Intern with Aró: Gain Real-World Experience in Digital Strategy

My name is Sinéad Mc Donagh, I graduated this year from Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology where I studied Gnó agus Cumarsáid (Business and Communications). As part of the course we got the opportunity to go on work placement in 3rd year. I worked with the Digital Marketing team. My time in Aró greatly improved my skill set as I previously had very little knowledge on digital marketing and how it worked. I learnt a vast amount about SEO, Marketing Campaigns, Google Adwords, Google Analytics and Social Media Marketing.Tasks included updating and creating new pages, writing blogs, content and articles for 5ive Star London. Other tasks included benchmarking, Pay-Per-Click reports and updating social media.

I would recommend an internship with Aró to others because my placement with Aró gave me a great insight into the working world and what area I’d like to work in and now I am currently I’m doing a masters in Electronic Commerce in NUI Galway.

My name is Matthew Padden and I am a Web Applications Developer at Jaywing, one of the UK’s leading digital agencies. I have been a developer since completing my degree from IT Sligo in 2011. As part of my degree I did an internship and fortunately I was placed at Aró. I enjoyed my time there and learned a lot which benefitted me when I moved on to other positions. The culture of the company creates a friendly environment where everyone gets along with each other and that is no doubt down to Alan and Triona’s down to earth attitude.

While at Aró I worked in the backend team. I got exposure to a range of different areas in website development, dealing with database development right on up to the website’s frontend. The tasks I carried out were maintenance of sites and Aró products, adding features to existing sites and products and project work. Some of the things I learned while on my internship included, source control, software development processes, time management and how software is built in the real world as opposed to how it is learned in college/university. In my opinion college/university built a nice foundation but my learning did not really start until I started my internship as I could see how software is actually built in the real world.

The backend team were very helpful in mentoring/guiding me and made me feel part of the team immediately. If I ever had a question or concern I felt I could ask anyone and they would stop what they were doing to make sure I understood the solution. I never felt there was too much pressure put on me or too much was expected of me which I feel helped in my learning a lot as I was not worrying and could just focus on building elegant solutions for the tasks assigned to me.

During my internship I was asked if I would like to join the company full-time which I gladly accepted as I really enjoyed the work and the people. I would recommend an internship at Aró if you would like to learn a lot about the development process and work on real projects all in a friendly, supportive environment surrounded by good people.

My name is Gavin Neylon I interned Aró Digital Strategy from January to September 2014. During my internship, I received hands-on training with Project managers and Account managers. During my internship I found the program to be very beneficial, sitting alongside experienced Project managers who were always willing to answer my questions.

I feel I've gained a huge amount of new skills and valuable experience.My internship experience helped me understand how a successful company operates and open doors for my future career path.

I am currently in my final year of my degree studying Internet Systems .I would highly recommend an internship with Aró Digital Strategy .

My name is T.J. Wallace and I’ve have worked in Aró for just about 9 months. Aró is a wonderful workplace. The first day I walked into the place for my interview, rather than feel nervous, I was greeted like an old friend.When I joined the Design team, it then became like family. In my first week I hit the ground running. I was set up and ready to go. I started off doing small tasks under the supervision of other Design team members and they really helped me out a lot.This is a great way to start of the basics and understand how the company works. Within a couple of weeks I got started on my first build.

The whole time I was treated like one of the team rather than the “Intern”.

The kind of work I did with Aró has vastly improved my Front End Web Development skills.I have picked up coding practices that I never even knew existed in a very short space of time. Aró allowed me to enhance the work I had learned in college and put it into practice as a whole.

I would definitely recommend Aró for an Internship as they have formed the entire foundation of my career in Web Design and I don’t think I could have asked for a better place to work.

Looking back on Aró will always be one of the best experiences of my life.

Go Raibh Maith Agat.

I worked in Aró for two exciting years. I was involved in setting up the online marketing department.I knew nothing about the web or online marketing as it was 1998 and sat down and read and read everything I could get my hands on. The great thing I remember about Aró was the level of trust, time and independence I was given to learn and implement the online marketing strategies and their willingness to embrace new and creative ideas. Many of the projects we initiated were untested and largely unproven as the whole area was new.

Alan and Triona allowed us to drive the online marketing campaigns ahead while guiding us on the business 101, writing styles, managing business relationships and design know how we lacked. I had a lot of individual time with both Alan and Triona and learned a lot from both.

Due to the size of the company at that time we were involved in a lot of areas covering brand projects, site design, advertising campaigns to SEO. At the start of your career you want and need hands on experience in a variety of areas. Being a good generalist in online marketing grounds you for your career ahead and allows you get involved and know enough about many specialist areas to open doors to projects and roles later on.In addition there is a great business and ethical ethos at Aró of which you can be proud. You work hard but are treated very well by smart, decent and fun people.

It was a gorgeous location, we learned to speak Irish although we may not have spoken it all the time, we had swims in the sea at lunch, had big brand clients and had an absolutely great bunch of co-workers. Aró was also just a fun place to work. People were collaborative, helpful and fun. There’s no point spending 8 hours a day somewhere you don’t smile. And we laughed out loud a lot!

I arrived at Aró for a placement with a very basic idea of what digital marketing involved. After completing my 9 month placement, I had gained fantastic experience in the foundations of effective online marketing for websites in general and hotels in particular. I stayed with Aró for 2 years before moving on to New York where I secured employment quickly after being able to demonstrate what I had learned and achieved while at Aró.

I worked with a range of luxury hotels around Europe and managed the day to day aspects of a project named 5ive Star London working closely with the MD and the rest of the team at Aró.

Daily tasks included SEO, Website Analytics, PPC monitoring, email marketing and responding to emails from clients.

The team at Aró are great to work with and easy to get along with, and everyone is experienced in their field.

I would fully recommend an internship at Aró to anyone considering it as the experience will set you apart from many others in the working world.

I am currently located in New York city working for a new company who do high quality Aluminum prints for consumers, an opportunity that was only available due to the skills I had learned and honed at Aró.

My name is John Hennelly and I’m a current Commerce International Experience student at NUIG. As part of my university studies I spent several months working in the area of Human Resources at Aró Digital Strategy. Having never worked at a company like Aró before, I was quite nervous as I began my first day but this was quickly forgotten as I was warmly welcomed by everyone there and made feel at home instantly.

Whilst at Aró I was fortunate to work alongside Director Triona Mac Giolla Rí on a number of projects as well as working more independently. The tasks I was entrusted with whilst at Aró included things such as researching performance appraisal systems, aiding in the recruitment process including siting in on interviews, and updating the Employee Handbook. I also had the opportunity to work in areas other than HR such as following up on customer invoices and organising facilities for a trade show, which helped me to develop further skills.

My time at Aró Digital Strategy gave me great insight into the function of Human Resource Management. It has forced me to become more organised and has also allowed me to develop competencies which will prove invaluable as I endeavour to begin my professional career following college.

I would highly recommend an internship at Aró Digital Strategy to anyone who is eager to learn new skills alongside a friendly and professional workforce.