Hi, my name is Jack and during my third year studying Biology Bsc I got the opportunity to work as an intern at Ocki Sustainability.
Ocki is a website that provides free information on broad sustainability issues for the general public. It includes a member service to help sustainability professionals engage with colleagues to drive impact forwards.
My role
I created news desk content including short articles and longer features. The topics I covered ranged from sustainability education to circular economy policies. I also discussed my ideas for content with colleagues. If they were suitable for Ocki’s audience, I could write about them.
My experience broadened my awareness of current sustainability issues. It also gave me a better understanding of routine research work done by journalists.
Skills
Some of the key skills I learned and developed were around communication. Working in a different environment to academia meant my communication style had to adapt. I had to change my writing to become a more journalistic style and my personal communication style for emails and calls. Initially, I struggled with changing my writing style but received clear guidance and feedback from Emma, the co-founder of Ocki. I worked closely with Emma throughout the internship and her help enabled me to improve and become a lot more confident with my work.
Advice
The communication skills I developed also extended to discussing working hours. Throughout the internship, I would say being upfront about your university workload is crucial and can reduce stress for both you and your supervisor.
From my internship and research into working in the sustainability sector, I would recommend not to be afraid to reach out to people. A phone call can give much better, possibly unexpected, results compared to an email. Although it can definitely be scary at first the results from doing so can be great. In my internship, this was often about finding more information on questions I had for a news story. More broadly, I have been constantly surprised by how many people are willing to give up their time to help me.
Top tips:
- If you are looking for experience, reach out to SMEs you are interested in yourself.
- Clearly explain how the SME Internship works. In my experience, many smaller SMEs may not normally take on interns, but can with the scheme’s support.
Want to be an SME Intern?
- Find out more about the SME Internship Scheme on our website.
- Check out our “My SME Internship” blog series to hear more student stories.
- If you have any questions about the scheme, writing your application, or anything else relating to careers you can speak to us on live chat, or pop in to 5 Tyndall Avenue.