Thursday 27th June. The very first induction into what is, technically, my very first apprenticeship. I must admit, it wasn’t necessarily in my plans to go down the path of an apprenticeship when I left my role as a Barista at a little coffee shop in March but, now that I’m here, I’ve got nothing but good vibes when thinking about this journey.
I really hope I can make this blog, and my apprenticeship as a whole, as much of a success as possible. There’s no denying the fact that there’s a lot to learn, and a whole lot of work to put down as well, but I think the rewards at the end of the line are more than enough of a motivation for me.
For me, I’ve always kept the old ‘hopes and expectations’ to a bare minimum. I never wanted to go to University, but I never really wanted to be stuck in a job that I thought was too mundane either. As bad as it seems, an apprenticeship lets me combine a whole world of skills and education with the important reality of earning an income.
Like I said, this is a huge opportunity for me to broaden my horizons and step a little bit more confidently into the new world of Digital Marketing I’ve found myself in. It’s all still rather fresh and raw at the moment, but I’m sure that with time I’ll find myself becoming more and more confident with the skills and experience that comes with a journey like this.
This is all still very daunting for me. I’ve had two or three great months working a 9-5 at Digital Fuel, so I think whenever something comes along and threatens to throw a spanner in the works, it’s natural to be hesitant. It doesn’t stop you from seeing the potential in something and realising that it will be, ultimately, a richly rewarding experience, but that perhaps isn’t enough to dispel all the uneasy feelings you might have for it to begin with.
I’m really not the best at being pushed outside of my extremely limited comfort zone. I don’t like the unknown, I don’t like exploring new ways of doing things and I’m not the best at the typical ‘blue sky thinking’ models. Truth be told for a moment, I can get quite daunted by opportunities like this. Add on top of that the weight of expectation and what not and you a whole load of emotions being bottled up inside.
Ultimately, I have a great job with Digital Fuel and I owe that to my apprenticeship. That should be reason enough to knuckle down and make this journey the best it possibly can be. However, just one induction day in the Creative Process offices has shown me that there is much, much more to this world than even I could have imagined, and having more tools to unlock this world is obviously invaluable. One example of this is the Coding world – I never would have ever anticipated being involved with that even a couple months ago, even when it was clear I was going to be leaving my Barista life behind me.
I hope I make the best of this opportunity. This is an industry and a workplace that I want to be successful in, and I just hope that going forward into the months ahead it’s something that I don’t lose too much sight of.
James' Apprenticeship Blog 