Meet Sarah, Ebury Publicity Assistant and former summer intern

I got to go to Ian McEwan’s house which was pretty darn cool!

Hi Sarah, why don’t we kick off with a bit about what your internship was about?

I was based in Vintage, where I’d recently just completed my work experience, in their brand team. My role was a sort of mix between marketing, publicity and involved a lot of social media research. My main project was looking at their social media channels and seeing what content did well, what did not so well and whether there was anything other companies and brands were doing that we could do too!

Why did you apply for that internship?

I’d applied the year before with no luck but had enjoyed my work experience at Vintage so much that I wanted to go back! Luckily one of my numerous jobs at uni was running all the social media accounts so this internship particularly appealed to me and I had the relevant experience.

I’d also stayed in contact with Cat and Mia who had looked after me during work experience and they helped me out. I applied for one more based in marketing, but was glad when I got the Vintage one as it’s the one I really set my heart on.

When you applied, what expectations did you have of the internship, and what was your biggest surprise once you’d started?

It was really nice to be treated like a proper member of the team, rather than as an intern, so it wasn’t what I expected at all! I think because of this I enjoyed it even more and raced through all the tasks I was given, so I got to do even more and help out other members of the team too.

What was your favourite moment from your internship?

At the end of the ten weeks I got to present all my findings in one big presentation back to the whole marketing and publicity team which was pretty scary but also really rewarding.

(I also got to go to Ian McEwan’s house which was pretty darn cool!)

And now you’re a Publicity Assistant in Ebury – how did that come about, and what does it involve?

I moved about a lot once my internship was over. I’d literally just graduated and finished my university jobs and luckily before the ten weeks were over a temporary position at Canongate came up. A few people from the department recommended me for the position and after an interview I got offered the job, starting the Monday after I finished.

I really enjoyed it there, and even got to travel up to Edinburgh but was looking for something more permanent (as it was only an eight week position) which is when an internship came up at HQ, a new division of HarperCollins. I was sad to leave Canongate after only three weeks, but excited to try something new.

I started there immediately afterwards but found it wasn’t what I expected. It was fun to be part of an imprint that was just starting out but it was also pretty chaotic and they could only pay me minimum wage so I was still looking for something permanent. I had all the careers and job pages on Twitter tweet alert and when the Ebury publicity assistant role came up I jumped at the chance. I threw everything into my application and was lucky enough to get it!

There’s a lot more responsibility now I’m a permanent member of the team, and obviously I do a lot less marketing now, but all the skills I learnt in my internship have really given me a boost and definitely help me in my role now.

And finally, what advice do you wish you’d been given when you were looking to get into publishing?

Start early! I really wish I’d made more of the free time I had at uni, but only really started looking in March/April of my final year. I could have had a lot more experience had I made the most of it and applied before.