My Internship at Heat Magazine

Evening to my lovely readers!

I've been so busy the past couple of months that I never got chance to tell you about what I did in November...that's right I bagged my self a short internship at Heat Mag! Having worked at Closer earlier in the year, I must say I did find my experience this time round A LOT less daunting. The thing is Closer and Heat are literally next door to one another, on the same floor and in the same building. Since I was pretty used to the building and people there...I wasn't as nervous. In fact, I was more excited than anything.

It was a lot of fun! As most of you probably know - I absolutely love the buzz of visiting big cities and what better city to visit than London?!

So I should probably start telling you what I actually got up to whilst I was 'daaan saaaf' rather than babbling, here it goes...

On my first day , it involved getting up at 5:30am and leaving the house by 6:20am (a traumatic experience for me to say the least). Next thing was to avoid dosing off at the train station and make it to Kings Cross in one piece - again a troublesome experience. Once I got to Kings Cross I had to take the tube to Covent Gardens and then simply take a short walk to Heat Towers.

Once I arrived in reception, I just had to wait for the editorial assistant to come and fetch me - she shortly appeared and called out my name. I was pleasantly surprised when 3 other interns' names were called also. Maria (the editorial assistant) gave us a brief tour of the old building and then led us to our desk. We all got our own desks which was pretty good!

This time round I chose to do Editorial rather than Fashion - and in all honesty, I actually enjoyed the Editorial side more as it involved more writing rather than being locked in the Fashion Cupboard. I don't mind the Fashion Cupboard but writing is definitely where my true passion lies.

Throughout the week I...

• Was introduced to various members of staff 
• I wrote a whole lotta web content
• Briefly bumped into Holly from Geordie Shore
• Did an online Twitter chat with some X Factor Contestants
• Went to visit the girls on the Closer Fashion Desk and helped them out with some fashion samples
• Put together some goody bags and sent out subscription issues to the lovely ladies at Mother & Baby Mag
• Got given some lovely books on the last day as a thank you for my efforts

AND I got the chance to sit in the Coco-Cola truck! 

All in all it was an amazzzing experience - Heat yet again confirmed to me that I do want to work in the magazine/fashion/publishing industry when I'm a little bit older. 

Have you interned at any magazines or PR companies recently? If so, comment below -  I would love to hear all about it :) 

GoThinkBig celebrate their 1st Birthday!!

This week GoThinkBig had their 1st birthday! If you're sitting here reading this wondering what on earth 'GoThinkBig' is - is it a person? a product? Well for all of you who aren't aware - GoThinkBig is an organisation that focuses on helping young ambitious people get their foot in the door in the media industry and several other industries in fact.

GoThinkBig has an opportunities website where you can apply for work experience, internships, apprenticeships and entry level positions. If you're anything like me, when I stumbled upon this website I was beyond excited. I did my first fashion internship at Bliss Magazine back in early 2012 which I gained off of my own back. I sent them my CV, registered my interest, wrote a cover letter and then wrote a further letter explaining why I think I'd be pefect to be a Blisslet & luckily I nailed the deal. It wasn't easy to obtain the work experience but well worth it in the end. The point I'm making is - for me to land that work experience I emailed every magazine possible begging for an internship but didn't hear back from the majority of them. Who wants a girl who has no experience in the industry?

GoThinkBig take out all of this hassle for you and actually advertise real opportunities which, if you apply for - whether you're successful or not in gaining the opportunity you are still notified rather than sitting and waiting. Waiting upon an email telling you that Vogue wants to employ you and thinks you're fantastic (a girl can dream eh!).

Anyway, the whole point of me writing this post is because I'd like to give a big thank you to GoThinkBig for all that they've done for me this year, it's changed everything for me!! Back in January this year I found GTB and thought hey ho lets give it ago and think I applied for every opportunity going. A month later I had completely forgot about applying for all these applications when I received a phone call from the Style Assistant at Closer magazine (midway through drying my hair and rushing around getting ready for sixth form) asking if I'd like to do a fashion internship next month. Me being the stupidly excited/panicky person I am just literally didn't know what to say! I was just astounded that a big magazine would take any interest in me! Anyways, I accepted and so a couple of weeks later, off I went to Shaftesbury Avenue...

However the luck didn't stop there! On my second day of interning at Closer I was in the lift and the other girl in the lift began talking to me and stated she was really impressed with me - turns out she was the editorial assistant at Heat magazine! Maria gave me her contact details and told me I'm more than welcome to do some work experience at Heat whenever I like. So, once I got home from London I emailed her and  sorted it. In a week I'll be off to Covent Gardens for a week to Heat Towers but this time in the editorial department. Hooray! GoThinkBig is definitely worth giving a try, it does prove that one opportunity can lead to another. Thank you so much GTB :)

Check out the video below to see even further details on how GoThinkBig can help you!
Follow them on Twitter: @GoThinkBig
Or if you think you're ready to get your foot in the door, check out their website for opportunities: www.gothinkbig.co.uk 

Internship number 3 - come at me!

This week has just been absolutely amazing. Not only have I landed a new full time job, a part time bar job - but I have also managed to bag my self another fashion internship at the amazing Baeur Media at Heat! Yes, you heard correct - I'm going to Londonnnn to work at Heat Magazine! mwahaha. No but seriously, I am buzzing about it. This will be my third trip to London this year. I love interning and I love London - perfect.

It sounds extremely sad but what I am most looking forward to is the fact I get to use my Oyster card again. I don't know I guess it just makes me feel more like a true Londoner. (The Londoner that I like to pretend I am when really I live in the most monotonous town known to the UK - Retford).

Social Media and Portals of communication.

Without social networking where would we be today? - The answer is probably outside and being active. However, like myself (and who ever is reading this blog post) is instead cooped up inside staring at your computer screen. Either that or you enjoy my blog so much that you are reading it off your iphone blogging app - in which case, thank you! Now I'm going off on one.

But anyway, we are overwhelmed by the amount of social networking sites and have all become whizzes on all things internet. We're blogging, we're tweeting, we're keeking, we're instagramming and of course we're facebooking. So the next time somebody sends you an email to inform you about your recent unsuccessful job application you can send them a long witty essay telling them how unfortunate they are not to have an internet savvy blogging queen to fill the job position. Joking of course, but seriously they have missed out. Who cares? All it means to us internet addicts, is more time to procrastinate choosing the perfect Instagram filter!

On a serious note however, having an awareness of all the social networking platforms out there is important if you want to break into the industry these days. Companies aren't just looking for girls who know their Versace to their Alexander Mcqueen - they're also looking for people like us. Signing up to these accounts and updating them regularly will boost your chances of getting an internship at a magazine. So even if you've never had a job and are still struggling to get one, then make social networking your job. Educate yourself on all things social media and thank me later!

Follow me!
Twitter: LC_Duncan
Blogger: http://whatlaradidnext.blogspot.co.uk/
Instagram: xlaraduncanx
Pintrest: Lara Duncan
Keek: larzxo

Behind the scenes!

Closer Magazine work exp.

After weeks of spending my days writing out cover letters and sending my CV's to various publications, I was absolutely thrilled this morning when I received a phone call from Closer Magazine offering me work experience. However, the magazine is based in central London so hotels are going to cost me a bomb :(.

I automatically said yes obviously, because I mean how can I possibly turn an opportunity like that down? Writing or working in Fashion is what I want my future to be and so I need to make the most of this! I'm so excited, I couldn't think straight whilst I was on the phone. Its strange because these past few weeks I've been really down, because earlier this year I made the decision not to go to university but to make my way into the industry this way and then work my way up. Despite sending out applications here, there and everywhere I just began to feel a little disheartened as I was receiving nothing.

With all my friends talking about university, it had been constantly playing on my mind and making me think 'have I made the right decision?' - Last year I did work experience at Bliss Magazine and my local newspaper but this simply isn't enough to allow me to barge my way into the industry. So, after receiving this wonderful phone call today; I feel as though my hard work is paying off and maybe I have made the right decision after all. Only time will tell.

All I know is that I'm very excited right now! Just thought I'd share that with you all. xo

In case you were wondering...

Ok so this is a bit of random post but just thought I'd update you on my latest adventures! I'll start with Bliss. So when I'm older my dream is to be a fashion journalist and in order to make that dream a reality I need to get some practical experience in the industry - in March of this year thats exactly what I did. I emailed around all the top magazines enquiring about an internship, however the barrier that was holding me back was the fact you have to be 18 to work at the majority of fashion magazines (I'm not 18 until January :-( ). But anyway, after sending out a whole haul of emails, within less than a day I got a reply from Bliss Magazine - which is the UKs biggest teen magazine. They seemed to be interested in me coming to work with them for two weeks as a short internship, so thats exactly what I did.

Taking this opportunity was extremely important to me because if I did, it would get my foot in the door in the fashion world. It involved me taking a trip down to Tumbridge Wells (an hour away from London) and staying on my own in a hotel for two weeks. At first, the prospect of this was extremely daunting but at the same time it was exciting. Luckily my mum was really supportive and agreed to it, even though she was worried. Anyway, I had an absolutely amazing time and learnt so much. I got to write various articles for the bliss website, do a style stalker in Camden which featured in the magazine, a tried and tested feature on some salt sprays AND the most exciting part - I got to style Stooshe (the girlband) for a photo shoot and I got to meet them which was soooo amazing. I loved it! Since then, my boss at the mag has handed my contact details to various people in the industry leading onto other opportunities. - I now have contacts with some people who work for The Daily Mirror and some other well known stylists.

I'm thinking you probably don't really care but this internship has had such a massive impact on my life. I am so much more independent now and nothing like that scares me any more.  The main reason I posted this was because it is a big achievement in my life so far and if anybody wants to know anything on how i got the internship or need tips - I'm more than happy to answer questions or help out :-)