My Internship at CAS- James Halpin
James Halpin marketing intern
Hi, I’m James Halpin and I’ve been lucky to have an internship at CAS over the past month and boy, has it been a crash course. Being at CAS was my first exposure to the professional working world and it is certainly different to my previous work experience. I’ve had to adapt my skill set to this environment and learn brand new skills. Here are a few of the things I’ve had to improve on.
Independence
There is far less micro-managing in the professional environment which was different to previous jobs I had had. I’ve had to import my independence skills that I had learnt at university and apply them to the real world. Figuring out stuff on my own is difficult but rewarding. It is tempting to take the easy route and do a cheap job of something, but doing something properly with quality is far more rewarding.
Research
Surprisingly to me research was a large part of my internship. Not only from within the company (looking at previous work to decide what to do) but also for software and companies that were new to me. Fortunately for me, there was a wealth of material already on the internet that I was able to call upon when I didn’t understand something. Rebecca also sent me a textbook, Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Sharma. This book tied all the method to the madness. I also could rely on the team here at CAS to explain something if I couldn’t solve it.
Writing Skills
My writing style over the past month has had to change. University is very formal and stringent about their writing criteria, no personal pronouns and certainly no language that could be considered colloquial. The internship has taught me to be more flexible and put a little flare into my writing. This is a list that I’ve added to every time I have received consistent criticism of my writing:
- Make it more personal.
- Give sufficient context.
- Think about your SEO from the start. Pick a keyword and build the article or blog post around that. It’s all about that SEO life.
- Be more assertive, fewer ‘if’s’ and more ‘you can’. Make my call to actions stronger.
Software
Before I started at CAS I had never used any marketing software. On my first day here I was given the task of learning how to use Google Analytics which is the foundation of CAS and their client Rowperfect. I’ve discovered not using GA or another equivalent would be suicide for an online business. WordPress has also been a revelation to me. Seeing the backend of a website has given me insight into the online world. I’m now able to criticise websites where I know people have been lazy. Equally however, that means for the websites I work on – everything must be on purpose. Formatting is essential, spelling and grammar, even more so.
I would like to thank the all the team at CAS; Rebecca, Jeremy and Laura. Working here has been a complete learning curve and I couldn’t have developed without your guidance. I wish you all luck for 2016! A special thanks to Rebecca for giving me this opportunity and I know it will propel me forward on my career path.