“What do I do now?”

It’s a common question that most graduates ask themselves. You’ve got your degree, and now it’s time to jump into the world. But what do you do, and where do you start? As a student, the word “career”, and even “job”, can be intimidating.

You’re often told that by graduation, you should have the next few years mapped out and planned. However, in reality for most students - including myself - this just isn’t the case. When graduation does eventually come around, and you still don’t have a clue, that can lead to a little bit of a panic. 

Yes, finishing university and officially being classed as an ‘adult’, can be a stressful time. But I also found that it was a great opportunity, and an ideal point in my life to reflect. So after the ceremony, some time spent staring at my student debt, and a few part-time jobs later, I decided to do just that. I properly reflected. 

It was clear that I wanted to work for a company that I was truly excited about. I didn’t want just another bar job. I wanted something that would be a good fit for me. I’ve always been interested in internships, especially the element of really getting to know a place and role by working my way up through a company. What resonates with me about internships is that they are a great, practical way of letting you know if a job or career is for you. It reminds me of those free samples you pick up from the supermarket. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it! It’s a perfect solution to that post-graduation collision between expectation and inexperience. 

So the research began. I scoured the internet, watching plenty of those ‘best jobs’ videos on YouTube. Eventually, I found an internship position at a company called Fourth Floor, an influencer marketing agency with a significant number of videogames clients, who specialise in connecting brands with content creators on YouTube, Twitch, and other social content platforms. You’re on their website right now. 

Above: It was clear from the start that this was an environment that resonated.

This was one of those diamonds-in-the-rough moments. Coming from a creative background - with a passion for videogames expressed via endless nights watching streams on Twitch, and countless hours watching YouTubers - I knew this internship was definitely for me. 

I liked how it didn’t sound like a stereotypical internship. It wasn’t what you see in movies, with that one unfortunate newbie who runs around an office fetching coffee, and being everyone’s unofficial personal assistant. Fourth Floor’s approach to internships is far from that. In fact, rather than just giving me (real) experience working in one area of the business, it was split into three equal parts, with meaningful responsibility actively encouraged. 

I started my internship in the Commerce team, with my first responsibility being to help with customer service for Fourth Floor’s merchandise platform, Fresh Merch. Having come from a sales job where the main experience I had of customer service was from cold calling - an experience that I did not enjoy, where nearly all of my customer interactions were based around forced conversations, and the endless sound of dial tones and voicemails - it would be accurate to say that I was initially hesitant. 

However, this is where pursuing your interests, and finding a good company fit, make a vitally important difference. Now that I’m excited to go to work, interested in the services that we offer, inspired by Fourth Floor’s story, and passionate about the industry I work in, customer service has become something I enjoy. Being genuinely motivated by the culture and cause has driven me to think externally, because good customer experience should always be paramount.

After Commerce, I moved to the Campaigns side of the business. It’s here that we concentrate on connecting brands with influencers and their audiences, by creating authentic and targeted content partnerships. We do this by giving support where needed, offering insight, making informed decisions backed up by data, and choosing the right creators to help promote the client’s brand and/or product. 

With the Campaigns team, I helped source and vet creators for upcoming campaigns. This is one of the most important steps, and acts as the brick-and-mortar for the rest of the campaign. Creators we put forward to our clients must be relevant, brand-safe, and genuinely influential. To help build this essential part of a campaign as an intern was hugely rewarding, and it made me feel like I was truly contributing to the bigger picture, further increasing my investment. 

After Campaigns, I moved to the Advocacy team. Advocacy revolves around finding longer-term advocates for brands (or as we like to call them at Fourth Floor, Ambassadors). They must be passionate about an upcoming project, and want to share that excitement with like-minded creators and their audiences. Our Fourth Floor Ambassador programmes come in all sorts of sizes, ranging from projects centred around huge, AAA titles, right through to advocacy for small indie games.

Managing such a programme is a sustained, long-term effort, running all the way from sourcing and onboarding appropriate content creators, to maintaining updates on the latest news and announcements over the duration of a development cycle, as well as, fueling a critical mass of excitement for the game’s launch and post-release period. I had my eureka moment in Advocacy,  which is where I ultimately feel my strengths lie. I enjoyed my work, and loved the satisfaction of seeing an Ambassador programme grow from an initial list of creators to a budding community filled with like-minded and excited individuals. 

I was an intern at Fourth Floor for six months, and while I knew from the start that it was going to be a great experience, its structure and approach helped me learn lessons that I now know I’ll take with me throughout my working life. 

The first is that taking ownership of your actions in whatever you do is vitally important. For me, this continually re-enforced my accountability as I applied the philosophy in multiple different directions. Taking ownership means taking the initiative to bring about positive results, and actively explore solutions to a problem instead of waiting for someone to tell you what to do. When you take ownership, you also gain a clear and practical view of how your actions affect those around you, that you’d otherwise miss with a more passive working style.

For example, all our campaigns and advocacy programmes begin with sourcing creator suggestions for our clients. This is where we have to demonstrate our industry expertise, and understanding of our client’s brand. It’s a task vital to the success of a campaign, and one requiring constantly updated knowledge and insight, and therefore a job where you cannot afford to be passive in your approach. The upshot is that this thinking builds great momentum, in that the whole process of ownership-led working prompts reflective thinking, and gives a constant feed of perspective on your contributions to the bigger picture. 

The second lesson is that seeking discomfort is critical for growth. Every time I take on new challenges, it expands my comfort zone. Taking on tasks that are difficult encourages growth and increases confidence, leading one to become a better colleague, team member, and eventually leader. During my time as an intern, I sought out tasks that I previously thought I was unable to do. For example, when I joined Fourth Floor I knew that my creative writing skills weren’t particularly up to par. Therefore, I searched out ways to improve this skill over time. 

This is where the discomfort part joins in. Doing something you’re not confident in can, to put it bluntly, suck. It can be a hard and long process to expand your comfort zone. I’m still not exactly sure where I want to be with creative writing, but I know that if I actively challenge myself, seek discomfort, and practice it (like I’m doing here), I will get to where I’m aiming for.

Finally, I learned that whatever you do, organisation is key! Planning ahead helps reduce my stress levels, has made me more reliable, and improved the quality of my work through the sheer efficiency and bandwidth I made available. Organisation is particularly important for Ambassador programmes, as there are so many moving parts, and so many evolving issues to resolve over an extended period of time. Knowing my priorities and having every day planned in advance is instrumental in keeping me afloat.

I loved every second of my internship. Looking back at the thoughts I had at graduation - the concern of ‘What do I do now?’, and the confusion of not knowing what my next step was going to be, I realise now that it’s absolutely fine if you just don’t know. You’ve got to do what’s right for you, and chase opportunities that are beneficial to your own growth. To do that, all you really need is a framework that’s designed to really let you explore that stuff.

This internship helped me grow from a graduate with no sense of direction to a confident member of the Fourth Floor team. Each day has brought an invigorating new challenge, and I feel that even though my internship is over, the lessons that I’ve learned throughout my time as an intern will be a strong foundation that I base the rest of my career off.

Oh, and by the way, I got the job!