I wanted to gain marketing experience as an undergraduate to make myself more employable as a postgraduate. It was very important to me to secure a placement as I originally planned to do a year in industry, but those applications become too overwhelming around exam session and over issues of finding housing for next year. Therefore, I decided that a 6-week internship would be a good option for me.
Career Connect
I applied by filling out the standard questions asked on Career Connect about my experience and why I wanted the role. I was invited for an in-person interview at their restaurant in Fulwood. It was exam season, and they were very accommodating about arranging a time that suited my schedule. They asked for the candidate to be able to discuss or present ideas for a Marketing plan that I would implement. I worked hard to create a full PowerPoint presentation discussing my ideas using marketing techniques, I had learnt on my course. This included data analysis of their target market, identifying weaknesses and opportunities of their current social media presence, and suggesting strategic options to use in the future. I designed the slides in line with Lavang’s branding and used display tools and their logo to make it look professional. I printed off the slides and wrote down key points I discussed per slide to give to the interviewer so they could reference my ideas later, when choosing the candidate for the position. After my interview I only had to wait a week before I received an email offering me the position. They said the work I had done to create such a detailed presentation made me a standout candidate and the print outs I had brought showed I was very organised.
Lavang was a very desirable employer for me because I had previous experience in an independent luxury hospitability business which meant I already had a good understanding how the organisation functioned and good knowledge of the target market. It is important to me to work for an organisation that cares about sustainability and their workers wellbeing and through being carbon neutral and by treating me with respect and kindness during the application process, I believe Lavang shared these values.
I was the sole admin for the Lavang Corporate – The Private Diners Club social media accounts including Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. This was the first launch of The Private Diners Club socials, so I was starting from scratch. I started by conducting research to put together a posting schedule to best engage with our audience using information from multiple sources. I created a 6-week plan to ensure I achieved the goals outlined in my strategic plan; We needed to attract and retain new customers to increase revenues within the corporate catering channel. I oversaw all the content creation from idea generation to the execution of taking the images which required representing the company at many different client and business events to take photos/videos and post current events as they happened. I was responsible for attracting not only B2C (business to consumer) but B2B (business to business) clients which required more time and research into current events, to write blogs for our LinkedIn page.
This was a part-time remote based internship, so I am going to adapt this to a typical week. Some days I would be attending events and creating content, others I would edit the photos and videos I had taken, write blogs, research current events, and send messages to companies on our socials. I had a weekly meeting with my lovely boss AJ, one of Lavang’s owners, in which I would discuss my posts and plans for the coming week and take minutes of opportunities or tasks he wanted completed.
I really enjoyed the amount of responsibility and respect I was given not only by my line manager AJ but the entire team from the front of house staff to the chefs. They were all very accommodating and working with them has been a true pleasure. Lavang is run by a younger team than what you usually expect in the industry, all their staff and owners are under 30, which has created a culture that is very supportive and encouraging of people my age (20) coming into the working environment. This has been a very hands-on role as I was hired to bring my own ideas to life by going into the kitchen to take photos of the chefs in action and talking to guests at events. Therefore, I really did get out what I put into it as the quality of the content was solely dependent on my work.
The biggest challenges have been ensuring all the content was high quality particularly with taking images and videos while the Chef’s rushed around in a busy kitchen and evening events had dim atmospheric lighting. I had to work around people to get the perfect shot while also not disturbing the guests or other members of the team while they worked. I had to make myself heard in the busy kitchen environment to ask the chefs to pause or move into shot. Working for a BAME led organisation that creates authentic Indian dishes largely based on the Indian culture has also been challenging, as it is very different to my traditional British background. I had to read up on different events and learn more about this culture, so I did not seem clueless or disrespectful. I really enjoyed learning, but some festivals and customs were new to me.
I used the techniques learned in a marketing module to create my marketing plan that secured me the role during the interview stage. Since I have considered digital marketing ideas presented such as studies showing that people respond better to images with people in them and have ensured to post a ‘people’ image at least once a week. My course assignments that were theoretical and essay based helped prepare me to have the terminology to write professional LinkedIn blogs.
Since I have thoroughly enjoyed the hands-on nature of this role and the creativity behind my work, I would love to pursue a digital marketing career path. This could be in terms of social media, general digital marketing ideas, sales, or a commercial role. I will be looking out for these qualities in graduate positions.
This is actually a position I chose to apply for after being rejected by 20, year in industry applications. I found the process was difficult, but I truly believed I was a perfect fit for this role, so I put my all in to create a PowerPoint presentation in 3 days and I was the only candidate to do so. Therefore, my advice is that simply don’t give up. The right role is out there for you and just keep putting your all into every application because you only need one organisation to say yes and it might turn out to be perfect for you. After this placement, Lavang created the role permanently and I am now an official member of staff. As Lavang grows they will be looking for more students to work for them, so I recommend that if you see a position with them appear on Career Connect that you apply for it. They are a really nice company to work for because they genuinely care about their staff.
I would be more than happy to talk to you about my experience with Lavang and give you any advice about creating ‘Action Plans’ or ‘Marketing Plans’ if you have been asked to create one for an interview or role.
Form completed: 26 Oct 2022