Internship at DRIVE – The Media Agency

On my first day, I had to be introduced to the entire process: Which programs are used? How do you create a website for clients? Why is it such a long and complicated process? These questions were answered during the course of my internship, and I was able to see for myself through the tasks I was given. The introduction gave me knowledge that I was only able to consolidate and, above all, understand through various tasks. I arrived at work in the morning and sat down at the computers provided. There I usually found tasks that had been assigned to me, so I could usually start right away. There were either many small tasks in a day or a few, but they were more extensive. I was always able to leave in the afternoon.

It was possible to gain several small insights, not only in the area of content. For example, I was able to work on search engine optimization tasks, which describes the process of determining which search terms a website should be displayed for. For example, if you type “screwdriver” into the Google search bar, “screwdriver” is still displayed because this has been optimized. My job often involved testing certain functions of a website because, as I learned, these often contain small, and sometimes larger, errors. Testing is important in this area because even the smallest errors can always crop up and need to be corrected. I was able to do this for various clients. With a website, you have to pay attention to a lot of details, which can sometimes take months until everything has been tested. This is because it can happen that another error occurs when testing a function.

Ich wurde von Anfang an mitbedacht, es wurde immer geschaut, wo ich mithelfen kann. Teilweise hat mich das auch zu größeren Projekten gebracht, von größeren Kunden, z.B. neue Funktionen zu einer Website hinzuzufügen. Dabei durfte ich lernen, dass es nicht nur die Website gibt, die alle Kunden sehen, sondern auch ein ‚‚Backend’’ oder ‚‚Testworkspace’’.  Dort wird alles getestet und eingefügt, bevor es im ‚‚Frontend” für alle Nutzer der jeweiligen Website zu sehen ist. Teilweise konnte ich in Calls mit größeren Kunden teilnehmen und z.B. die Kundenmanager von bestimmten Unternehmen kennenlernen, die sich um alle Kunden von deren Unternehmen kümmern. Es kam auch vor, dass die Calls auf Englisch waren, denn der besagte Kundenmanager hat seinen Sitz in Großbritannien. Somit hat es gezeigt, dass DRIVE auch international aktiv ist.

I was fascinated by DRIVE's motto from the very beginning: “DRIVE = motivation,” and it really fits. Because here, we are always moving forward and never stopping. The aim of an internship was to gain an insight into a profession, and DRIVE was able to offer this successfully. Everyone is friendly here, and it was always possible to ask questions and get helpful answers. The introduction didn't stop after two weeks, because every day you were busy with new tasks and learned something new, whether it was different programs, development processes, or something else.

Ultimately, I can say that this area provided interesting insights and, above all, new perspectives. We humans are used to things simply being there and no longer question the processes behind them. Above all, we don't see the complexity in these areas, which is why I tried all the more to understand and question this process when designing digital media.