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- Completing Work Experience at the Ski Club – Aidan
This summer, we were delighted to welcome a work experience student into the Ski Club office, giving them the chance to learn more about what we do while experiencing life in a busy office environment.
We’ve been working closely with The Chiswick School to offer a week-long placement that helps students develop valuable workplace skills and build confidence as they prepare for their future careers.
Following a successful application, Aidan Maclellan joined us for the week. We caught up with him to hear about his experience, what he enjoyed most, and the key things he learned during his time with us.
Reaching out
Before my work experience placement, I was already familiar with The Ski Club through seeing them at the London Snow Show and through my lifelong involvement in skiing and snowboarding. I found out about the opportunity through my dad, who works in the snowsports industry and had existing contacts at The Ski Club. He helped put me in touch with them, which allowed me to arrange and complete my week of work experience there.
First Impressions
On my first day, I was slightly nervous as I had never experienced working in an office or professional environment before. However, after Eve and James gave me a presentation explaining what I would be doing throughout the week and answered all of my questions, I quickly felt more comfortable. They also clearly explained my tasks and how I should approach them, which helped me settle into the role.
On my second day, there were more people in the office, and Eve introduced me to everyone and explained their different roles within the company. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly, which created a relaxed and positive atmosphere in the office.
Also on Tuesday, I had the opportunity to meet Pete, the Marketing Manager, through a video call, as he was out of the UK at the time. It was great to speak with him, and I was able to share how my placement had been going so far. We also discussed snowsports more generally, including my own experiences and whether I was a skier or a snowboarder.
The Tasks
Throughout the week, I had a range of tasks to complete, and I genuinely enjoyed doing all of them. My first task was a photo research project where I had to find images from ski resort media libraries, choose the best ones, and organise them into folders based on the resort they came from. One thing I found really interesting was when James explained the importance of naming image files based on what is shown in the picture. I learnt that AI and search engines often use the file name to understand what the image is, rather than viewing it like a person would. Naming the files correctly helps people find these images online and can direct more visitors to The Ski Club website.
After this, I worked on writing a blog called Andorra: What Is There To Know. I really enjoyed this task, especially because I have skied in Andorra twice before, so I already had some knowledge of the country and its ski resorts. This helped me write the blog with more confidence and include useful information from my own experience.
My final task was a social media research project where I looked at the social media accounts of different brands, travel providers, and ski resorts. I had to find posts that stood out and explain why I thought they worked well. I then looked at how The Ski Club could use similar ideas or styles of videos on their own social media platforms. This task helped me understand more about social media marketing and what types of content can be successful.
Key Takeaways
From this week, I feel that I have gained a much better understanding of how an office environment works and have become more confident when working with people I had not met before. I have also developed my skills in using different types of technology and software used in the workplace, which was completely new to me at the start of the week.
What made this experience especially enjoyable was being able to combine my lifelong interest in snowsports with a real working environment. Having the opportunity to use my passion in a professional setting was a really exciting and rewarding experience.
Overall, I believe this week of work experience will be very valuable for my future career choices. I am extremely grateful to everyone in the office for making me feel welcome and for making the whole experience so enjoyable.
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