As with advertising, my job involves trying to effect changes in behaviour. I work with people to improve their resilience to negative influences (drugs, peers etc) and promote them making positive life choices. Techniques like motivational interviewing are key, using the change cycle, and identifying where things went astray last time, in order to prevent the same mistakes in the future. What is clear from the time I have spent in probation is that just telling people what to do certainly doesn’t work; much more effective is empowering them to want to make changes, and enabling them to put in place the strategies to make sure it happens.

It has occurred to me this week that whilst the end user is different in advertising, the aim of changing behaviour is common to both. If you can work out how to do that, you are on to a winner in commercial terms, but also in terms of improving life quality for all sorts of people – patients and offenders being the tip of the iceberg. Influencing and changing behaviour in others is a really difficult business. Supporting people to make decisions strikes me as the key, in whatever shape that takes – information, support, communication…

I’ve had a fascinating week at Hive – been made to feel very welcome, and learned plenty about the advertising process. It may have been the first time I’ve been on work experience since I did my GCSE’s, but I now know I’ve been missing out. Thank you all.

My first Friday morning was soon upon me and I donned an outfit that for most companies out there would be frowned upon (jeans and t’s) but I soon learnt that their enthusiastic approach to dressing down was something that definitely added to the play hard, work hard ethos of Hive.

I had been told that I would be briefed over breakfast at the Wolseley, and that breakfast would be on them, a real treat for anyone, but especially for a broke student like myself. Over breakfast myself and two of the account executives (Clare and Claire) were given our brief: that there are not enough graduates, science graduates in particular, aware of Healthcare communications and in particular Hive. Our aim was therefore to find a way to educate and drive awareness of the industry amongst science graduates as well as about the attractions of an account executives role (the entry level position.)  Over the breakfast meeting we chatted about how the 2 Cla(i)res – both Oxbridge graduates – had got into the industry ; as well as other just general welcoming conversations, our favourite pass times and in particular about Tim’s recent  trout fishing adventure with one of the other directors (Tip : your passion for fishing would be a great topic to bring up in an interview if you want to impress them both!) After finally figuring out how to use the tea strainer (very embarrassing !) we began to look like we ate breakfast here all the time and set about brainstorming a few ideas. The rest of my time at Hive continued in this manner, a lot of good fun, but even more hard work .The energy levels I found within Hive were awesome and I think this shows in the great end products that they produce.

Back in the office I immediately felt fully integrated with the team. For the whole time I was there I didn’t feel like a newbie, but instead someone they were intent on treating as an equal. Whilst on work experience I was never once asked to make a cup of tea, or to do any filling.

Later that day Tim ran through all the stages of the Hive business, firstly so I would get a greater understanding of what was going on but also so that at the end of my time with Hive I would be able to see if I had covered all bases.

Over the next few days in the office I spent my time researching and re-grouping with Clair and Clare. We shared our findings and any ideas we had, before speaking to the creative and copy write teams, who, following our brief, produced two amazing advertising posters for us. Once we were happy with these we set about compiling and then practicing our presentation and this was when the nerves began to set in. After spending  so much time working on this project I didn’t want to let the other girls down, or make a complete idiot of myself in front of the board of directors! Thankfully, they all seemed very pleased with our work and they are currently in talks about the budget that might be set aside for our project.

One of the great things about my work experience at Hive, other than the people( who definitely don’t live up to the typical stereotype placed on some Oxbridge graduates) was that I was able to work on a project from start to finish. I witnessed all the stages within the process, and to see the final result was great. I suspect that there are not many other places where a work experience student would be able to tick off all the departments and work stages at the end of their time with a company.

During my time at Hive I discussed with the team just how hard it was to get the right balance for a person on work experience, in that both the person and the company benefited from them being there. I don’t know how they feel, but I definitely think I got the better deal, but that just seems to be the thing about Hive. Unlike places I’ve heard about from friends, Hive are willing to go that extra mile to make you feel at home, to help you out, and most importantly to provide you with excellent work experience that not only inspires you but educates you as well. So if any of you reading this are even slightly interested in this industry and in particular Hive I would strongly advise you to get in touch with them as soon as possible and sort out some time with them to experience for yourself just what they get up to!

Anyway, this got me thinking. Our director fails to get through one of our internal doors – hilarious, unexpected, hopefully a bit of a one off (for Jas’ sake); but how can we expect proper new bees to get through our door if they don’t even know it exists?

I fluked upon this industry, this agency, this career. At uni, doing a science degree, I was given 2 career options: Science (of the hard-core lab variety) or the City (of the hard-core bank variety). Neither of which appealled – I’m pretty sure flourescent pink jeans are frowned upon in both settings, whereas at Hive they get called ‘bastard strides’ and prompt Tim to put on some sunnies. Despite knowing there must be something in between, it was bloody difficult to discover and relied on an awful lot of luck.

“What a ridiculous situation!” Hive cries…how can we fix this problem? How can we help young guns find out we exists? As yet we don’t know. It’s a work in progress, some serious thinking is about to be done (thinking hats on). Any thoughts/ideas give us a shout (unfortunately no ipad bribe this time). We’ll fill you in on the the thinking and if you’re really lucky maybe you’ll get an invite to the solution.

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!

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.