at least understand the landscape of the media industry. This means finding out what the industry platforms are, how the industry works and really have a sensing of what you are looking for.
2. Accounts:
The principles behind performance marketing are quite similar across accounts because there are some tools that the industry always uses like *cough* big brother G *cough*. However, you might want to consider the account(s) that you might be assigned. Depending on the size of the account, the level of complexity on your campaigns will differ, and the resources dedicated to your account may be different.
Larger accounts (meaning that you may only work on 1 account) may have more budget to execute a variety of campaigns, or may have more complexity in their campaigns, but handling multiple accounts may teach you more things in how different clients view their marketing performance and give you various perspectives on how you can help to optimise campaign performance. Understand these trade offs, and most importantly, take note that chasing the big names doesn’t necessarily guarantee your work will be more meaningful.
3. Training:
Different agencies have different methods of training their employees. Do not settle for a simple “yes, we will make sure that you will be sent for training”. Make sure to check in sufficiently how training is conducted and how the agency keeps its people updated on the current trends of the technology and capabilities. This will be even more relevant for you if you intend to take a leave of absence and do a 6 months internship.
4. Culture:
“Aiya, agencies all the same one” – every single person working at an agency.
Despite what they tell you, not all agencies are built the same. Much like everywhere else, culture and people play an important role in whether you enjoy your work. Make sure to ask around about the culture of the agency that you’re interviewing with. The way the interviewer describes their team will also give you some telltale signs, though also remember that no team lead will ever tell you that their account is in shambles. You can always take a look at Glassdoor, but take those with a pinch of salt. Most agencies on Glassdoor do not have good reviews, for reasons that we will cover later.
You can always approach an acquaintance or senior on LinkedIn who might be working in that agency to find out more.
How to get the most out of your internship:
1. Be Inquisitive
Literally, just ask why. As an intern the greatest advantage you have is that, well, you are just an intern. People will not fault you for not knowing, and given the level of technical skill required in understanding the various platforms, it is even more so important that you understand what goes on behind the optimisation of your campaigns. Of course, if your coworkers don’t know, you can always Google for an answer. Also don’t be afraid to ask your seniors/supervisor about the landscape or the different roles available in media. This also helps you understand better what you’re getting yourself into before you look for a full time job in the industry.
There is really no better time to ask questions. Look left and right, you are surrounded with industry experts.
There are no stupid questions.
2. Understand the ways of working within your account
This isn’t about work politics. Though politics will exist in any place as long as you have to work in a team, ways of working here refers to understanding the hierarchy and channels of communication within the agency. To get things done, there are pathways of communication and bottlenecks to information. Despite the chaos that is the media campaign, there is still certain structure to chaos – that is how agencies can still function. So it is important to know how to identify these pathways and bottlenecks to ensure that your campaigns can go live as smoothly as possible.
Whether you decide to join media later on, this is still an important skill to have regardless of where you work.
3. Be Proactive
Being proactive doesn’t just mean asking for more work, it’s about knowing what you want to be involved in and taking the steps to ask your supervisor or seniors if you can shadow them to understand. You do not have to be afraid that your knowledge might be inadequate; in an agency, people will always need extra hands and your seniors are bound to let you in on one thing or another. You just have to open your mouth and ask.
Moose: What I did during intern days was ask a lot of questions about how the bigger ecosystem works rather than just focus on the platform. This helped me to understand why you do things on the platform and how it translates to campaigns performance. I was one of the only interns who had ever approached my supervisor to tell him “I want to learn more, otherwise I would be stagnating and would rather find another agency to be exposed to other accounts”. Because of that, I was pulled into new tasks and projects and my remaining time (2.5 months) at the internship turned out to be much more fulfilling with all the additional things that I was given later on.
Panda: What worked for me personally is studying for the job, not studying on the job. While experience is the best teacher, I was able to tackle certain challenges and come up with solutions because I read about it before. Understanding the theory behind things will also allow you to see things from a neutral perspective and form your own opinions, instead of only understanding how things work because “that’s what my supervisor told me” and “our account has always done it this way”.
Let’s be honest here, you’ll have plenty of free time at night because you’re not studying for exams anymore. I am sure you can spend a couple of hours a week to attend some free courses or just read up articles.
Realities of Working at an Agency
“Life is not a bed of roses” – My primary school teacher, probably.
However, we do have some free coffee and goodies from time to time from vendors so yay to perks.
Be prepared to work. Like, really work.
Digital never sleeps. Because of the nature of our work, campaigns don’t just go live, they undergo many changes throughout the month, week, or even the day. The pace is quite crazy frankly, and the nature of this industry is the root cause of 3 things:
1. Constant client changes. Client changes are the number 1 inspiration to our memes because they always spur on a chain of reactions. There is always some trend your client wants to react to and something to change when things don’t work out. Media performance is like the stock market. It’s really just based on how high the numbers are and when the numbers are not high enough you shift your budget out.
2. Emails and requests at any time of the night. If you connect your work email to your phone, good luck getting any sleep. Clients apparently don’t sleep so they send you changes in the middle of the night. Guess what? Your boss is likely to reply them almost immediately. Our advice? If the account won’t die if you don’t do it right now, it can wait until tomorrow.
3. Calls. Calls past work hours. Calls in your bed. Eh I am free doesn’t mean I am free to do your work ok. I don’t need to eat ah? Anyway, just be prepared to constantly be on calls to discuss anything under the sun. Usually it’s performance or client changes. Mostly changes actually. Though it could be done via email sometimes you’ll thank yourself for clarifying over a call.
A slight caveat here is that we’re making this slightly scarier than it sounds. As an intern you’ll probably be subjected less to this, but don’t think for a moment you can escape this. Honestly, the list could go on, but for the sake of not making this article any longer, we’ll stop at three.
Now, remember when we said to do your research, and don’t depend entirely on Glassdoor? In an agency, the team is typically stretched quite thin. It doesn’t help that work can be overbearing sometimes and bosses like to give in to clients, but you might also have a boss that doesn’t quite know how to manage (or worse, not really know his sh*t). So, people only go write reviews about companies when they are angry, therefore reviews are mostly always negative. Nobody ever wakes up and decides to go onto Glassdoor and praise somebody.
Panda: To be very honest, if you are feeling comfortable, you’re not getting the best out of your internship experience.
If you find yourself idling, you’re not doing it right either. Be in charge of your own learning, if nobody gives you work, find things to do. Sometimes your boss might be too busy to closely abide to the intended curriculum. So if you want to try or learn something, sound off! Nobody is going to assume you have the bandwidth unless you to tell them. This is an internship, not a daycare. Don’t expect to have someone to babysit you for everything.
Moose: I asked for more work and I got what I wished for. There were people from other teams who thought I was a full timer the whole time.
The Good:
People. Yea. Just that. There are many of your seniors whom are of similar age. Some people call it uni 2.0. There can be a lot of banter, jokes, and fun but, do remember, work is still work, be professional when you are supposed to.
Please do not do stupid camp cheers before meals. Definitely no kukubird cheers.
Closing Statements:
1) I see internships as important not because you get to figure out what you want to do (let’s be real, many of the graduating students or graduates still don’t) but instead, figure out what you don’t want to do when you graduate. Having a wide exposure of different channels and roles, with a better understanding on how media agencies work will help you narrow down your choices. This way you won’t be applying every other “marketing” role you see when you graduate but have a better understanding on what is your goal and what positions can you get there.
2) Having internships in a media agency is definitely beneficial on your employability. Contrary to popular belief, a media agency is not that easy to get in. While grades might not be the main factor on your employability, graduates with multiple internships usually find themselves a higher chance in landing a role. Which is also why there are plenty of graduates with no internship experience settling for internship after graduation.
3) Have the right attitude. There are many different people from different backgrounds, and they have different tolerance levels which might “scare” you. Some of these people might even make your job difficult. However, just tell yourself this too shall pass. Don’t let politics and turnovers affect your mood that much. Just remember, you’re an intern, you have a “last day”, there is light at the end of the tunnel. So make sure you get all the learning you can and even when things are tough, you know your internship will end eventually.
Have a positive learning attitude.
Moose: I just want to emphasise point 3. I lost count the number of calls I had on weekends, along with multiple “urgent” mishaps that happened during dinner with a friend and I literally had to walk off on them. Once, I even had to bring my laptop with me when I was going for a date. Can you f**cking imagine? “No babe, this I brought this along just in case you wanted to play Solitaire with me”. Some of these things will happen to you. They will happen whether you’re an intern, a full timer, or even if you’re not in media. Thing is, you really just have to take things in your stride.
Final, personal advice from us at Just Media Things:
You should always treat yourself both as an intern and a full timer. Always have the inquisitiveness a intern should, however still treat your tasks as if you’re a full timer and be accountable for your work. Don’t go in and think you are intern and you can f**k around.
What we’ve mentioned are things we learnt ourselves as interns and things that we observe from interns who have found success in their roles. Most importantly, you have to learn to like what you’re doing.
If you made it to the end, we hope that this advice helps you, or after your internship, has helped you make sense of your experience in a media agency in some way. Thanks for making it this far, and if you liked the post, feel free to share it, especially to those around you whom you think might want to see this.
– Two old dudes who wished they still had the energy of interns