Hey distillery!
You say you’re all about winning new fans for brands. Well, guess what? I’m your biggest fan now, too!
When I first found out about this internship back in March, I was thrilled. I had zero experience in account management, but I was excited to learn.
I started reading up on distillery and watched some of your campaign videos. The campaign that caught my attention was the one for celebrity patissier Eric Lanlard, which brought together social strategy, content strategy, and made good use of social listening, resulting in an incredibly engaging campaign!
I thought the interview might be intimidating, but it was really smooth (thankfully!) and the team made me feel super comfortable. I remember one question in particular: what emoji describes you the best? Such a fun question to include, something out of the ordinary, which made me feel that my experience at this company would definitely be something special! Well, that was the start of me becoming your biggest fan. I still stand by the emoji I chose: 🤪
Shortly after that interview, Singapore imposed a ‘circuit breaker’ due to COVID-19, which meant that employees everywhere needed to work from home if possible.
I knew my internship would now be a virtual one, which definitely was a challenge for me. I wasn’t sure how I would cope with that, especially since I hadn’t even met the Singapore team in person! But I was pleasantly surprised with how at ease I felt in my first week working with you. I can’t imagine that onboarding your first intern - and your first virtual colleague - across Singapore and the UK was an easy task, but you all welcomed me warmly and made it so easy to get started working together.
So what am I taking away from this internship, you ask? Loads!
As an account management intern, I learned how client-agency relationships work, and what goes on behind the scenes to make sure a project is delivered perfectly. I had the opportunity to work on a wide range of tasks, from compiling logos and creating slides from scratch to brainstorming ideas for social media, from assessing the competitor landscape in Singapore to updating different project documents regularly to keep things on track.
I also learned to communicate better. At the start, I had so many questions. But working from home just like all of you, I couldn’t exactly turn around and tap someone on the shoulder for help. Instead, I’d have to send them a message.
And yet, it wasn’t that simple. I kept second guessing myself:
“Is this a stupid question?”
“Are they going to hate me for asking this?”
“Should I just wing it?”
Worried that not being able to chat in person might lead to misinterpretation of my messages, I started off really hesitant to reach out.
But as the days went by, I realised that if I didn’t ask questions, the only person losing out would be me. I also realised that there’s no such thing as a stupid question at distillery - you’re really encouraged to just ask away! Because you gave me a safe space, over the months I became more confident to express my thoughts openly. I mean, you even gave me a chance to lead briefing calls!! ME? Lead?? Mind=blown 🤯
Yup, communication really became an instrumental part of my day-to-day.
One more big takeaway would have to be learning to pace myself. While juggling many different tasks at once, it was important to work everything through step by step, and not rush into them at once. I learned to set internal deadlines for myself and keep track of what I did on a day-to-day basis. As someone who wasn’t really that organised before, this internship gave me a chance to sharpen my skills and channel my inner Marie Kondo 🤩
I can’t believe how fast these three months have flown by! I’m so grateful that I was given this internship - and the opportunity to work with such amazing people (that’s you!) on some really interesting projects.
From Singapore to London, thank you so much for welcoming me into your family. I couldn’t have pictured a better virtual internship experience.
Your Biggest Fan,
Shwetha
P/S: Remember this cute snap of us after our virtual escape room experience? So funny!
