I decided that I would like to come to Willow Group for my work experience. I am about to go into sixth form to do business, English literature and media. I was keen to learn what it would be like working within a B2B organisation before beginning my studies. Willow Group was the best place for me to come to undertake my work experience as I knew it would expose me to a wide range of business functions. This work experience gave me a taste of what It is like working in a B2B organisation.
Keeping organised
On my first morning, I was talked through how to use the phones, this included learning how to hold and transfer calls. Furthermore, I developed what my correct tone of voice should be when talking to someone. This really helped me build my confidence and develop a professional telephone manner. After a while I became more confident and relaxed when answering calls.
Once I grasped the phones, I then went onto learning about what it takes to keep a business organised. Some of my favourite organisation tips I learned are to keep a up to date work calendar so everyone can see what is going on in their work week, it also allows everyone to know who is going to be in that week, this is especially important at Willow Group because there is a lot of travelling so instead of having to tell everyone if you are going to be in you can just write it on the work calendar and everyone knows straight away. Another method I was taught to keep organised is to have a diary and a journal, even though this is not a necessity this can keep you more organised, you can use a diary so you can personally know what you are doing in your work week and a journal to write down any notes you have throughout the day that you need to remember so you don’t fall behind on anything. I personally feel that these are some very useful tips I learnt at my work experience because not only could I use them in any future jobs, but I can also use them going into sixth form to stay organised and keep on top of my school work.
Social Media Management
In the afternoon, we went onto the social media aspects of a business. This is something I had specifically asked if we could go into. At first, I went through all of Willow Groups Social Media pages, I looked at the different types of content they post on their Social Media pages to see how their content varied over the different platforms. We then went through different websites that businesses use to schedule their Social Media posts, so they can be organised ahead of time across all their social media. This was one of my favourite parts of my work experience because it really allowed me to see the work that goes into a business’s social media.
On my second day of my work experience, I began to make an email campaign for an event that is going to be coming up. Before I started making my campaign, we talked through what is going to make people engage with it, this was very interesting for me to learn about and how create my own email campaign. This is because it allowed me to see what goes behind creating something so that clients will interact with it and potentially bring more customers for the business. I did a lot of my own research for this campaign looking at Willow Groups website and looking at different email campaigns to see what different campaign styles are going to attract your audience. This was one of my main pieces of independent work for my work experience, which allowed me to showcase what I have learnt so far. I began by choosing my audience for the campaign, which was based around an upcoming exhibition, I then prepared the campaign using the relevant software and sent it out the target audience.
My final day!
On my last day of my work experience I began to write up this blog about my work experience. I wanted to talk about what I did this week and what I have learnt working at Willow Group, but also how much this work experience made me more confident about my choices going into sixth form and wanting to work in a business environment.
The Willow Group team made me feel so welcome and made me feel extremely comfortable and allowed me to choose what I wanted to do and learn about and went into a lot of detail about everything.
Thank you Willow Group, for allowing me to come and experience a business environment!
Millie.