Arcadia England

Students on the Internship London Programme are now into their second month of their placements, with some great, exciting feedback coming from a range of placements. With it being a challenging programme balancing work and class work, we are delighted that one of our students, Brianna has agreed to write a blog for us. We join Brianna as she looks back at her time before coming to London and her first days in the big city.

 I am a Music Business major at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee; therefore, finding music companies to intern with are just as common as Honkytonk bars and wanna-be country musicians. They’re everywhere! Even though I’m sure there are just as many music companies in London, considering the size of the city, I was much more intimidated coming here with the responsibility of getting an internship. I had in my head that London is a large prestigious city where only the ruthless make it in the competitive world of business. Although I wouldn’t say that that statement is completely false, I did find that London companies were just as excited to have an American intern as I was to be interning with a London company.

I was slightly different to the normal intern student as I found my own placement at MN2S, which is a booking agency that works with mostly DJ’s and hip-hop music. To summarize what that is, a booking agent is the middle man between a musician and music venues. They help to organize tours and get artists connected to their fans through touring. So in other words, you can thank a booking agent for getting your favourite musician to your hometown stage. After weeks of missed Skype calls with the CEO of the company (the time-difference made things very difficult), I was finally able to talk on the phone with him and I found that we were both very eager to get the semester started and have me on board!

My first day at my internship was the generic introduction and tour of the building. I was also constantly misunderstanding everyone because I hadn’t gotten used to the accent and lingo that is used here. For example, one guy asked me what “Uni” I went to, referring to university, and I told him what tube station I got off at to go home… Not the highlight of my first day, but nonetheless, he thought it was funny. My first reaction to the office setting was that it was very different from what I am used to. Everyone sits in one giant room with rows and rows of desks and computers. Even the CEO of the company doesn’t have his own office. He sits right beside his assistant and right behind me, which can be a bit nerve-racking at times. I found this extremely unusual because in the American business culture, CEO’s typically don’t associate with the interns. But I think it makes the atmosphere more family-esque because everyone talks to everyone! I’m also really lucky to say that I sit beside the ‘funny guy’ in the office which has made my experience so much better and more welcoming. He includes me in on all of his office pranks and jokes, which is ideal for me because I’m not into the ‘typical serious office demeanour’ that some offices have. However, I think this comes with the music industry as a whole. I’d also like to note that the best coffee I’ve had in London has come out of the automated coffee machine at the office, which is a blessing to me because it’s FREE COFFEE!

That’s Briannas London internship experience up to her first day, we will follow her next week where we hear what work she has been doing at her placement.