The adHOME Internship Experience (Before & During COVID-19)

One of our past advertising interns, Magellan, describes what she learned from coming onboard with both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

My experience interning with adHOME Creative started in September 2019, while I was completing my university degree in Media and Communications. It was one of my first professional experiences within the advertising industry, and I was nervous to be starting a new ‘real’ job in the field. From my very first day onboard, the team welcomed me and made me feel comfortable. They set me up right away in the studio working alongside the adHOME Creative team, who instantly included me and began aiming their jokes at a new target (just kidding).

My beautiful workspace!

I was an Account Services Intern but was invited to work with the creative team on many different creative projects as well. My role included client and market research, doing some copywriting for adHOME’s blog and some of their email/print ads as well, contributing ideas to project briefs for campaigns and sitting in on creative meetings, developing reports/presentations, and more.

All of these new tasks were great learning experiences for me and were so engaging! The work was fun and rewarding, especially being able to see first-hand how advertising campaigns are developed from their initial brief through to final digital, print and/or video product, all within a strict time-frame. I got to witness how the creative process all unfolds and how ideas are brought to life, which was really cool.

I was in the office part-time while completing my courses, and even though I wasn’t completely ingrained as a full-time employee, adHOME actively engaged me with new opportunities, encouraged me when I was unsure, and made an effort so that I felt valued as part of their team. It was an outstanding work environment for any employee, let alone an intern who has minimal professional experience in general.

Once my 4-month long internship came to its end in the winter, I didn’t want to leave! I felt like I fit in with the culture and was starting to take more risks submitting my own copywriting ideas for campaigns. It felt exciting and familiar all at the same time. However, I was set to embark on a semester studying abroad in Europe for the winter, something I had planned for a while. So before leaving, we worked out the opportunity for me to resume my internship in the summer. I was very excited at the prospect of rejoining the adHOME family, whom I had come to feel very comfortable around and fond of.

Me & the adHOMEies!

Fast-forward to March 2020, when the devastation of the COVID-19 was global, I was in the UK studying at the time and came home early as Europe went into lock-down. Once I was back, I returned to adHOME for the summer as promised, only this time under much different circumstances.

I found coming back to a remote internship challenging to adapt to in the beginning, as it was still part-time work so re-establishing a virtual and balanced routine was very different. I wasn’t used to the new online methods of collaborating, and managing my time to oversee projects was difficult at first. I feel so fortunate to have had amazing mentors at adHOME who were patient, and willing to coach and help push me to rise to the challenge (as we all had to). It was important to learn to adapt, and take more accountability despite the adversities.

While I got to experience both physical in-office interning before COVID-19 at adHOME, and a remote internship after COVID-19, I feel exceptionally grateful to have had both experiences. I adored the culture, in-person engagement and gorgeous office space of the 4-month long fall internship in 2019. However, I also appreciated learning new skills like taking more initiative, being flexible, and growing overall from the new online work environment in summer of 2020.

In both cases, adHOME remained a considerate and supportive place for a student navigating the advertising industry among life’s pitfalls (and crises). I loved my time there so much, and am so thankful for the experiences I gained with them. It’s been an exceptional opportunity that’s helped shape me personally, as well as professionally with my passion for advertising and creativity. What an amazing team to have interned with! I can’t thank them enough.