My Sweet Cherry Work Experience Story
by Sarah Torres
It was the most wonderful time of the year!
Life after university can be a bit confusing. Looking for an industry job was number one on my priority list, but – after graduating from a Creative Writing and Journalism degree – I felt that I had been paying sole attention to the journalistic prospects of my career.
I needed more experience in the publishing industry and Sweet Cherry’s opening for a Marketing Intern was my saving grace. Just in time for Christmas, this placement gave me the opportunity to learn a lot about the publishing industry, complete a set of exciting tasks and meet a bunch of lovely people.
When I arrived at the Sweet Cherry offices on December 2, I was welcomed firstly by Divia – Marketing and Publicity Executive – who introduced me to the whole team. Divia also gave me a tour of the offices, told me about how Sweet Cherry came to be and tailored my placement to suit my interests. She was my mentor for the week.
I have an avid passion for writing and reading but my aim for this internship was to learn more about marketing, social media and design. I started by dusting off my Photoshop skills and create banners for Christmas books giveaways. Then, using Hootsuite, I scheduled the giveaway posts and others on Sweet Cherry’s social media channels. It was interesting to learn how to follow company design styles and understand their importance in keeping the brand image.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Rhiannon, one of the team’s lead designers, who showed me how the team creates book covers, typesets text and communicates briefs with illustrators. She also taught me the importance of researching the market and seeing what competitors are up to with their book designs.
Throughout the week, Divia gave me many other interesting tasks and helped me with them along the way: I got to write blog posts for the Christmas newsletter, create contact databases for the marketing team, use MailChimp to set up newsletters and contact the Christmas giveaway winners to give them the good news!
These eight days at Sweet Cherry were much more enlightening than what I was hoping for. I was involved in a lot of real work and learned skills that will definitely help me with my career. The whole team is the perfect embodiment of what Sweet Cherry is: progressive, friendly and fun!
I would recommend a work experience week (or two) at Sweet Cherry to anyone! Even if a career in publishing is something you haven’t really thought about, you’ll learn invaluable things – I promise! Plus, they have free tea, coffee, and SNACKS!
Finally, I want to wish everyone at Sweet Cherry a Merry Christmas! Thank you for having me.
Sara Torres recently graduated from De Monfort University in Leicester with a BA degree in Creative Writing and Journalism.