Posts tagged "work-experience"

Still wide eyed and charged with energy, I would describe my work experience at Hive a bit like spending a week in a sweet shop! I’ll have to calm my sugar rush before I produce any sensible comment.

The week kicked off over a coffee with Tim so I could understand the far reaching benefits of the Hive model. He was kind enough to offer me a choice of experiences and my hesitancy to close any doors too early prompted a somewhat vague answer; “a bit of everything “, I said.

Within the hour I was whisked off to a podcast recording with Helen. Talk about head first into the glamorous side of marketing! This challenging task was a great blend of analytical thinking and creativity that filled the day. To top it, at lunch we celebrated Jas’ birthday at a superb Indian restaurant just around the corner.

During the week I had a taste of the other great activities at Hive, from research to editing. Having spent time with Kieran learning about executing ideas, I fully grasped the idea of a patient focused healthcare agency. However, it was the client side request for the advertising that specifically intrigued me in addition to the innovative solutions at Hive.

It was with this interest in brand planning that I was fortunate enough to speak with Kathryn, who suggested that I would make most immediate use of my experience on the client side of pharmaceutical marketing. This made so much sense considering that my most simulating experiences so far involved understanding the raison d’etre for the various strands of client briefs. I thought to myself, “I want to be the person who writes these briefs!”

It was from this perspective that I continued with my work experience. The week ended even more glamorously than the start; an all day photo shoot! Working with an acute eye for detail for nine hours certainly works cogs, but by the end of the day we had a master piece to show for it!

On my way home from the photo studio, I was clear in my mind that I’d enjoy nothing more than working with the talented creative and strategic professionals at Hive from the client side.

So thank you to the entire team for my short, sweet and incredibly useful time at Hive!

Having met Helen at a Cambridge-milk-round-thing, I got in contact and last week completed a weeks work experience. Part of the deal was that I promised to summarise my time for anyone who has the foresight to want to try this out!

As the week drew nearer and the more I thought about it, the less I realised I knew about the company, heathcare, communications and hands on science. My cluelessness was sorted in my first day after a chat with Ian – its dead easy – their world is all about conversations, stories and who’s involved.

On arrival at my desk, I was greated by my pretty full timetable for the week. To the inexperienced work experiencer this probably sounds like a bit of a nightmare. WRONG.  My week was full things to do, which was brilliant. Whatsmore, these things didn’t involve any photocopying or tea making, but casting, filming, editing, proofing and the odd lunch, amongst other stuff.

This is part of the reason my week was so good. I got a varied look at what goes on at Hive and all the different modes of communication they utilise. All the team were patient and took the time out to help me out and explain things.

It was interesting to get an insight into what I now know as strategy/marketing/branding of new and old drugs as well as looking at novel ways to converse with the end user.

To me it seems Hive likes to look for a different angle on things, which is challenging and creates a good bit of office banter.

It was good to be a part.