Life As A King Content Intern (Part 3)

My bitch is a creature of habit. That is *ahem* my slightly overweight female Labrador named Buffy. Every morning, Buffy brings in the newspaper for my dad, excitedly prances around and basks in the glory of how clever she is. She’s then praised for her accomplishment, and rewarded with a diet breakfast accordingly. As my dad always says, bringing up the paper is about the only useful thing Buffy can do.

To some extent, life as an intern at King Content is like Buffy bringing up the newspaper: I do something that I think is really clever, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s a fairly remedial accomplishment. For instance, right now I am learning how to use Google Analytics (GA) (we are trying to become certified), and have recently got my head around the concept of bounce rate and its importance. While this is a great and invaluable technical stepping stone into the world of GA, it’s a small drop in the ocean as far as what there is to know.

Being here at King Content has made me realise that, although I’m in the process of getting a Master’s degree in Marketing, there’s still so much to learn about marketing in the real world. Realistically, the only way to become a true ‘master’ of marketing is to proactively immerse yourself in technical and strategic challenges, and talk to as many experts in the field as possible. It’s through this that you learn most about what works practically, and what doesn’t.

I think one of the biggest challenges people face when trying to become a true ‘master of marketing’ is inadvertently adopting too much of a regimented routine. While a regimented routine can make you a specialist in a particular domain, it’s also very easy to become too entrenched in your ways, and lose curiosity for the constantly evolving marketing industry around you.

Long term, I think losing curiosity can be detrimental to success. For instance, Buffy is very efficient at bringing up the newspaper now; she’s done it almost every day of her seven years on this planet (or 49 years in dog years). Unfortunately for Buffy though, she’s a creature of a regimented routine and lacks the drive to take bringing up the paper to the next level: unwrapping the plastic around it.

If Buffy had the curiosity to take her technical skills to the next level, maybe her diet breakfast would turn into something a bit tastier? The same sort of thing applies for people in the marketing industry: stay curious, keep your technical skills constantly evolving, and you will ultimately reap better rewards. This is the kind of mentality I want to hold as an intern, and beyond.