How to run remote work experience: 17 learning points from Sookio Bootcamp
As a student, it can be hard to find work experience in marketing. As a business owner with a team working remotely due to coronavirus disruption it can be hard to organise!
But we like a challenge, so at extreme short notice we conjured up a week of remote work experience for graduates at our marketing agency in Cambridge.
17 Zoom calls, 8 creative briefs and 4 training sessions later, I’m proud to say we pulled it off and gave a group of 20 students valuable real-world experience that will help kickstart their careers in marketing.
So what did we learn?
(Oh, we also have all of our hot tips in audiovisual format, so feel free to watch this session I did for Digital Leaders Week instead!)
17 tips for running remote work experience
Set clear objectives
Define who’s in (and who’s out!)
Conquer the paperwork
Clear the diary!
Tell people what to expect
Share essential information
Set the scene
Break the ice
Plan for Zoom fatigue
Online and offline activities
Create a read-watch-listen list
Set people up to win
Mix up the formats
Tangible portfolio content
Ask for feedback
Say thank you
Write a blog post
Ahead of the event
1. Set clear objectives. What do you want to achieve?
Simple. We wanted to run a week of marketing agency work experience.
And because it had to take place online rather than in the office, it meant we could offer a virtual work experience placement for a large group of people instead of the traditional one-to-one setup.
As well as offering practical experience of working in marketing agency, we wanted to give people something tangible at the end, something they could include in their portfolio and which would improve their employment prospects.
2. Define who’s in – and who’s out!
We made it clear that this was marketing agency work experience for graduates or people at degree level. This meant they would have broadly similar skills and would be able to work independently.
Having this distinction meant it was easy to be clear in my original social media posts about who the virtual placement was for, and who it wasn’t.
So not only did I have to write fewer emails disappointing people because they weren’t right, but it meant when I was thinking how to plan remote work experience activities I could pitch everything at the same level.
3. Get on top of the paperwork early
I’ll give myself only 6 or 7 out of ten on this one!
Then again, I came up with the idea one Monday and the whole event kicked off seven days later!
So, there definitely wasn’t enough time for planning. I would recommend:
Compiling a spreadsheet of attendees where you can make notes (for example if someone has to miss a session or to tick off who’s submitted which piece of work)
Create an email list so you can contact everyone in one go
Set out all your creative briefs or challenges for the week
Build the accompanying web page
Check any legal issues to do with GDPR, marketing or use of creative work
4. Clear the diary!
I am the Queen of Massively Underestimating How Much Time Things Will Take (snappy title).
Naturally, I thought running remote work experience would be easy to manage around my usual meetings and projects. A couple of check-ins a day, some tasks – easy. Will I never learn!
As it was, I spent every day running bootcamp, had a quick break to dash to the gym, then worked all evening to catch up on all those tasks from the day that required real concentration.
But! I do think it’s important for continuity to have one host overseeing the whole week. I was totally buzzing all the way through and came out the other end on a total high.
All that hard work has really paid off and we created something truly memorable and valuable.
5. Tell people what to expect
I sent round a document the week before explaining the thinking behind Bootcamp and what was expected of everybody (starts 9am, sharp!)
This covered:
Why are we doing this?
Who you’ll meet
Programme of events
Things to do before you start
Legal bits and bobs
Contact details
This helped give context for the event and prompted people to ask about all those little niggles and queries well ahead of Monday morning, leading to a smooth kick off on the day.
6. Share the timetable, contact info and Zoom links - multiple times!
Don’t just share essential info in a Word doc. Put it in a calendar entry as well and invite everyone. Remind them daily about what’s coming up.
In my experience the easier you make it for people to find essential information like this, the more likely they’ll turn up on time!
We kept the Zoom link the same all the way through, except one day when we needed it for a client meeting. This did lead to a few complications; next time with more time to plan we would avoid this.
During the week itself
7. Set the scene on day one
We made it clear in the opening discussion that this is not The Apprentice.
It’s an environment where you’ll be supported, creative ideas will be listened to, and you’ll be able to ask us anything you like.
We were so pleased to get comments like this: “I really really appreciate the hard work the whole Sookio team put in to create a week of learning for us. You treated us all with the utmost of respect and no question was a silly question.”
We also encouraged everyone to connect for the future – who knows what opportunities they may be able to pass on throughout their careers.
8. Help people get to know each other
With it being a large group of people, rather than go round and ask everyone to introduce themselves one by one (which can take forever!), we used the chat function instead.
This worked OK…but one big learning that came out of the week was that people would have enjoyed some sort of quickfire activity on the Monday morning - perhaps in small groups in breakout rooms. This would have helped them get to know each other early on.
Further into the week we could add to this with some collaborative activities.
Being mindful that this isn’t the usual face-to-face workshop situation where I can walk round and pick up if a certain person is being too dominant, or if someone else is struggling, I had deliberately created solo tasks.
But now we have one successful bootcamp under our belts, I’ll mix it up even more next time!
9. Plan for Zoom fatigue
There is no way you can expect people to spend a 37.5 hour week staring at a screen, watching us work. Half the time we’re just typing away so it’s not even very interesting to watch!
So you have to keep the pace up, invite discussion, give people regular breaks. Say their names frequently during online discussions so they know you’re talking to them. Invite responses rather than saying simply, “Any questions?”
10. Offer a mix of online and offline activities
A big feature when you’re planning remote work experience is ensuring that people can work independently. This was a typical daily routine:
Shadow our 9am daily catch-up
Daily spotlight on a team member talking about their role, in the form of a Q&A hosted by me
Creative brief to work on independently
Second Q&A on a team member and their role
Creative brief typically building on the morning’s activity
4.30pm regroup and talk through your work
Friday was careers day. This featured:
CV Clinic with fellow agency owner Kelly Molson where we shared really practical tips on CVs, covering letters and interview technique
Training session on boosting your LinkedIn profile
Creative brief to pitch an idea for our blog
Careers Q&A with the whole team
Happy hour!
11. Create a read-watch-listen list
But what if there were gaps where people didn’t have anything to do?
Ahead of the event I compiled a list of insightful podcasts, blog posts and YouTube videos that we encouraged people to enjoy throughout the week, requesting they pick at least three a day.
We also gave them a free link to our range of Sookio School digital marketing courses.
As it was, the creative briefs were pretty spot on in terms of time taken to complete, so most people didn’t get very far through the list!
But the brilliant thing is that they can carry on learning long after the bootcamp is finished.
12. Set people up to win
The creative briefs were all based on real-life projects, and I was careful not to ask for black and white outcomes where there was a right or wrong answer.
With this being a virtual work experience placement for a large group of people it’s harder to pick up on anyone who doesn’t understand a task or is confused by the brief in some way. I didn’t want anyone sitting there on their own feeling like a failure for not being able to complete a task.
So the focus was usually around research…or come up with an idea for…or what questions would you ask in this situation…? Rather than putting people on the spot and making them feel like we were trying to catch them out.
13. Mix up the formats
At Sookio we always say that every day is different!
As such we made sure there was a mix of challenges that would give people real-world experience of working in a marketing agency.
Some people are very visual, some love experimenting with the latest tools, others are analytical, and for some, it’s all about the words. So this variety of formats meant that across the week everyone would feel they shone in one area or more.
This is the result of one challenge, to take something within reach and…make it interesting!
14. Give people something tangible for their portfolio
Much as I wanted students to get a taste of life in a top digital marketing agency, I wanted them to come away with something more concrete, something that would enhance their CV or that they could show off in an interview.
So on the Thursday we set a challenge to come up with a concept for a Sookio promo to go out on our social media channels. We’re happy to say we’re taking forward not one, but five ideas!
And on the Friday they had to pitch an idea for our blog. We had one clear winner, and we’re also going to publish the posts from a task earlier on in the week, to analyse a campaign by either Nike, Bodyform or Visit Iceland.
This will all result in engaging, shareable content which will set these students apart from the competition when applying for jobs.
Afterwards
15. Ask for feedback
We created a very simple feedback form on a new Bootcamp page with open-ended questions:
· What did you enjoy most?
· How did you find the mix of Zoom calls and offline activities?
· Do you feel your employment prospects have improved?
· Anything useful for us to know for next time?
16. Say thank you!
Good manners never go out of fashion!
It was lovely to receive so many kind emails from the attendees, and see all their LinkedIn posts too. I felt it was important for us as hosts to send round some wrap-up information too.
So congratulate the winners of the various challenges, share helpful information they might have missed, set expectations about anything that will happen next.
Doing this publicly is a good thing – thing Twitter, think LinkedIn.
And don’t forget to thank your team too!
17. Write a blog post
Alright, alright I’m doing that right now! And we encouraged our students to complete some sort of diary as they went, so hopefully they’re doing that too…
So, what’s next?
See visual highlights on our Instagram feed
CV Clinic coming to YouTube soon! Essential tips for job applicants
Creative promos from the attendees coming to our social media channels soon
Blog posts coming shortly too!
Want to work for Sookio or take part in a bootcamp? Send info to jobs@sookio.com
And just get in touch if you’d like to chat about running a similar event.
