As Charlotte's internship comes to an end, we asked her to share her experiences of stepping into the water industry and into MOSL's Communications and Market Engagement Team.
As a third-year Graphic Arts student, I was preparing myself for the big drop most people experience when they finish their degrees. I was not expecting an internship this inviting to crop up! Art school taught me a lot about creative practice, but I didn’t have the best grasp on how digital communications run in a day-to-day sense. Throughout my time at university, I was lucky to have had commercial work, mostly I had been brought into big commercial campaigns as a freelancer. I knew I needed to get some perspective on how my skills could be applied in an office environment; that is why the offer from MOSL was perfect.
Not only was this a jump from education into the wide world of employment, but it was also a leap into a sector I was far from familiar with, the non-household water market. I remember on my first day being warned about the sheer number of acronyms I would encounter, and sure enough, everyone was throwing around MIF, MPF, Bilats, YPC and countless others while I tried to keep track of it all.
However, the biggest thing that helped me during this time is MOSL’s workplace culture. We’re all used to hearing about what it’s like to work within certain companies, but MOSL rightfully prides itself on the atmosphere it creates. Even in my first few weeks, when I was naturally a bit nervous, everyone was so welcoming (a statement you’ll probably hear echoed in the other interns' blogs). My preconceived impression of interning, which mainly consisted of making teas and coffees, was immediately shattered when our CEO, Sarah McMath, arranged a meeting with me just to get to know what I wanted out of this role and what interested me outside of my internship. I took up my overarching project supporting the Market Training refresh during my second week. This meant I had to contact someone in nearly every department, asking them to look over our current modules and discuss alterations. But as I sent all of the emails out, I was not nervous in the slightest now that I had the mentality of “they work for MOSL; they’ve got to be friendly”. Sure enough, I was right.
Outside of my overarching project, I got to work on all of MOSL’s social media channels (LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram). Not only looking at their analytics but creating the graphics and scheduling posts. Fully trained, I was trusted to look after MOSL's email member communications for a few weeks whilst a colleague was on leave. I supported the Naomi House Hustle, a charity event run by our Young Persons' Cohort, where I was responsible for all the internal and external publicity. Finally, I recently completed a couple of days of work experience with the marketing agency Alive With Ideas, where I created four illustrations for their main website. We have worked with Alive on a number of documents, from our Sustainability Plan to the recent Strategic Panel Annual Report.
What this experience has resulted in is now, as I go further into the industry, I can not only show off my Graphic Arts degree but back it up by saying I am proficient in Sprout Social, Monday.com, Biteable, Premier Pro, Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Canva and Joomla. I have had first-hand experience with timekeeping and managing projects, alongside testing my communication skills by learning how to effectively improve the Market Training tool in this retail market I previously wasn’t familiar with.
This internship has taken the skills I gained from my creative practice and applied all the tools and experiences necessary to go out into a competitive sector with so much confidence. Equally, it has set the bar for my future workplace environments. I’d like to shout out Heather-Fiona Egan and Lyvia Nabarro especially for making me feel welcome and supported.
In short, this internship has fulfilled everything I could have wanted, and to get this experience straight after a degree has been an amazing boost of confidence. It is safe to say if you are considering applying for next summer's internship with the Comms Team, I can’t recommend it enough. Thank you, MOSL!
Charlotte Connelly, Digital Communications Intern 2023
About MOSL's Internship Programme
As a knowledge-based organisation, MOSL recognises the value of education and continuous learning. We are committed to working with local academic partners to train a future workforce with the necessary knowledge and skills to tackle these challenges. This includes providing students with real-world work experience, offering internship opportunities with a clear focus on our sustainability goals and promoting the water industry as a great career choice. We also see our educational connections as a way to support our diversity aims relating to gender, ethnicity and social mobility by aspiring young people to consider a wide range of futures in the sector. As part of our Sustainability Plan, we are building strong relationships with educational partners, such as the University of Southampton, to provide students with opportunities for work experience, internships and employment opportunities.
Find out more about our internship programme.
