Before I came to Fantastic I’d had previous work experience going to an Ambulance Headquarters but only shadowing workers and watching what they were doing. Although it was very interesting, it’s not a career I’m wanting to go into and therefore it wasn’t that beneficial to me. When I started college, I had no idea what I wanted to do in the future, as most don’t at 16, so I picked subjects that just sounded interesting and ended up with a very weird combination of options (Media Studies, Religious Studies and Sociology).
The more time I spent in these lessons, I developed a love for Media as I found it so interesting and I loved the creative side of it. This quickly led to me maybe wanting to do Media when I go to university and perusing it as a future career. I wasn’t sure how a media company worked or exactly what they did so I googled nearby media companies to try find some work experience and found Fantastic Media.
What I did at Fantastic
From day one I was given briefs and jobs to complete, making you get a feel for the actual work they do. I did research, for their new website project with Skopes where I looked at their website and competitors to see where improvements could be made to the original Skopes’ website. I’ve also written a blog post for an electric bike company, where I promoted electric bikes and why they are a good investment.
I’ve also sat in various meetings, one with Skopes about their new website, which in particular really opened my eyes to the work Fantastic do and I felt really engaged by the meeting. I wrote notes about what was said at the meeting and then wrote a document of it when I was back at the office.
Another thing I did at Fantastic, was researching different blogs to help promote brands like Simmonsohn, who sell tandem bikes. I found this interesting as I read blogs in my spare time and already had prior knowledge of some bloggers that might be good and interested in promoting these bikes.
The Fantastic Team made a real effort to make sure I had jobs to be getting on with and really makes you feel welcome here and not just some ‘nobody’ on work experience.
My changed perceptions
Although I was only at Fantastic for 5 days, it has been a real eye opener on my perceptions of the industry. Ever since I had to start thinking about what I wanted to do after college, I was constantly changing my mind about whether I wanted to go to university or if I just wanted to go into full time work. Sometimes I wasn’t sure if university was going to be right for me and vice versa.
This experience has made me nearly 100% sure I want to go to university, as many of the workers at Fantastic had done courses I was interested in and said how much they loved university. I would love to work for a company much like Fantastic in the future and I feel like going to university will give me the skills to get there.
Summary
Overall, I have really enjoyed my week at Fantastic and felt welcome in this really friendly environment. My favourite part of the week was going to the Skopes meeting about the new website as it opened my eyes to the industry the most and I found it really interesting and engaged in the meeting as I’d already done research into this project.