by Divine Kassi, Work Experience Student
My name is Divine Kassi and I’m currently a year 12 student. I was kindly accepted into the Marketing department at MacIntyre for a week's work experience.
On my arrival I was warmly welcomed by the Claire Kennedy, the Head of Marketing and Fundraising. She helped calm my initial nerves. Claire gave me a tour of the main office and I was able to meet people from each department. Everybody was so friendly. I got a brief overview of what each team does, which was insightful. It also sparked an interest in doing another placement with a different department.
I was given a timetable on my first day which outlined what I’d be doing for the week, with which team members.
The basics and a recruitment strategy meeting
I spent my first day with Claire, Calum, and Tess. They were very open about their job roles and their journeys to working in the MacIntyre team.
Their transparency and willingness to answer my many questions helped me to educate myself about the charity. They also showed me there are different paths people can take to get to the same job. I was unsure about what I wanted to do, and the team showed me that changing career paths isn’t as daunting as you might think.
On my first day I learned about the different elements of the MacIntyre website: news articles, blog posts, and information about different types of support. Tess showed me her process for uploading different types of posts onto their social media platforms. She showed me how different platforms have different audiences, so require different topics, language, techniques and layouts.
I started a research task to find some materials for the MacIntyre coffee shop that were more cost effective than their current ones. This gave me some insight into keeping variable costs low in businesses. (This was familiar to me from previously studying business.)
Then Claire helped me use the graphic design tool Canva to create a post for the website. I had never used Canva before and she was very patient with me but also let me get on, on my own, and learn.
Calum and I then picked out a range of different news stories for publication on the website.
I was also invited to a meeting between Head of Recruitment Azar Ullah and Tess, who were discussing strategies to attract a wide range of people including a senior leadership vacancy. During the meeting they briefed me about what was going on, which helped me to feel included, and they encouraged me to ask questions too.
Meetings and drafting experience
On my second day I met Annie who’s also part of the marketing team. She was also very kind to me just in my first few minutes of entering the office.
I joined the team for their weekly Comms meeting, where they discussed their plans and gave me a taste of what it feels like to work in a group in a professional setting. It was nice to see them all pitch ideas while also listening to each other.
I was also invited to another meeting with Calum and managers from Shropshire. They told us about the journey of three young men who were living in a shared home and how their skills had grown.
Calum and I made notes about this, which were later used to write a newsletter. We both wrote separate drafts then compared, and Calum gave feedback on ways I could amend my writing. From school I was used to writing in one particular way. Calum really opened my eyes to different techniques to make writing more conversational and to match their usual writing style. He sent me his draft to have a look at and to also use pieces to improve mine.
Celebrating and a film
My third day happened to fall on my 17th birthday! Everyone wished me a happy birthday, and I even received a present from Claire. It all made me feel like more like part of a team and a family than just a person doing work experience.
Annie and I then went to film Nicky, one of our specialist managers. The aim was to use the final video for a campaign for the families of the people MacIntyre supports. We want to showcase the range of resources they could use and gain further information about questions they may have.
Annie then gave me a detailed walk through of branding, reputation and the strict guidelines they follow when putting information on their website and social media platforms. It was very informative and also helped educate me on even the small details they have to consider when posting.
Then I was given the task of making a poster in support of the Stay Up Late campaign. This is an organization who advocate for disabled people to have the same experiences as everyone else in terms of social life. I made my initial first draft which I sent over to Annie. She gave me some pointers on what I could do to improve it while also highlighting the good parts.
I then volunteered to go help set up for a big MacIntyre conference, which was a nice, fun relaxing end to the day.
Conferences and Awards
On Thursday was the MacIntyre Inspiring Leaders conference and Staff Awards event. I was so pleased to be invited. I met lots of different MacIntyre staff working all across the country. I was able to ask about their different job roles and their journeys to get to where they are. Everyone again was so lovely to me and so open in sharing their experience. It was also great to see staff recognised for the hard work they put into everything.
Summing up
In essence, my experience at MacIntyre has been nothing but positive. The staff working here really show expertise and dedication in what they do, which is very motivating and contagious. Everyone was so kind to me. The week really helped open my eyes not only to marketing work in the sector but also education and social care.
A note from the team
We loved having Divine with us for her work experience. She was helpful, willing, friendly, and asked intelligent questions. It was interesting for us to have a fresh pair of eyes in the team - her questions helped us think more deeply about what we do and how we do it.
For anyone interested in work experience at MacIntyre, please contact careers@macintyrecharity.org with some details of what you would ideally like to do.
