Hello!

Today marks the first of five days of blogging and my first ever work experience placement!

Most people go through work experience when they’re in school and it often gives them a taste of their first job and might even lead to paid employment but my school never did anything like that (because they hated us) (just kidding) (mostly kidding) so this is my first ever time in work experience.

I applied for work experience at Channel 4 because it’s compulsory for me to have work experience as part of my course but I wanted to do it in a work place that I might actually work in when I’ve finished my degree! I applied for the placement on a whim but I actually got it!

And I found out today that I was one of 18 successful out of almost 900 applicants.

Right?!

I wrote a blog post for UCAS about work experience here if you’d like to read it!

Today was a terrifying day – when I woke up I was in almost-literal tears just because I was so scared. It doesn’t help that it was very early and I’m hormonal but by 7am I was up, dressed, full face of make-up with suitcase in hand to walk to the train station in heels (which was a bad idea, in hindsight). The train journeys were fairly smooth and I got to London in plenty of time to navigate the 15-20 minute walk to Channel 4.

I thought I might struggle to find the building but when I saw a large colourful ‘4’ I knew I’d be okay (in finding the building anyway!).

From there I was given a name badge, found a bunch of nervous looking people and it was all a waiting game from there – we were taken to ‘the drum’ which was just like a waiting room until we went into ‘the cinema’ which was like a little presentation room where we started the day.

The wonderful 4Talent people Laura and Gaby gave us a presentation about what makes up Channel 4, the history of it and the many companies that are all umbrellaed under one company. Channel 4, E4, More4, Film4, 4Music, all4 – there were many ‘4’s today!

After that we were told about the code of conduct and then we went for a tour of the building. It was much bigger than I thought it would be but it was open and cosy and looked like a really friendly environment to work in so I was looking forward to finding out where I would be working for the next three days. From there we were given lunch voucher cards and told to be back in ‘the drum’ by 1.15. The canteen was actually really good and it wasn’t too difficult to get your money’s worth from the voucher! Bodes well for the rest of the week!

In the afternoon we met representatives from most of the departments in the company and most of us got to meet someone that we’d be working with for the rest of this week. The online team look so lovely and it looks like a really creative so I’m excited (and also terrified!) to see what they have in store for me tomorrow!

Then we had another little break (because we’d been sat down for about 2 hours!) and came back to talk about the values of the company and making a good impression with Laura and Gaby, to prepare us for tomorrow. 

At this point in time I’m still a mixture of excited and absolutely terrified but I’m remaining optimistic and I’ll be playing ‘fake it till you make it’ with my confidence for sure!

After we were finished for the day, those of us who have accommodation for the week walked to our 4 star hotel (4 stars!!) and checked in. Once I got my room and key card, we agreed a time to come back down for dinner and went up to our rooms.

I then dumped most of my luggage, sat in the middle of my bed and had a little cry because I was talking to my Southampton family about how they were all going out tonight and suddenly I felt very lonely. But I shut my eyes for a little bit to try and rest and got changed into some comfier clothes to go out for food and pulled myself together.

A bunch of us C4 people then wondered around Westminster for somewhere cheap to eat and decided McDonalds was our best bet. We popped into a little shop for biscuits and snacks (they didn’t have any Pringles!) and then returned to the hotel.

We discussed what time we might come down for breakfast (it depends completely on if I’m awake – I’ll let you know tomorrow!) and then went back to our own rooms. I unpacked a little bit, made myself feel more organised, took all my make-up off, put my pyjamas on and I’m currently sat in bed with a variety of snacks, a book and I’m waiting on the Southampton ones to FaceTime me so I can watch a friends gig, even if I can’t be there in person! (sorry Pete)

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting but big day. I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow night!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx





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