Personal Development in Industry

By Guest Blogger: Brian Lonsdale
Business owner
Smarter Digital Marketing Ltd

Taking a gap year to try something different before starting University was always something which I had thought about from a younger age, like most. The majority of students don’t know what they want to do when they are in University. It’s quite common to hear.

I started looking for internship opportunities when I was in School. My Year in Industry (YINI) began before University, however, a lot of people choose to do The Year in Industry Programme after University too.

I wanted to understand what working life actually meant, and the only way I was going to get this experience was by taking part in an internship. Luckily enough I joined The Edrington Group in Glasgow, Scotland at their distribution and whisky bond.

Learning New Skills

If you are about to or have just started in your new internship role then you may be surprised at how much work is assigned to you. Firstly, don’t be scared.

For me, at the beginning my internship was structured cohesively. Within the department I was working on multiple projects, supporting many of my IT colleagues. I learnt a lot of transferrable skills during my internship. Learning how to manage my workload was one of the first things I realised I had to get good at. I challenged myself at all times during my Year in Industry experience. This meant taking on additional tasks with the vision of learning more and gaining a deeper understanding of IT in a general sense.
 

Improving self-awareness

My YINI experience definitely improved and enhanced my self-awareness. The programme was a great platform for helping me actualise my aims and goals with regards to my career. Another element of the course which was great was that I was the management development programme. This allowed me to learn new management skills which I could carry over to my business.

Self-knowledge

Doing an internship or placement, such as YINI, increases your industry knowledge, this is critical to anyone wishing to secure a graduate job as you will be tested at many stages prior to starting your new role. I gained a deeper insight into technology and how technology impacts on business decisions. For example, I helped migrate a new system which was dependant on older technologies.


Becoming a self-leader

Being able to plan tasks yourself is integral to managing a team. You will need to possess these skills before you can plan and manage others. YINI allowed me this opportunity as a learning experience.

For example, we had to fill out a diary of our year, this meant that I kept track of all tasks and activities throughout the year. It also gave me a point of reference to touch on at the end of the year. This allowed me to understand the year comprehensively and realise what I had actually completed (a very rewarding year!).

Renewing identity/self-esteem

I was able to develop many strengths and talents throughout the year, such as becoming a better public speaker, improving task management, improving my self-confidence and gaining a finer eye for detail due to the nature of my placement, which was predominantly Information Technology (IT) based.


Transferrable Skills

The YINI experience was a great opportunity and I have successfully transferred all the skills which I learned during this time to my new start-up business, Smarter Digital Marketing Ltd.

I started a digital marketing agency in August 2014. It has always been my dream to run a business. Therefore, I formed a plan after University while working for a few small Glasgow based digital marketing agencies. Once I had an idea of where I wanted to go, and what I wanted to do, I put this plan into action and began building my business website. Once I built the website we got listed on Google and started marketing ourselves online, positioning the business towards the local Glasgow marketplace.