Louise Henderson joined Pagoda PR in January 2023 as part of her university placement working as a Digital Intern. Louise reflects on how far she has come, her experience of agency life and the digital skills she has developed.
You may remember reading my digital intern blog last summer, where I spoke about my experience working at Pagoda as part of my Work Based Learning module at university. Since then, I’ve been promoted to ‘Digital Assistant’, allowing me to become more integrated into the Pagoda team. Originally, my internship was only meant to last for 20 weeks, so it was an amazing feeling being asked to stay – it offered more of an opportunity to grow my skills and experience.
Taking on my new role allowed me to adopt more responsibilities. This was a very proud moment for me, showing that my hard work and dedication was paying off.
Working alongside my colleague Melissa, who is Pagoda’s Digital Content Strategist, played a huge role in my development, especially in the digital aspect. The skills and knowledge I have gained through working with Melissa have prepared me well for future digital marketing positions.
Along with Melissa I co-presented a ‘Buzz session’ to the team on our findings from the PRCA Social Media Predictions Webinar. The topics we discussed included dark social media, being reactive with your audience, influencer exchanges and the coming of age of Gen Alpha – all very interesting topics, and ones that have some surprising predictions. This was something totally out of my comfort zone, however I thoroughly enjoyed taking part and it was great to see an in-depth discussion develop over it.
My passion for social media management and content creation within client work has continued, although I have particularly enjoyed the more recent role of video-editing. Seeing my work efforts make a difference to client’s engagement and increasing income for their business has been the most rewarding part of my job.
Whilst at Pagoda I have had many more fantastic opportunities, such as attending the CIPR PRIDE Awards, where we secured two silver awards (Best Long-Term Client Care and Best Channel Delivery). This was a great opportunity to network with other individuals within the Scottish PR world and experience it as a team. I’ve also enjoyed the regular Pagoda socials which have recently included a ‘sausage-sizzle’, water-pong and a pub quiz.
As my time at Pagoda comes to an end, it has been great to reflect on what I have achieved in just over a year. I can’t thank Team Pagoda enough for their continued support, expertise and for giving me the opportunity to enhance my experience and knowledge in the digital field. I hope to take this knowledge with me as I continue my digital marketing career.
If you haven’t read my digital internship blog yet but are interested in pursuing an internship yourself and want to know more, you can read it here.
