Inside my internship at webdna

This year, our University of Nottingham interns came from very different academic backgrounds and brought their own skills and a fresh perspective to the team. Emma is currently studying History, while Arun has recently completed his Master’s in Computer Science. They joined us through the university's six-week internship programme, which attracts strong interest each year. It's a highly competitive programme; this year, around 3,647 students applied across the 110 internship roles!

By Emma Boston 

Before starting my internship at webdna, I wanted to learn as much as possible. I knew I was interested in marketing, but I wasn’t entirely sure which areas I’d enjoy the most. I wanted to gain hands-on experience, absorb as much information as I possibly could and get a better understanding of what working in marketing is really like.

What surprised me the most was how much more analytical marketing is than I expected.  Before starting, I imagined it would mainly focus on the creative side, but I quickly realised there is a lot of research, planning and strategy involved too. 

I was also surprised by how much writing is part of digital marketing. I hadn’t realised blogs and website copy were such a big part of the industry, but it turned out to be one of the parts I enjoyed most. Chatting with Arun, my fellow intern, we both agreed that the team made settling in really easy. Everyone was welcoming, supportive and happy to answer questions from day one. 

I study history and I found that many of my skills transferred well. It wasn't just essay writing, the research skills played a big part because, as I came to find out, marketing involves a lot of adaptability to new topics, industries and audiences. Even though Arun and I came from different degree backgrounds, we both found that communication skills were just as important as technical knowledge. 

Emma’s history background shone through from day one, her ability to dive into unfamiliar topics, research thoroughly, and turn that into compelling copy was impressive. She approached every challenge with enthusiasm and creativity, and she made a genuinely valuable contribution to our team and our client campaigns.

Throughout my internship, I’ve worked on a variety of marketing projects, from content creation and social media to email marketing. It was great to work on client projects and see my work become part of live campaigns. It also became clear that interns are trusted with meaningful work, which made the experience feel genuinely valuable. 

The part I enjoyed the most was article writing. I liked researching different topics and seeing a piece of content develop from an idea into something ready to publish. I also enjoyed using Craft CMS to build pages and seeing the finished result. And creating social media posts encouraged me to explore the more creative side of marketing. 

One of the biggest things I learned was how important teamwork is. Everyone at webdna was really supportive and approachable, which made it much easier to ask questions and learn along the way. I quickly realised that no question is a silly question. Asking for help and being curious is one of the best ways to develop your skills! 

One thing that stood out to both Arun and me was how much a positive working environment influences the quality of the work people produce. The internship has definitely made me want to explore marketing as a future career. I really enjoyed the mix of creativity, research and problem-solving, and it has helped me understand which areas of marketing I would like to continue with. 

For Arun, the experience confirmed that quality assurance and testing was the direction he wanted to pursue and that agency life was the type of environment he could see himself working in. 

Arun brought a fantastic level of curiosity and analytical thinking to the technical side of things. His desire to learn and taking things a step further made him a real asset to the team, and it’s been brilliant watching him find his feet in agency life.

My biggest advice to future interns would be to be a sponge. Get involved in as much as you can, ask questions and make the most of the people around you. You’ll discover far more than you expect, regardless of what you’re studying, and you’ll come away with valuable experience. 

So make the most out of the experience!