Being an intern can be a challenging yet extremely exciting time. While you’re learning new skills and working hard, you can also have some time for fun.
Our marketing intern, Milou Rooijakkers, has been with Village n Life for four months – even though it only feels like two! She told us a bit about her first four months in Cape Town and what she has learned.
We guess it’s true – time flies when you’re having fun!
On the 5th of February I left a small country called The Netherlands behind to go on a big adventure in South Africa. I packed my bags and got on a plane, and after a gruelling 18-hour flight I finally arrived in Cape Town.
I arrived and immediately fell in love with the country. Once I had spent some time exploring what Cape Town has to offer, it was time to start with my internship.
I am currently fulfilling the position of marketing intern at Tourism Creative Agency. My main task as an intern at TCA, is to assist the marketing department in everything that they can use my help with.
My first assignment was to analyze the different Village ‘n Life brands to gain more knowledge about the whole company. By using the knowledge I gained from my education in Holland, I was able to make several clear analyses.
Once I had completed my analyses of the different brands I would be working on, it was time to start with the actual work! I have been working consistently on various different brands, and I am starting to understand how all of them differ and how the marketing for each brand has to be different.
This internship offers me so many diverse insights in the hospitality branch as well as in the digital marketing branch, which makes it difficult to explain my internship tasks precisely.
Most days I am busy with editing pictures, assisting at photoshoots, helping with content calendars and content creation – including maintaining this blog and putting videos together of my adventures! – and to post on social media.
I was also invited to go to Aquila Private Game Reserve with my colleagues, you can read about this in my other blog here.
I currently manage the social media accounts of Kite Quarters (@kitequartersZA) as well as the TCA social media accounts (@tcagency). However, my favourite social media account to manage is my own intern Instagram account @tca_intern. You should follow me if you want to see more of what I get up to!
Doing an internship is as much about working and gaining experience in a working environment as it is about learning about new and different cultures abroad. I have learned new things on a cultural as well as on a practical level.
The main things I have learned on a cultural level is that South African people always ask you how you are when they see you, and that the South African work culture is more laid back than in Holland!
Also on a practical level I have learned a lot. For instance how to use the photo editing program called Lightroom and how to assist at photoshoots.
When I look back on the past four months I realize that I am very lucky to have an internship like this where I can not only learn a lot about digital marketing, but that this internship also gives me the opportunity to learn more about myself and to look in to what I would want to do one day.
I am very excited for the last two months of my internship at Tourism Creative Agency because I am sure that I will learn a lot of new stuff!
Be sure to follow Milou on Instagram @tca_intern and to keep an eye on her blog, Diary of an Intern.
