Time flies when you’re having fun! MillaMay and Nick have been with us throughout the summer, working on everything from business strategy to client projects. And while they’re both staying on with us in different ways, we sat them down once more to find out how they found the last three months and what skills they’ll take into the next chapter.
Milla: From lawtech to baby cows
My dad said to me the other day that everyone remembers their first job, and to be able to look back and think of Allegory as mine is something I will always be grateful for. Throughout my three-month internship, I have gained experience and learnt lessons that will stick with me for the rest of my professional and personal life. Allegory has given me the space to develop new skills and grow my confidence.
My role at Allegory has involved predominantly client work. I have been fortunate enough to see multiple campaigns all the way through, from the initial meetings with the client to getting our work published in outlets like The Times and The Scotsman. I’ve worked with a range of clients, which means my daily activities are greatly varied: one minute I’ll be researching law firms in Wales, the next I’ll be writing press releases about baby calves. This has been one of my favourite things about my time at Allegory, as I stay alert by keeping my days busy and varied.
Another personal highlight of mine has been seeing our work get published. To be part of a team working tirelessly to produce stories, press releases, and pitches (especially under a time crunch!) and reap the reward of seeing your piece in a big publication is extremely gratifying. That’s the other thing about Allegory; you’re part of a team. The word ‘intern’ often makes you picture meaningless tasks, admin, and very little contact with the ‘seniors’. But at Allegory, Nick and I have been welcomed just as any other member of staff, and we’ve been trusted with a growing number of tasks as our time here has progressed. In my final weeks, I’ve been handling the social media for one client during a very busy campaign week, and sending case study enquiries for another, managing responses for thirteen different companies. When I started at Allegory, I would not have had the skills, but more importantly, the confidence to manage these tasks, and I am grateful for the development this experience has offered me.
During my final week of the internship, I look back at my time at Allegory and see nothing but growth. Coming into the workplace was a scary prospect for me. As someone who has always thrived in smaller academic institutions, the big, bad ‘real world’ was rather intimidating. Allegory has done nothing but ease these worries, helping me become a more confident, skilled, and able professional.
Nick: Brave new world of AI
Working at Allegory has been the best start to a professional career in media and communications that anyone could have asked for. Over the past three months, Allegory has provided me with the space and opportunity to develop new research skills and deliver on major projects, such as the very website on which you’re reading this blog! Indeed, it has been a pleasure and a great honour to work alongside such a deeply experienced and knowledgeable team, who have been nothing but welcoming and approachable to Milla and myself.
My time at Allegory involved a mix of client work and internal tasks. My personal highlights include: producing research and newsletters for the Open Data Institute, being involved in discussions about Solid, which – as someone who always been conscious of data privacy (or the lack thereof) – is an exciting and promising development, and of course, this website, for which I’ve delivered a complete visual refresh, a more coherent brand narrative, and better categorisation of all pages for ease of access and SEO optimisation.
One thing I didn’t expect when I started my internship was how comfortable I would be with using generative AI. Now – to be clear – I’m still hugely sceptical about generative AI. It still has an unhelpful tendency to ‘hallucinate’, i.e., make things up, and that’s not to mention the seriously damaging environmental impacts of its resource-hungry datacentres. But working at Allegory has shown me that there are legitimate, effective ways to use AI – in particular, numerical, mechanical tasks – as well as less effective ways to use AI, such as in research and writing, where (in my opinion) you’re better off doing the task yourself. With AI looking to stick around for the foreseeable future, being able to make this judgment call is a core skill that I would not have otherwise developed if not given the space to experiment at Allegory.
After my internship, I feel more confident in my professional skills, both technological and personal, and I’ve certainly learnt a great deal about how the industry works. At the end of the day, we were paid on time, the hours were flexible, and there were free snacks in the office. What’s not to like?
