Wondering what life is like as an apprentice at ClickThrough? Kieran McCormack takes us through his experience in starting an apprenticeship in the middle of a pandemic!

WHAT I’VE LEARNT IN MY FIRST 3 MONTHS AS AN APPRENTICE

Hi, I’m Kieran and I’m a recent addition to the DPM team, hired as a DPM apprentice. My apprenticeship provider has challenged me to a social media project, where I take charge across ClickThrough’s social platforms for the week! As part of this, I decided to introduce myself properly, via blog post, and clue you in on my experiences in my first few months as an apprentice here at ClickThrough Marketing.

The First Week

From the moment I was offered the apprentice role I knew that I was in for a completely new experience, especially considering it would be my first marketing and office-based job - even though I was aware of this I still didn’t know what to expect or how to fully prepare for a first week. Luckily, being a laid-back person, I try to enjoy new experiences without overthinking and not get stressed about anything that hasn’t happened yet, which is great for times like this (though some might say it can be a slight burden at times!).

My first day was all about getting to know the company and the people involved. Thanks to Vic and Debbie outlining everything in the induction, this process was made to feel easy and I instantly could tell the company was a good fit for me, which definitely helped with settling in! I was lucky that in my first week a few members of the DPM team were working in the office as restrictions weren’t as strict as they are now, so I was grateful in that aspect as I could get introduced to certain members of the team who also helped my understanding of my role and objectives contributing to the department.

ClickThrough’s Culture

During my time here I have managed to get a grasp of the culture that ClickThrough Marketing inherits and what they are trying to achieve with their employees. Coming from a non-marketing background, it has helped me understand the attitude that digital marketing agencies have in and out of work as different people from various departments have all given their insights to me and let me know what I’ve got to look forward to.

I’ve been assured that working remotely means I’m getting less of the ‘ClickThrough’ experience as normally there would be social opportunities, events and more to enjoy with my colleagues. However, I’ve still been able to enjoy some benefits and social experiences that I wasn’t expecting, which has been a huge bonus! If I’m enjoying the ClickThrough culture this much while working rom home, without a doubt it will be even better once everything goes back to normality and we can all work in the office again.

What I’ve learnt about ClickThrough

The Job

Once I completed all the mandatory introductory procedures it was time to get into the mindset of the role itself of DPM apprentice. I had no experience in this industry - though I had covered the topic briefly at university and at school, this was going to be nowhere near enough learning for what lies ahead.

At first there was a lot of what seemed to me as alien jargon thanks to all the acronyms that were flying about in conversations I was involved in or observing, but I understood this would-be normal procedure when starting out at entry level in an industry I had never worked in. Like I said, I’m pretty laid back so I didn’t let this phase me too much and just noted down anything I wasn’t sure of so I’d remember them for next time they came up! After a few weeks I realised there’s a lot more to digital marketing than acronyms, but I know that I’ll learn everything over time and it wasn’t possible to cover the whole of the industry in just a couple of weeks!

With thanks to extremely detailed and well carried out training I have been able to slowly understand the job role and everything that happens in the industry and organisation, I have learned more in 3 months here than I ever did at university it feels which gives myself a lot of belief and hope for my future at ClickThrough.

The People

Since I started working since the age of 16, over the years I have found to realise that sometimes its not always the job that you’re doing it’s the people you work with that can make your experience an enjoyable one, which can sometimes be a worrying uncertainty when starting a new job. Consequently, with the pandemic restrictions it means I have not had the pleasure to meet over 50% of the people at ClickThrough, (outside of our whole company zoom, ChatThrough, which happens on Fridays), which will inevitably mean it take a little longer to get to know every single employee here!

However in saying that, the virtual social nights and other activities have managed to get myself and other new starters easily involved with the rest of the workforce and so far my 1-to-1 and group experiences with people have been great! A real positive is being able to get involved with the work football team on Tuesday nights as I have been able to meet new people from departments outside of DPM that I wouldn’t communicate with at this moment in time so that’s been a massive benefit and it has also given me a sense of the out of work activities and events that take place.

Although remote working has restricted mine and others’ ability to socialise in person, going in and out of lockdown has put everyone in the same boat and has brought the company together, in a way. We’re all virtually living the same life and are at home in our comfort zones, so having this common ground has probably helped give us something to chat about, in some respects! My experience here so far with everyone has been excellent, and I look forward to meeting everyone in person when life is back to normal!

Be sure to keep an eye on ClickThrough’s LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram accounts to get even more of an insight into my life as a ClickThrough apprentice!