3 weeks in the life of a Cube: Confessions of an intern

I came across Cube’s website while researching internship opportunities available during the summer holidays. Developing tech for good and the mission of changing millions of lives for the better really resonated with me. Having an award-winning app agency right on the doorstep in Bournemouth was unbelievable!

And the more I read, the better it got. The range of projects that Cube has continued to blow my mind! The American Red Cross Blood Tracking App was especially interesting as I never thought that an app like that could be possible. It really demonstrated the possibilities of tech to me.

Reading about how 3 Sided Cube came to be was inspiring because doing work with a positive impact is something that I, and everyone at Cube, really value. Knowing that the work you do helps people and improves their lives is a feeling that I will never forget. My short time at the agency highlighted the importance of loving the work you do.

You’ll never know if you don’t try. That was my thought as I decided to send an enquiry about an internship at the agency. The website showed that Marketing roles were offered through Cube Academy, so I sent a cover email with my new and improved snazzy CV that I had refined during Lockdown. The hard work paid off as I had an invitation to an interview within a week.

To say I was excited was an understatement! 

Soon enough, the day of the interview arrived. I had done my research, prepared my questions, and was ready to (virtually) meet Char and Michael from the Marketing team. During the interview I felt calm and relaxed, this is a running theme when meeting any Cube, and it was great to get to know more about life at the agency. Beforehand, I had been told that this meeting was a chance to get to know me. However, it still surprised me how much it felt like a chat with friends, and for all the right reasons.

The interview provided the opportunity to talk through what I could expect from the internship and if there was anything in particular that I wanted to get involved with. I was also encouraged to email with any questions that I didn’t think of during the interview. This was especially helpful since the interview took place roughly two months before my first day, so I didn’t feel worried about asking further questions closer to the time.

Speaking of my first day, it was definitely one to remember. Even though I had taken all the steps I could to prepare, like most people, I was still nervous before arriving at the office. This was my first internship that related to marketing since starting university and I really wanted to make a good impression.

But after 5 minutes in the office, my nerves disappeared. Everyone was so welcoming (dogs included) and the office space was so bright and fun that I was instantly more relaxed. Obviously, it isn’t all about the interior design features, but I can’t deny that it helped. Being able to get straight into the office and experience the Monday morning Stand-Up meeting also made me feel a part of the team.

After Stand-Up, I was then set up with everything I would need for the next three weeks. As someone who never used a Mac before, it did take some getting used to, but now I can’t stop swiping across my mousepad at home too! Getting my own Cube email with a Cube email signature was also pretty exciting.

As restrictions were still easing, some people were working from home rather than in the office, but there was a simple solution. Speed Dating. This unique part of the agency’s onboarding process involves the classic icebreaker two truths and a lie. As they say, ‘the best lies are the ones shrouded in truth’ and since the Cubes are a convincing bunch, this was definitely the case. I had never experienced anything like this before, but it was a fun way to get to know so many people!

My first day also came with a special team lunch from Wagamamas! This was a fantastic way for me to get to know the marketing team as well as have a delicious meal from one of my favourite restaurants. 

For the rest of the day, I started to prepare for the first task and started my Happy Half Hour presentation, but more on that later…

With such an amazing first day, I was buzzing to get back to the office and get started on my first task – researching events that they could attend in the coming year. This task was so useful as it helped me realise the scope of the industry and various events.

Plus, throughout the second day, I was able to have a one-to-one chat with each member of the marketing team. Through these one-to-one chats, I learnt many things including what tasks I’d be working on for the next few weeks, the importance of event planning and how CRM is completed here. I appreciated these chats a lot as they allowed me to learn more about the wider significance of each role within the agency. 

As mentioned earlier, I had a range of tasks to work on over the past three weeks. Out of them all, my absolute favourite project would have to be completing a social media analysis. This was an amazing opportunity to research how the different platforms are best used for businesses, as I was more familiar with some platforms than others. At my interview, we had discussed my interest in digital marketing, so this task was an opportunity for me to delve right into all of Cube’s accounts and find new or existing ways to make the accounts even better. For Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, I evaluated the current strategy and suggested ways that new features could be utilised to improve the strategy.

I decided to write a report of my analysis and suggestions for each platform which was then summarised into a Google slides presentation. Presenting these findings was also great as it enabled me to talk through my ideas and test what I had learnt. This made me realise how much more confident I was compared to my previous work experience and it was a chance to get more familiar with google slides, a simple but important skill!

I’m not reintroducing myself again, but this is about another presentation I did while at Cube during Happy Half Hour. HHH takes place every Friday and is a time to reflect on the week, a time for new Cubies to present and the chance to ‘lift up’ your colleagues for all the outstanding work done during the week. This presentation was quite different from the previous presentation on social media analysis as I introduced myself, and it was an additional opportunity to develop my virtual presentation skills with a larger audience. I also had the benefit of presenting in the second week rather than the first week. This way I could get a feel for how HHH works before doing my own presentation. 

It was surprisingly hard to organise the slides for this presentation. You’d think, who else could be more of an expert about myself than me?! Even though that is true, I found it hard to decide exactly what to include. In the end, I was able to boil my presentation down to general facts about me, a fun fact and a bit about my hobbies and interests. One piece of advice for anyone preparing for their HHH presentation is to use any photos you may have or use gifs as an alternative!

When it was my time to present, I felt excited and a bit nervous. It didn’t go exactly as planned, since I had technical difficulty with sharing my screen at first (I was still getting used to Google meets) and I wasn’t able to see the notes I had made for myself. But despite the rocky start, cheers and support from my teammates encouraged me to finish my presentation. Overall, it was great to share a bit about myself with the whole team and answer any questions they had, although I couldn’t pick my favourite rock artist.

During my last week, I was able to see behind the scenes on the latest Tech for Good Talk. The theme for this event was the Future of Fundraising and it had over 100 sign-ups and 3 panellists from the fundraising and charity sectors. It covered topics such as using technology to share experiences with others to encourage people to donate and the impact of the pandemic on fundraising. Being able to see the preparation and organisation that goes into planning these events as well as experiencing it from the attendee side was even better.

I’ll be keeping my eye out for future talks!

I can’t believe how quickly the past three weeks have gone! I’ve had the opportunity to develop and expand my skills, especially my communication and presentation skills and have been able to use new applications such as Google docs, Hubspot and Slack. As mentioned earlier, I was nervous at first but that changed so quickly. For the whole three weeks, I woke up genuinely excited to come into the office and I’ve felt so welcomed by the team. In addition to helping me decide what I value about an employer, my 3 Sided Cube internship has been a really fun and educational experience that I’d 1,000% recommend to anyone!