Starting an apprenticeship in a start-up company

When I made my decision to do an apprenticeship at the start of this year, an opportunity arose at a start-up company. For myself and most other people, the thought of this was quite daunting, and I was asking myself so many questions. What if the company doesn’t work out? What if I don’t work as well in a smaller team? Will my career progress be put at a standstill?

After speaking to friends and family about the position, there were a lot of mixed opinions. Being very honest, they thought I was taking a massive risk considering I didn’t go to university and therefore didn’t have a degree to fall back on. Bearing in mind, I was completely new to digital marketing, so this was all a first-time experience.

In these types of situations, you have to trust your gut instinct and the CEO really did ease any nerves and apprehensions I had.

So, I decided to go for it and went through the interview with confidence. Soon enough, I received a job offer.

From day one, I immediately felt welcome by the whole team. Don’t get me wrong, I was thrown in at the deep end and asked to do some filming for the platform, just so I could get an insight into some of the tasks I’d be doing. I didn’t mind though, I was excited to be getting into something new. In my first week, we also went on a team-building day where we went bowling and played mini golf. For once, it was nice to spend a bit of time getting to know your new colleagues, rather than just a quick introduction at the office.

When the proper work began, I never felt like a burden asking for help.

Everyone was really understanding of the fact that I was new and needed to learn. Another girl at the company is also an apprentice and only started six weeks before I did, it was really comforting to know she’d been in my position not so long ago, and we’re going through this journey together.

My boss sat me down many times and gave me in-depth tutoring on the software the staff use so I could get up to speed. Immediately, I knew that being in a smaller team was the best decision for entering a completely new sector. I was getting one-to-one training at my own pace and the opportunity to ask questions whenever I needed to.

Working at a start-up also meant our ideas were valued and considered. Contributing to the development of a whole website is a challenging but rewarding task. My boss is still learning alongside us, which means it’s a collaborative effortto bring the platform to life.

When it came to starting my sessions at The Juice Academy, I was a bit nervous, as I thought everyone would be around 16 or 17 and I’d stand out like a sore thumb, but it wasn’t as bad as I had thought. The majority of people were my age or even older. The apprenticeship training sessions were really engaging, and I didn’t feel like it was a school environment.

Since then, we’ve expanded, going on work trips to London and a day out in Dublin and I now feel so comfortable and content in my job.

Overall, my experience at a start-up company has been nothing like I expected. I’ve had access to direct training, the benefit of working in a close-knit team, and the opportunity for rapid development.

In my opinion, working for a start-up will massively reap rewards rather than disappointment and I have never looked back since.

Sara Skeffington, Cohort 42