Are you interested to do an internship with us, apply at: PHD Trainee Positions
Interview: Tell us about yourself
Hi everyone, reading this!
Sakura, my name is a flower, which blooms in spring, a time of renewal, and the fleeting nature of life. In Japan, it is related to samurais and the Japanese Kamikaze pilots who used to decorate their fighter aircrafts with images of the flower before going on their suicide missions. “Dying like beautiful falling cherry petals for the emperor”. But that is only the history about my name.
How am I? Well I’m Sakura, 24 years old and soon to be 25 in July. I’m born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden but I’m half Finnish and half Japanese. I study Digital Marketing at Stockholm’s International business school (SIH), and I’ll be graduating in May this year.
My biggest hobby is to travel around the world and to see new cultures, perspectives and find new friends from all over the world. On my spare time I do a lot of gaming, watch hockey, go to lectures and nerd things as they call it.
Since January I am a trainee at PHD in the Digital Department, but I also do continue with my volunteer work as a Digital Marketing Manager for the organisation DataTjej, (Data Girls).
Why did you choose your education?
I applied for the education because I am interested in digital marketing and I want to understand the best way to optimize campaigns and improve projects. I want to understand what give results instead of just coming up with creative ideas that does not bring any results because they are not based in any data. This education at SIH, unlike other similar schools, gives us a more technical background. Which I think is the most fun part of the whole digital marketing area and the future.
What have you been doing at PHD?
My question is what have I not been doing?
PHD has really given me an opportunity to develop as a digital marketer, where I have worked as an Ad Operation, which is about coordinating the campaigns and ensuring that all elements are in place for the campaign to run smoothly. Everything that is needed to set up the campaign in the different systems, so that one can optimize them.
I have also been with MarkTech a relatively new area in digital marketing, I have been working with site tracking and building dashboards to extract data and make them visually good for customers to understand for example, converting, awareness or other parameters. In this way, our clients can more easily be familiarized with their own campaigns and understand the consumer behaviour.
Now during my last two months, I have been working with programmatic, which is about buying advertising with the help of AI.
How has it been so far your internship?
First, thanks to my team, my colleagues and the amazing spirit I couldn’t feel more welcome. It has been so great. I have learned a lot, on what a media agency is, and what it’s role in the marketing world, what an Ad operation, MarkTech, SEO, SEM, Social Media, Programmatic and digital planning professional do. I could not think of a better start in this world of Media.
How was in the beginning when you started at PHD?
I was nervous and I was also scared of not understanding a thing. Luckily, I was not the only one starting the internship that day. All of us who had started that week, were introduced to the company, the different departments and got a whole onboarding week to understand how everything works at PHD. I know that not every company invest so much time in the introduction, so I’m happy to have my internship here.
What do you feel is your most valuable knowledge from this time ?
Wow, that is a hard question, because I’ve learned a lot. But one thing is to not be afraid of being curious and ask what thing means, the reason you are doing things that you might don’t understand and believe in yourself. I believe you know more than you think. Taking initiative of doing ideas or other things is more than welcome.
Why do you think PHD is a good place to do your internship?
Do you want to get a good foundation? Do you want to be able to develop and have a plan for what, how and when you can reach your goals? Do you want to be able to influence your own learning curve and work with nice and talented people? Are you ambitious and have the drive to learn and are curious about the digital world?
Then PHD is a great choice! They work with large and small brands and in this industry, things are constantly changing. So, if you feel like you never want to stop learning – well you need to apply now!
How long is your internship program?
My internship started in January and is going to end in May, so in total I’ll be here for 5 months, and there may be a possibility to be employed.
