I should have seen it coming. My doe-eyed seventeen year old self was sold the great dream of university. The pinnacle of education. A place where dreams are made. Guaranteed jobs would be in abundance upon graduating. Thoughts of ‘whose hands do I need to bite off to get this opportunity’ came over me. The loftiness of my dreams sold to me bore no boundaries. Right until I got to university…
Reality smacked me in the face like how I imagine a ton of bricks to feel. I had been sold snake oil. University it seems was a four year distraction from appearing on the unemployment figures. A sense of disappointment and regret started to come over me. Artificial social mobility delivered by the education professionals I looked up to. The veneer of the good work teachers do started to decay a bit, but I was not the only one to spun the slick talk of a righteous government. Annoyance at the lack of alternatives offered to me disappointed me.
More graduates than jobs was a constant throughout the duration of university life. As the ticking time-bomb towards graduation, inevitable unemployment grew closer. Unemployed friends mentioning their struggles in finding a better life was a daily occurrence. Luckily, the unemployment abyss that I stared into only lasted a couple of months, but for others it lasts for scores. Through contacts, not merits, I found a number of temporary office jobs to survive, constantly applying for other jobs. On a bitterly cold December day, my luck changed.
A chance to start a new career. A career in which I had intrigue around, but not considered a career path until that point. A marketing internship was offered. Not the most logical path for a politics graduate. I sought tutelage and a mentor to help me adjust to this new path, this was agreed and I was offered this with the job offer.
The New Year came around and the big move to London happened. My new life with a new career. Excitement embodied me like it had never done before. This excitement extended to work for the first time ever in my life. As I started my new job, I was thrown straight into work. A small company with passionate co-workers. I was actioned to write a white paper with the vaguest of briefs, a title and minimal information, but nonetheless I knuckled down and did my job. Proud with my work, I submitted to my boss. This was not good enough. Hardly surprising. Marketers cling to briefs like oxygen. The irony was not lost on me. Fifth time of trying, it was acceptable.
From this point on, the cycle was established. Non-existent briefs on work I had never done before, yet criticism when submitted. Work that was too long was trimmed. Trimmed work was too short. Work in the middle was not good enough. On and on the cycle goes. Praise has been faint. So faint in fact, I now take silence as praise. Throughout this period, I was not mentored or nurtured the way I was promised. Google has become my mentor in trying to understand the minefield of marketing, not the person with decades in the industry.
On one February morning, four weeks into the job, on the way to see a client, my boss offered me the sole bit of advice received. I was not cut out for marketing and I did not possess the marketing mindset. The magical mindset it would seem was expected to be instantaneous. Four weeks of experience versus thirty years. Yet I was expected to understand marketing inside-out. As you will see from what I graduated in, I naturally do not have a marketing background. With the most minimal tutelage possible, I was at a loss to why logic did not come into the fray.
Things started to deteriorate rapidly. Called out in front of colleagues. Constant criticism of my work. Held up to the same standards as someone with years of experience. Woe and misery became synonymous with the job. Waking up dreading the day ahead is now a norm. The happiness and excitement experienced a mere two months is now a fleeting memory.
My workload has now moved into the tedium. Responsibility has gone and work I would do has been delegated elsewhere. The amount of effort I put into this role has far outweighed the effort received. I would stay up to the small hours in the morning doing work, just to be ready for the next day. Yet no acknowledgement or the faintest whiff of gratitude.
As the final month of the internship starts, it is an experience I am reluctant to undertake again. I do have experience to place on my CV and it looks better as a result. But little more than memories of a stressful couple of months underlined by any productive guidance. Internships to me were something that I believed to be learning experiences to help prepare you for a career in the industry. All this internship has given me has been an overarching distaste for marketing. Internships I am sure exist out there, that are useful and productive. But far too often, we see underpaid and overworked interns who end up resenting the industry they want to join. I am now a reluctant member of that club and I end up wishing that things had been different.
Lucas Jones
