Alex joined WRENmedia in January of 2018, working first as a paid intern and then as a full-time employee. Ahead of moving on to new opportunities in London, he takes a look back at his year with the company.
Located in rural Suffolk, working at WRENmedia is already worlds apart from working in a daunting and stressful office. The friendly team of seven employees increase the sense of welcoming and, on my first day at the company, this was a pleasant relief to a nervous newcomer. Nevertheless, the countryside location does not mean that the company is cut off from the sector that it operates in; in fact, within my first month with the company, I had sat in on conference calls to clients around the world and accompanied my colleagues on business trips to London and the Netherlands. Soon enough, I was settled in as the company’s new intern and I was made to feel like an integral part of the team.
At first, some of the terminology that is used in the agricultural science sector was difficult to interpret, especially as I don’t have a particularly scientific background. It was certainly a little challenging trying to understand and then write about the latest agricultural advances in the developing world when my previous writing experience was in history, politics and local news. However, by immersing myself in the topics, I quickly got to grips with phrases such as ‘value chain’ and ‘climate-smart,’ which can make an appearance in the articles, publications and reports I review almost every day.
As an intern at WRENmedia, I had the chance to try my hand at all sorts of tasks, including writing and proofreading the publication reviews and editing the high-level interviews that feature in Spore magazine. The role also afforded me the opportunity to build upon skills I had gained from previous employment, for example, writing social media posts and working to increase the following of some of the accounts we manage, both for WRENmedia and on behalf of other clients. Before too long, thanks to mentoring and support from across the team, I was able to work more independently, which led to me becoming fully employed at WRENmedia. This allowed me to take on new and interesting tasks, such as hunting for relevant articles about agribusiness and agricultural development that could be shared every week on the Spore website. I was also able to undertake an advanced social media training course in Norwich, following which, I produced the monthly and quarterly analytics for the Spore social media accounts. The latter also resulted in me being responsible for creating a detailed presentation to deliver to the Spore editorial team during my second visit to the Netherlands.
From promoting posts on social media, to interviewing sector leaders and editing detailed agricultural reports, we all take on a multitude of different roles at WRENmedia. This has helped me to learn on the job and to grow in confidence each week (and that’s without mentioning the team French lessons that I joined in July!)
It has been a fantastic experience being part of the WRENmedia team, with ongoing opportunities to learn and write about new topics within a fascinating and progressive sector. Very quickly, I picked up the tone of voice that readers and clients expect and, before long, I was using the sector terminology just like everyone else.
As I prepare to leave the company, I am confident that the skills I have gained from working at WRENmedia will stand me in good stead and allow me to embrace the new opportunities that moving to London will present. And, of course, I will be keeping track of WRENmedia’s activities in 2019 by keeping in touch on social media!
Alex Miller