Work experience at AL

During July we had high school student, Ella Gibson in the office for a week to learn more about what business roles may interest her in the future. Ella spent a large portion of her time with the marketing team, but also met with the Business Development Team, the Talent Acquisition Team, and the Head of Operations to hear about what each of these roles involves. Below is a short piece from Ella about how she found her time here and what she was working on.

This week I have participated in work experience here at AL working with the marketing team.  Throughout the week, I have been helping out with many different tasks, from designing new coffee cups, observing a recording of a podcast, and researching some of AL’s competitors; it’s fair to say I’ve had a good range of activities to ease me into the world of work!

From being here, I have learnt so much about working for AL. Not only do I now understand what DevOps is and the service that AL provides, (kind of!) – DevOps meaning the integration of Development and Operations teams to create a better working environment and make work more efficient – I have also learnt that AL is an amazing company and so inclusive of everyone. 

With the help from Emily and Becky, I now understand what goes into a marketing team and realise how important it is for a company’s success to have good advertisement to appeal to a wider range of companies, as well as having a look into other aspects of the business like sales. It is important that they understand their competition and try to offer new and fun ideas to make the company stand out more. For example, one day you may be researching ways to make your company more inclusive by coming up with events promoting the LGBTQ+ community, and then the following day you could be investigating a new product or designing merchandise, the possibilities are endless…

I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity to work for AL, only if it is for a week. Many of the skills I have picked up over the week will help me in many more ways than I could probably imagine. Even by doing simple tasks like researching other companies, I have learnt to just be patient and not to give up at the first hurdle (e.g. going onto a website and it being blocked or not having enough information on it).

Lastly, I want to say thank you to everyone at AL who has looked after me this week and took care of me. In the future, I would recommend trying to have the company link into more modern topics such as global warming or inclusivity to engage a wider audience and keep the company more current and exciting!

By Ella Gibson