Hellma's week at Rockadove

Feeling nervous…

“I’ve been really lucky to have been given the chance to work with Rockadove this week. I was really excited about coming here, but I’m a very shy person, so I was also really nervous. After climbing up four sets of stairs to get up to their office on the first day, I was met with smiles and handshakes and they were all really nice to me straight away. It didn’t even take me a minute to realise that it had been really stupid of me to be so nervous about meeting them all.”

“They had organised a full and varied timetable with different tasks for me to work with throughout the week, to help me get the most out of my experience at Rockadove. My first task was to put together a 10-15 minute presentation that I had to present for them a couple of days later. Just the word “presentation” is terrifying to me, and the prospect of having to present to three sets of eyes that have so much more knowledge and experience about “the real world” than me was really intimidating. However, I did the presentation and to my surprise I was still alive after. I quickly realised that it’s good to do things that scare you, and the reason they asked me to do it is that I’ll be more prepared for the next time I have to do something like it.”

“Through the week I’ve been writing some blog posts for Rockadove’s website about how different kind of video can help businesses when it comes to everything from connecting with clients and new potential clients to employees and co-workers. I also got to write about how Cardiff Bay is a good digital hub, as there are so many digital companies and the area is constantly growing business wise.”

Experiencing two awards events

“On Thursday, I was able to attend the Wales Blog Awards with the team where we were filming at the event, and were sponsors of the Best Multimedia Blog award. It was really nice experiencing how they work when they’re out and about filming and to mingle with people from other companies before the actual awards show. When I came to the office on Friday morning, I put together a blog post about the awards show and the blog that won the award for the best multimedia blog.”

“A bit later on Friday morning, we went to the IoD’s Director of the Year Awards to put some marketing material on the tables at the venue. We were supposed to head back to the office afterwards, but as we were there, we were invited to stay, so of course we said yes. Again we walked around talking to people from different companies, drank champagne (at noon!), enjoyed some music performed by ‘Only Men Aloud’, we were served a three course meal and wine and then watched the awards being handed out. After the award we stayed for a few minutes mingling, before I went back to the office with Sarah for an hour to work before taking the weekend off.”

What I’ve learnt this week

“I’ve gotten to do so much this week and I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s so nice to have the opportunity to get work experience; you just learn so much in so little time. You can’t learn about how it is to work in an actual job from reading a text book and I’m so glad and grateful that Lloyd took his time to read and reply to my e-mail, and that he gave me a chance to come here and work at Rockadove for the week. In a week I’ve even started to love the routine of getting up early in the morning, work all day and then get to relax in the evening. And trust me, as a student I love sleeping in and to staying up all night, but getting into this routine has been really nice and beneficial for me.”

“This week has passed so quickly and I’ve enjoyed myself so much. The people at Rockadove are so nice and so good at what they do. Even though I’ve only been here for a week I’m really going to miss coming into the office every morning.”

“Thank you so much for having me, Lloyd, Sarah and the rest of the team. I really had a great time and I hope to see you all again soon.”

We’re always keen to help students gain important skills that can only be obtained from the workplace to help them for their future careers. It’s important that businesses offer these opportunities and help develop future talent.

– Lloyd Morgan, Managing Director of Rockadove.