What’s it like to intern with a tech startup?

Last month we teamed up with WorkFinder to support their Ada Lovelace campaign which seeks to support female undergraduates looking to start a career in technology. We were delighted to offer a 2 week Digital Marketing placement to Cecily Raine, a Business undergrad from Lincoln University.

Here’s how Cecily found her 2 weeks with us:

As a Business Studies graduate with a couple of years digital marketing experience under my belt, but no history of working in the tech industry, it was a slight stab in the dark applying for this internship at FocalPoint. However, the job description and company culture sounded exactly like what I was looking for, as well as the chance to learn about a new industry. Meeting Lucy and Becky for an informal interview over Google Meet was great. Getting more of an insight of what FocalPoint stood for as a company and their goals only heightened my enthusiasm for the role. The more I got to know the company, the people behind it, and their products, the more I understood that it’s not just for deep tech lovers to pay attention to, but heavily impacts the average person’s day-to-day life.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve worked closely with Lucy over Slack to complete tasks ahead of an upcoming company milestone announcement. Tasks included social media content creation, copywriting and PR list segmentation and PR research. We’d have an occasional relaxed catch-up over video where Lucy would give feedback on my completed work and suggest new tasks. In my first week, I got the chance to have a chat with their VP of Marketing, Tom. It was interesting getting to know him and getting his perspective of the company. He was enthusiastic to ensure I got as much from the internship as I could, and was happy for me to explore a variety of areas in digital marketing I wanted practice in.

Despite working from home 100 miles from FocalPoint’s main office in Cambridge, communicating over Google Meets and Slack made it easy to stay in touch and be productive. I’ve loved working for a company that embraces remote working and having a good work-life balance, whether that’s during a pandemic or not. FocalPoint understands that sometimes life doesn’t follow the standard 9 to 5 schedule, whether that’s needing an hour or so out of your day, or starting late if you’re more productive later in the evening, as long as you meet your deadlines. It’s rare to find a company that trusts their employees to get the work done on their terms; it’s refreshing and makes working at FocalPoint even more desirable.

While it’s a shame my internship only lasted for 2 weeks, I know I’ve got some valuable experience to add to my CV. Despite being short, it’s been very sweet. Anyone that’s lucky enough to work alongside Lucy and the team will have a brilliant time and gain plenty of experience as well. I highly recommend choosing to work at FocalPoint.

Becky Read, our Senior Hiring Manager explains why it’s important to champion tech diversity: “These focused 2-week placements are a great tool for businesses, tech or otherwise, to help develop the next generation of talent. We’ve provided a small window for Cecily to experience working with a deep-tech startup whilst also delivering us real commercial value.”

“It’s been an absolute pleasure working with Cecily on the PR campaign - she tackled the tasks enthusiastically and methodically which definitely shows in the resulting assets she created for us. Reading her blog above, I’m chuffed she’s gained valuable insight from working with the team and peeking into the technical world here at FocalPoint.” comments Lucy Woods, our Marketing Exec.

If you haven’t thought about offering an internship at your place of work, we strongly encourage you to suss out WorkFinder.