Rachel is an Intern at Reg & Co with Discovery Internships @ London and here is her blog about her experience so far:
Totally embarrassed and full of nerves, I called Karen to tell her I was completely lost on my first day of work. Her reassuring voice, accompanied giggles, met my fellow intern and I at the entrance of Reg & Co, to lead us to the office in which we’d be working for the next month. I’m used to getting lost because I reside in the hectic city of New York, yet getting lost on my first day of work made me fear the wrath of my prospective employers. However, this fear was utterly silly because after about two minutes in my new office, I met truly the most welcoming, kind group of people. I don’t think Karen nor Hannah has a single mean bone in their bodies. Their bubbly personalities bounced off each other as they instantly introduced us to the rest of the office, and showed us the different teas offered in the kitchen. I know this blog post isn’t supposed to just shower my employers with compliments (although it may encourage them to eventually re-hire me :) ), I was genuinely struck by the sense of community and encouragement I felt being a measly 17-year-old in a fully-functioning, highly impressive office.
At the end of my first day of work, I knew this internship wouldn’t be the stereotypical get-us-coffee and file-all-our-papers type of job. Instead, Hannah gave me and my fellow intern, Amanda, real responsibilities in which we could both help the company while also learn more than I’d ever imagined possible in an eight-hour work day. Hannah began by explaining what the company does. She told me that Reg & Co helps to make creative partnerships. My first project involved me doing research on an event, called SalonQP. Once I fully understood the audience of SalonQP, I then began using the skills that Hannah and Karen had taught me: understand what appeals to this audience. Is it a bunch of kids that are only interested in buying candy? If so, we needed a bunch of candy and toy stores to partner with this event. However, that wasn’t the case. Instead, by the end of my second day, I had researched nearly 100 companies and called about half of them to ask if they were interested in partnering with SalonQP - because partnering would help both their company and SalonQP.
I had the opportunity to visit the Telegraph newspaper headquarters in London to sit-in on a meeting with their event coordinators, who are hosting the SalonQP event. I feel so lucky that I’m able to not only help Reg & Co with their work for this event, but I that I’m trusted to join meetings in order to actually contribute my own ideas and thoughts.
I’m writing this summary on my fifth day of my internship with Reg & Co, but I don’t think there are even words to explain everything that I’ve learnt thus far. I’ve learned more than simply the skills of how to help Reg & Co with finding sponsorships, but I’ve also learned the etiquette of how to communicate with real companies. I’ve learned that not all employers are super scary and just want you to do your work and leave, but instead, Hannah and Karen make an effort to teach me new skills and take me on meetings with them. They make an effort to get to know me and what I’m interested in.
Although I only have another three weeks working at Reg & Co, I know the skills I’ve already made and the relationships I’ve formed will stay with me way beyond this summer."
Blog by: Rachel, Intern for Reg & Co with Discovery Internships @ London