Having dropped out of university at the start of the year, 2021 was daunting to me. As you can expect, starting university in the middle of a global pandemic wasn’t quite the experience I thought I would get. Being stuck in my bedroom all day not being able to find the motivation to do the assignments that seemed to be piling up, I realised this wasn’t the right thing for me. And with a debt I didn’t even want to think about, I left. This was a really scary thing for me, having no clue what I would go on to do whilst seeing my friends succeed and love their courses.
I started looking at alternative options, looking through every job site expecting to just get a supermarket job to get me through, when I stumbled across the advertisement for an apprenticeship at BBD Boom. Having loved studying media through my GCSEs and A-Levels, the advert for a ‘Digital Marketing Apprentice’ really drew me in and I spent a while reading through the job description. Filled with hope that I had found something I was really interested in, just like that, I applied. Racked with nerves throughout the whole application process, I was ecstatic to get the phone call saying that I had got the role and I would start in two weeks.
I am now on my third week with the company and loving every day of it, getting to learn new skills surrounded by such a welcoming and close group of people.
Each day is different at BBD Boom, providing a wide variety of jobs to keep me busy and learning, but here is a typical work day in my life:
07:50
My day starts at 07:50 when my first alarm goes off, but as the opposite of a morning person, I inevitably snooze the alarm at least twice before I finally drag myself up. I scroll through TikTok for a little too long before I leave the warm comfort of my bed and venture to the kitchen for breakfast, which consists of a banana and a glass of orange juice.
08:30
After getting ready, I head over to my desk and make a list of my tasks for the day before joining the team call at 08:45, where we catch up and run through our plans for the day.
09:00
I usually start my day with something easier to get me in the right mindset, so at 09:00 I open Spotify, put on Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and begin doing some data cleanse, where I update contact records in our CRM to ensure we have quality data.
10:00
Now that I am fully in the working mood, I open up Hubspot and do some training to gain knowledge about the different features of Hubspot, as well as learning about the theories and background of Inbound Marketing and the strategies involved. In my first two weeks at Boom, I managed to get five Hubspot certificates: Inbound, Sales Software, Marketing Software, Service Hub Software, and Digital Advertising.
12:30
With my brain filled with a bunch of new knowledge, I head to lunch where I have either a salad or pitta bread pizza. I sit eating lunch whilst catching up with my friends, watching some YouTube videos, or scrolling through TikTok. I use this time to also catch up with my mum for a little before heading back to my desk ready for the rest of the day.
13:30
Back at my desk, I look at my to-do list and get started on the rest of my tasks for the day. Having gotten through some of the training certificates, I have more insight on Inbound Marketing and the strategies used, so am now trusted with more tasks in the company, which is both scary and exciting! I get started on with these new tasks, knowing that I have the full support of my colleagues whenever I need it. Some of these tasks include writing articles for our Knowledge Base, working on our HubSpot onboarding guide book, and many other intriguing tasks.
16:00
Throughout the day, I usually have at least one meeting or training session with someone from the team, whether that is shadowing a HubSpot onboarding call or getting paid media training from someone else in the team. This time is really useful as it is a practical approach to learning, being able to action the things that I have learned about in the training videos.
17:00
5 o’clock hits and it is time for the second team call, this time to discuss what we have done throughout the day and for any questions we may have to be answered. The call finishes 15-20 minutes later and then it's time to shut down my laptop and leave my desk for the day. What I do in the evening varies - sometimes I head to the beach with some friends, and other times I get into bed and put Netflix on.
So that is a current day in my life as a Digital Marketing Apprentice at BBD Boom. This is adjusting as I learn and gain more insight, and I am now being trusted with more important tasks, but I am loving my time here and I am excited to see where I am this time in a few months.