A week in the life of a Hubshare employee – work experience October 2019
The week of the 21st October 2019, Hubshare was joined by Maria yr12 and Ciaran yr11 who decided to give up their half term holiday and join us to learn more about Sales, Marketing and the Technical areas of a business. The pair, spent the week designing images on InDesign and Illustrator, took over our social media platforms, made a video on Doodly, helped with our Internal Newsletter and created themselves LinkedIn profiles to enhance their own personal professional development!
As part of their week, they created this blog post to document their experience and write up their main findings from interviewing the Hubshare team. So read on to find out how they got on…
Monday
“On my first day at Hubshare, Rebecca, Hubshare’s Marketing and Sales Executive, introduced me to the company and gave me a down-low of what Hubshare does. She put me straight to work, posting on social media and updating the Hubshare website with the latest upcoming events Hubshare is attending. I did this by using WordPress which was completely new to me. Coming to a work environment was somewhat daunting but, producing work and seeing it be used was a great feeling. Even though it was my first day, I didn’t feel too anxious because the people around me were so lovely and it was clear they had a good work dynamic. (I also really enjoyed having my own desk and plant).” – Maria
Tuesday
On Tuesday morning we (Ciaran and Maria) learnt all about Hubshare, with an overview from Damian Jeal, the co-founder at Hubshare. We learnt that Hubshare allows you and your clients to share information at anytime and as long as you have the permissions then you can access this information at any given time. There are also good features such as being able to change the colour, logo and images on your dashboard. The portals are secure and, if you are a client, you are always provided with up to date information. We then created an image to talk about a use case, Team Collaboration. We put our creation next to the Hubshare logo and changed it to suit our version, during the process we used InDesign and Illustrator, to help us crop images and delete parts of the image that we did not need. To make the logo near enough the perfect size we placed the Hubshare official logo on top of our logo so we got the positioning and everything spot on. We used cogs because at Hubshare if one person stops contributing then it makes it harder for everyone else, the puzzle pieces were used to emphasise how at Hubshare everyone gets on well, gets their work done whilst having a laugh and a joke, if one is missing then the work gets harder, we also used puzzle pieces to show that Hubshare is like a family. The people were added to emphasise that if everyone works together then things get done and nothing breaks down.
Wednesday
After creating our collaborative logo, (which we ended up being really proud of), we set out on making a promotional video of Hubshare’s ability of large file sharing. Which is now accessible on YouTube and LinkedIn. Later, we listened in on a sales demonstration meeting with a potential client, taking notes for feedback to the sales person.
We then had our first of three lunchtime interviews, where we got to speak to the Hubshare staff about their roles and what it’s like working at Hubshare. First was Florence, the Admin Director. After meeting Florence is was very clear that respect is extremely important to her and it was lovely to see that she’s found that working in Hubshare. It was prominent from her interview that she constantly has multiple tasks ongoing, but organises them efficiently by knowing the importance and priority of certain tasks, also mentioning that when she does ever need help, people are always attentive and quick to help. My personal favourite part of the interview has to be when Florence asked herself “Do I love organising people?” which was followed by a simple “Yes, I do!”.
In the afternoon, we went to Brasserie Blanc, which is the new venue for Beaujolais, which will be on the 21st of November. This brand-new venue is situated near Liverpool street and Bank tube stations for convenient transport. There will be a roulette table, and everyone is excited for the cheese and wine! A well-deserved treat to celebrate all their hard work.
Thursday
Thursday was spent reinforcing the skills we have learnt (especially on WordPress for Maria) as she was given the task of writing up the Internal Newsletter and this current blog. Ciaran and Rebecca also were busy making the Internal Newsletter header in InDesign. Spooky themed for Halloween!
We then had our second lunchtime interview this time with Dave Simpson, Head of Client Services. Dave spoke alot about managing people in his role. He also said how he loves working for a company where everyone is close and where everyone is like a family, also there is no hierarchy at Hubshare, this means that nobody is big-headed, and everyone is treated the same and has the same equipment. He said the most important things are; 1 to remember that you have, two ears and one mouth, this means that you listen twice as much as you speak, and 2 to always keep learning at every given
Friday
On Friday, we brought some treats into the office as a thank you for our time here and everything we have learnt but, the work wasn’t over. The pair of us began planning out banner designs for future events before Maria carried on with the newsletter and Ciaran working on InDesign. Our last day also meant our final lunchtime interview, this time with the technical team…
All of the Tech team had very logical mindsets which compliments their job titles. Ram made it apparent that you should always know how to prioritise if you want to organise your time well and stay on task and was happy in his job due to the atmosphere; office humour/ banter. Hubshare also has lots of benefits that makes work easier, for example the file sharing component. Paul seemed very committed to Hubshare and we found out he has been here for the longest out of the tech team. Simon believes that solving issues with actions rather than words was very important and stressed that he enjoyed being challenged… We also found out he makes remote controlled tanks!
Advice from IT team
1. Get good exposure
2. Take experience in and always try to increase it
3. Always remember you are representing a company in everything you do
All in all, working at Hubshare for a week has been rewarding and insightful and it’s been great being able to not only meet new people and find out a bit about what they do but, also have a taster into the world of work. I would strongly recommend others to work at Hubshare and to go into Sales and Marketing.
Rebecca has been a huge influence on us and our time at Hubshare. She has made the work challenging but, motivating every day and were both very thankful to everyone in the office for being so welcoming and nice everyday. We also appreciate the way that Rebecca has taken a lot of her time to teach us how to use different programs.
Thank you to everyone!
Our take-aways!
Maria
“Upon arriving to work at Hubshare for work experience I did not expect to enjoy it this much but, the work in advertising and marketing has proven to be validating and enthusing. Everyone brings a cheery attitude to the office all in all creating a welcoming atmosphere. Damian giving the office doughnuts also, probably contributes to everyone being cheery… Working at Hubshare for a week has taught me a lot more about the company itself as well as new skills that I will find useful in the future (such as Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Doodly, Social Media Marketing, Mail Chimp and Word Press).”
Ciaran
“Before my 4 days at Hubshare I did not believe that my time would be as fun as it has been, this is because there is no aspect which makes the day go slow and on the whole I believe that Hubshare is a brilliant place to work. Before doing work experience I did not have a clue on what I wanted to get into but having this insight into marketing and sales has made me very intrigued, and I want to learn more. I have found the work quite enjoyable, whilst covering all aspects. One last thing to add would be that when I walked in on the first day everyone that I met was very polite, very welcoming, and there is always a joke or a bit of laughter whilst everyone is finishing their work.”
