I was apprehensive, and admittedly rather nervous, about doing an internship. I had a fear of the great unknown. What kind of work would they expect from me? What would the office culture be like? WHAT WOULD I WEAR!?

My first day started with me being introduced around the office, getting my very own lanyard and name tag, and setting up my beautiful desk area. Looking around I could see that I had dressed to match my colleagues (phew) so I could move onto worrying about all the other things.

The Marketing Department (four people including me) quickly launched into the monthly team meeting. By the end (two hours later!) I actually had a much better idea of what to expect from my time interning at SCEA. I also had a profound appreciation for team organisation tools, such as Trello.

Over the rest of the week I was busy writing up Marketing Plans for two SCEA schools, benchmarking other schools through Excel, eating goodbye cake for one of the Marketing Department (down to three), writing interview scripts, emailing teachers, meeting with principles, writing press releases, and learning Excel shortcuts and Communication plan layouts.

It’s been super interesting to compare the internship tasks to my experience at university so far, and what shocked me the most is that it’s not that different! Obviously I wouldn’t wear dress pants to Uni, but I would write PR plans, and press releases, and perform interviews. Even the meetings I have been part of at SCEA remind me of group assignment meetings I’ve held during my course. People still use the same language that we hear in lectures and tutes, throwing around terminology like “benchmarking” and “best practise” on a regular basis.

The workplace culture is definitely more formal than that found on Curtin campus, and my usually extroverted-self clammed up for days until I realised speaking was allowed. Eventually I realised that people in the workplace are just like the people at university – people!

I do differ with the rest of the workplace on one element however, EVERYONE drinks coffee! All. The. Time. Especially my supervisor.

I also like this cup, but in my case it’s “Aim Lower, Think Smaller, Give Up, Go have a cup of TEAAA”

I would love to hear how you guys found your internship experience compared to university, please let me know in the comments below. Also, give me some love if you’re a tea drinker! It’s hard being a minority..

:^)