During my undergraduate studies I had participated in a short-term study abroad programme in London, and after I graduated I decided that I wanted to come back for the summer to do an internship placement. My major was in marketing, and so I requested a placement in a marketing or PR role.

After I had sent in all my application forms Anglo American contacted me, and had arranged a placement with a large restaurant group, working with their Travel Trade Manager. I began to email him asking what kind of tasks I would be doing so that before I came to London I had an idea of what I would be doing. The placement I was going into had not taken interns before, so I was slightly apprehensive, and they did explain to me that there might be a lot of administrative tasks involved initially.

When I first arrived I didn’t have a computer, and so was shadowing my on-site supervisor for the first week. This gave me a real insight into how the business worked, and I had the opportunity to attend some PR events that the company were working on, including the Big Brother Reunion Party, which was great.

As I spent more time in my placement I became more confident. Typically my day would begin at around 10. I came into the office, and checked all my emails. My first main project was working on a database of all the clients that the company had worked with in the past, and contacting them via email, fax and telephone to follow up on their events, and to find out if they had anything else pending.

After about 4 weeks I had a meeting with the manager of one of the live music venues belonging to the company, and he explained that they were interested in attracting more American students to the venue, and would I be interested in developing and marketing my own night. This sounded great to me, so was my next project. I got in contact with all of the different US colleges and Universities who were based in the UK, and went and met with some of the students. My idea was to have an American night, and offer a promotion where you could get free entrance and a free drink if you had a flyer. I contacted a basketball team and arranged to have cheerleaders come down for the first night. I also got to liaise with loads of marketing and PR companies.

I think I learnt a lot from my placement. When I started I thought that marketing and PR would be pretty glamorous, and I would get to go to different launches and that there was not a lot of admin based tasks involved. Now I realise that it is not all fun, and that sometimes you will be sitting updating databases, but the feeling of achievement that you get when something that you have helped put together works out well is amazing. I have gone back to the States having had an insight into the way that British companies work, and I know that my current employers have looked very favourably on my work experience in the UK.