2. Articles
In the first year of my course, I did a lot of work experience for A Love Supreme,
who are a Sunderland A.F.C Fan Magazine. One of the responsibilities I had while
working there was doing some articles to help with the workload. To make these
articles I would first do some research onto whatever the topic of the article would
be, for example if it was an 'On This Day' article I would try to find a match
highlight or a previously written post that was released at the time of whatever
happened. This would be to help guide the content of the post as most of the time
I was writing about things that had happened before I was born. After finishing the
first draft for an article whoever was my mentor for that day, either Daniel
Mccallum or Lewys Carr, would proof check everything In terms of accuracy and
grammar or spelling. I didn’t always do historical articles however, as I would do
the write ups for manager press conferences. These would consist of quotes about
important parts of the conference that most fans would find interesting. The way I
would get the quotes was pretty simple as I'd watch the livestream after it was
uploaded to Sunderland A.F.C's official twitter but put it to 0.5 speed so when I
heard something that would be able to put into the article without being behind on
the stream and missing anything that was said. After building up my repertoire for
writing, I wrote a physical article in the, at the time, new magazine. It was a 'Fan
File' which required to do an interview with a fan and record their experiences. I
decided to interview a family friend who I knew was a long time Sunderland
supporter and in the end it fit in really well with the magazine. Doing all of this
helped me out with my writing and researching skills which is important skills to
have as most jobs will include some level of writing
3. Match Day Photography/Selling
Stock
Writing articles wasn’t the only thing that I had to do while there, at the
beginning of my time there I asked if they wanted any photographs of the
matchday experiences which lead me to being a steward on their coaches and
take pictures during away matches. A lot of these photos and videos would be
posted on their social media pages. I wouldn't be the only one who would take
pictures for ALS as I was put into a WhatsApp group chat and that’s where we
would send all of our photos and where they'd be selected for posting. Doing
this on match days really helped me develop my photography skills as often I
have to take pictures as things were happening in real time so it was very time
sensitive but most photography is so it was good to get that experience.
Also, after the magazine came out I would sell the magazine outside on home
games and away games. This helped me gain experience in terms of customer
relations and how to handle money and transactions. This is where my interest
in marketing actually started and it has led me to wanting to do a University
degree in that subject. So Overall, there were a lot positives that came out of
this work experience and I'm glad I chose to do it because in my first year it
wasn’t mandatory but it set up for a lot of what I now want to do going forward
not only in my career but academic journey too.
