Since graduating from university, I’ve found it really challenging to find entry level roles in the creative industries in Scotland so when I came across the UNLOCKED internship programme I was delighted to find a paid opportunity in Glasgow. I knew as soon as I saw the list of partners that STV was my top choice as during my studies in music I specialised in music for screen and the music industries. Plus, I have always fancied working within television or production. The internship appealed to me as though I studied a creative subject, I have worked mostly in customer service and administration so have been looking for a route into a more creative role. I wasn’t sure what kind of role I wanted to be in so I figured that an internship would be a great opportunity as I would be able to try out lots of different roles and this would help me find the one that’s right for me!

During the 4-week internship I worked with two teams, the in-house creative team and the commercial creative team, so I spent two weeks within each which really gave me a broad idea about the different roles available at STV. During my time with the in-house team, I was given the task of creating an advertising campaign for a TV show of my choice from the STV Player. I got to create the whole campaign from conception to delivery which included producing adverts that were 60, 30, 20, and 10 seconds long.

In-house Creative Team

This experience was definitely a highlight from the internship for me as I have always enjoyed video editing, particularly sound editing and mixing, and I learnt so much from the different members of the team. It was fascinating to see how the internal adverts and marketing materials were created and delivered and how many different people were involved from the creatives, producers, editors, and sound mixers to the voice actors, and designers. Everyone in the team was so welcoming and keen to help me get settled in. I also got the chance to speak with the Music Rights Manager at STV which was great as I have also always been interested and intrigued by music industry roles such as music rights management and A&R (artists and repertoire).

All of the team took a real interest in my background in music and encouraged me to get involved with all aspects of the campaign creation. On my final day with the in-house team, I spent the whole day in the dubbing suite with one of STV’s talented sound mixers and even got to record some Foley sound effects for my advert!

I learnt a lot across my time with the in-house team, getting to know everyone and seeing them working on their own campaigns as well as assisting me with mine. It was a great experience and definitely made the distant world of creative production seem a lot more accessible.

I received really good feedback on my advertising campaign and my 30, 20, and 10 second adverts are scheduled to be transmitted on air and on the STV Player in November, so hopefully that means I did a good job!

It was really lovely that despite being so new to the role and still learning to feel that the team trusted me enough to give me the opportunity to make something for actual final delivery. It was also an eye-opening experience seeing how quickly campaigns can be turned around sometimes and how deadlines are sometimes sprung on the team out of nowhere and made within a very short timescale. The first two weeks went by extremely fast and just as I felt settled, I headed upstairs to work with the commercial creative team to learn a whole new set of roles and get stuck into new tasks!

Commercial Creative Team

At the midpoint of my internship, I was really enjoying the experience, but I was no closer to figuring out which roles specifically I wanted to go into in the future. It was great getting to meet the commercial team and see how they work and my first week with them, awareness of the roles I could possibly go into only expanded further!

I got stuck in shadowing and getting to know everyone in the commercial team as well as working on my own tasks. It was great to see a snapshot of some of the more practical aspects of the industry such as location recces and production shoots. It was also a good experience to see how this team responded to external briefs from clients, as opposed to the internal creative briefs from downstairs as the process was quite different. It definitely took me some getting used to but by my final week I felt much more comfortable responding to external briefs and coming up with advertising concepts for external clients.

At the end of my internship, I had to deliver a pitch with original concepts responding to the brief I was given at the start of the week. This was a really great learning experience as I have not done much pitching or presenting and my confidence in this area even just across the two weeks vastly improved.

My experience as a whole

Overall, the experience I got through my UNLOCKED internship with STV Creative was invaluable.

One of the most useful key learnings for me was probably gained through my series of one-to-one meetings with colleagues to get to know them and their roles. In these meetings, I always made sure to ask about the route that led them into their current role.

I found learning about the pathways that other people have taken to get where they are was eye-opening and encouraging as often shifting between different roles feels like a very difficult task. I learnt so much and the experience really gave me the confidence in my existing skills that can be applied to several different roles. Since the internship ended, I have been looking for work and hoping to secure something within the creative industries. I am still yet to narrow down to specific aspirations, but I would love to be a Producer or Sound Editor / Mixer in the future.

The internship really helped me get to know the different roles in-depth and get a sense for which roles my skill set matches as well as which ones I enjoy the most! I have also met so many amazing and talented people in an industry where who you know is everything, so I hope to cross paths with the lovely STV Creative folks again soon!

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