Intern for a Month

Finding work as a content writer can be a little difficult, despite having a degree, if you have a lack of industry experience. Many content writer employers want to see you have work experience before they'll even consider perusing your resume.

Thankfully, OESON provides online internships for content writing!

On 31st January 2022, I was accepted as an intern through OESON as part of their Global Internship Program (OGIP) and I began the following week. The internship takes you across 4 different levels to encourage and develop professional skills in various business forms: 

• Personal Branding
• Beginner Level
• Intermediate Level
• Advanced Level

Personal Branding

This first level was one that I found to be more out of my comfort zone as I'm not found across the majority of social media and struggle with putting myself out there as the face of my own work/brand (I'm old school alright😉). However, this experience steered me in the right direction for creating a professional personal brand that potential employers and clients are more likely to want to be a part of. I don't know how I'll manage to keep up with so many online platforms (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, my blog, my website...), but I'm eager to find a balance and make it work.

Beginner Level

The beginner level was fairly simple, as the name suggests, in that we were given themes/topics to write articles on. I picked Inspiration as the topic of my article and wrote A Guide Against Writer's Block which provides 6 steps to help find, or rediscover, inspiration for writing. At this level, no specifications were given as to what the articles should cover other than the topics stated, so I wrote about what I know.

Intermediate Level

This level stepped it up and asked us to utilise SEO for our writing and we were given more specific instructions as to what we should write about. For this topic, I went with 'benefits of a business website' and wrote Why Your Business Needs a Website. In this article, I listed 10 benefits that a website provides your business and even went ahead and created my website for my work as a freelance Editor. The research I put in to learn more about SEO was very useful and an interesting tool for furthering my brand.

Advanced Level

You're looking at it! The final level of this internship is to reflect and write about our experiences and what we have learned. Overall, I wouldn't say this experience has taught me about content writing itself, rather, how to apply it to a business standard and the tools to enhance reception of the content written. I already have a degree in Creative & Critical Writing as well as English Literature, so the tasks felt closer to a basic level than an advanced level by comparison. However, as I said, my application of those pre-existing writing skills have developed thanks to this internship.

Unfortunately, due to the time difference, I was unable to join meetings as they always occurred around midnight and 2:30 am for me here in Australia, but I have still managed to connect with a few other interns through LinkedIn. Everyone involved with the internship has been professional and friendly, particularly team leader, Tanishq Chouhan, for his positive and motivational attitude. I'd also like to thank Khadidja Boulahbal and Pinjala Supriya for showing support and being so friendly during this experience.

The internship program could be improved with feedback given on each task after submission at the end of each week, or perhaps more information regarding each task would benefit interns who are completely new to content writing. These adjustments would be beneficial by letting interns know if they are on the right track or need to modify some of their methods/delivery. The time zone differences can make communication more difficult, so all around I'd say the team at OESON do well in providing this service to people worldwide.

The overall internship was fairly manageable with plenty of time for tasks to be completed. I'm happy to have had this experience and am excited to receive my internship certificate showing my development and industry experience so I can put what I have learned into action.

Thank you OESON!