Wait a minute… What does a media expert actually do?
Every time I explain that I’m becoming a media specialist, I always get the same question: “That’s great, but what does a media expert actually do?” Once I even got: “Oh, so you work at a travel agency?” Working at a travel agency doesn’t have much to do with my apprenticeship, since I have yet to take a vacation in the Caribbean. But I can also understand why there are so many questions, because it’s not a traditional type of job that has always existed. Back in the day people learned to be bakers or shoemakers. But times have changed and so have the professions. The Internet is becoming increasingly important, whether at work or in everyday life. Don’t you ask Dr. Google about everything? And this is how new careers are created. Well, media specialist, and specifically “market communication and advertising”, doesn’t necessarily have to involve the Internet. However, in my case it does: In my education program, almost everything has to do with the Internet, because I’m doing my apprenticeship at an IT company. And so I don’t have to answer the same question over and over again, I’ll tell you here what exactly a media specialist in market communication and advertising does all day – particularly when you are training at an IT company.
What German lessons have to do with Instagram
Was it the same at your school? The teacher is talking, and you would really like to listen… But the bird in the tree outside is just so much more interesting. For my profession, it’s important that the bird was ignored at least during German and English lessons. I write the posts for various social media channels and blog posts like this, meaning spelling is extremely important.
I work with social media on a daily basis. What I really like, for example, is that I can make Instagram Stories. Most of the time I post on Instagram when something exciting happens in the office, like our trip to Business Beach. For those of you who don’t know what it is: You take your laptop to the lake and spend a normal work day there. Carinthia has the best work-lake balance! And even if an Instagram Story about how I jumped into the lake is deleted after 24 hours, the caption in English still should not contain any typos.
Small but important: what I’m responsible for day in, day out
My program is very diverse. One day I’m doing an interview and the next day I’m writing a blog post or learning how to put together a newsletter. But I also have small tasks that can be challenging. Recently, I expanded a server with Marcel, an apprentice from the network technology department, and prepared it with handles so that we could play weight lifting with a server at the next exhibition, the IT Carinthia. We were actually quite confident that we had assembled everything correctly. However, as we were loading the fair car, a screw came loose and the handle nearly fell to the ground. Luckily, we noticed it before we left the building, so we just quickly tightened all the screws again. The good thing is that I always learn something new from the different tasks, because now I know, for example, how a server looks from the inside and how much it weighs.
I am also responsible for the business process. If you participate in our raffles and win, you can be sure that I was the one who packaged your gift and sent it to you. But this type of work also includes cleaning out advertising materials and counting supplies, packaging things for trade fairs and running from here to there – because things must also be shipped.
Creativity counts
I explained above that German and English are important because I am doing a lot of writing for social media channels. But a Facebook post does not only consist of text, it generally also includes a picture. And someone also needs to manage these images and pictures. Photography has long been a hobby of mine and I’m always happy to take pictures, for example, at birthday parties or at our summer party. I think there you get the picture of how diverse my apprenticeship is. One colleague teaches me how to formulate beautiful sentences, and the other colleague how to recognize the correct image details.
Although I’m just beginning my apprenticeship and have yet to learn all of the tasks, I think this first glimpse shows you a bit about what a media expert does. It’s an exciting and diverse profession and I’m really happy that I have the chance to learn it at Anexia. You can find more information about the job description on the AMS Info Page. The Media Specialist for Market Communication and Advertising degree program is located in Austria. A comparable training program in Marketing Communication can be found in Germany.