Hi There!

My name is Kristen and I am a 22 years old French girl! I worked for Marketing Mechanics for the past 3 months, and it was a fantastic experience!

The team was always helpful, enthusiastic and friendly! I had many opportunities to work on various projects and it was wonderful to have the chance to take part of such assignments. This allowed me to expand my knowledge and to build my confidence in the field.

Marketing Mechanics is truly an outstanding company, a real pleasure to work for. I would recommend it to anybody looking to gain hands on experience in the field.

I would also like to take some time to thank Diane, Bonnie, Andrew, Ayeisha and Daniel, for making it a fun, learning experience. Also I would like to acknowledge the all the help and great company of the interns; Nico, Bua and Katja.

I had a great time in Australia, and I look forward to coming back for a visit in the future!

All the best!

Kristen

Linde van Erp

Good day! My name is Linde and I am a 20 year old Dutchie! For the past 5 months I’ve been living in Sydney, the city of dreams! Working as an intern at Marketing Mechanics has been a blast. It was my first time working fulltime for a marketing and advertising agency and the fact that it was abroad, thousands of kilometres away from home was exciting but scary at the same time. Di & Bonnie made me feel home right away with being so excited about us as interns. They are always in for a chat and make you smile with all their funny stories. In the office upstairs I have been working with the other interns Carmen, Evelien and Willem and my colleagues Marcel, Andrew and Giorgia. I loved the fact that there was always something going on, lots of work to do and that we could always ask about things we wanted to learn. I have learned so much from working at Marketing Mechanics. From radio-, TV-, print- and online advertising to personal development. Celebrating birthdays is what we are good at. It was great to sit around the table, eating the best cake and sharing stories with each other. Besides that I loved working with different nationalities and hearing about some Australian habits such as ‘The Housos’.

Overall both working at Marketing Mechanics and living in Sydney has made my year. I am in love with Sydney. It’s a city where everything is possible and where urban meets nature. The city that makes your day, every day. The city where all nationalities come together, where everyone can be excited about a racing horse, where you find furniture everywhere on the streets. A city that has playgrounds for adults, where everyone is fit, with good food everywhere same with beaches and parks.

Sometimes it’s because you want to share everything with your friends and family back home but then you realise you can share everything (pictures, videos, stories) except the experience.

But as you can read, I was living the good life in Sydney and working at Marketing Mechanics.

Thank you so much for this experience! And as it is the 22th of December it’s time to say: Merry Christmas and a Happy & Healthy New Year!

Carmen van Oort

Hi! My name is Carmen van Oort. I’m a 21 year old Dutch girl and as I’m writing this blog, it’s my last day as an intern at Marketing Mechanics.

At the one hand this makes me sad. At the other hand – it means that it’s time to move on which means new adventures!

My time in Sydney and as an intern at Marketing Mechanics has been a great learning experience in many ways. I had never lived outside the Netherlands for such a long time before. It has taught me so much about myself, my friends and family, my life in The Netherlands but most of all about Australia, its citizens and its culture.

I must say I absolutely love Australia. The climate, the friendly and down-to-earth people, the surf dudes – it’s all so beautiful.

As an internship company, Marketing Mechanics suited me perfectly: A small team in a low-key environment. Working at Marketing Mechanics could get heavy sometimes but there’s always room for a chat and a smile.

Because of the variety of Marketing Mechanics’ clients every assignment differs from everything you’ve done before and with a little help from the marketing staff you’ll gain heaps of experience in every aspect of marketing.

Besides working, there’s always time to celebrate what’s to be celebrated. For example, I turned 21 during my time at Marketing Mechanics and Diane threw me a little birthday party! (see the photo’s!). It was so nice. Besides the delicious cake I got some presents. As I was not able to celebrate my birthday with my family and friends this meant so much to me!

I would surely recommend Australia, Sydney and Marketing Mechanics if you’re looking for gaining some work experience abroad.

Best,

Carmen van Oort, The Netherlands

G'day from Willem

G’day!

Let me introduce myself. I’m Willem Weddepohl, a 22 year old student from the lovely country called the Netherlands. At the moment I’m studying Marketing in Breda, The Netherlands.

Let me take you back to the 23rd of August 2011. The beginning of my big adventure Down Under. My flight from Amsterdam – Hong Kong – Sydney was one of the easiest, longest flights I’ve ever made. I slept the whole journey so it was good! After a week of discovering the lovely city called Sydney I started my first day as a marketing intern at Marketing Mechanics. Exciting of course but also a bit scary! Luckily I had two lovely girls in my house (according to Marcel the famous Dutch house) who work at MM as well. So the first day Linde and Carmen were my lovely guides! Thank god they showed me were it was because I’d probably not have found the office! After an introduction to the colleagues Giorgia showed me around the office and building. Diane, Bonnie, Marcel, Andrew and Giorgia made me feel at home from the beginning. In the following weeks we worked on a lot of different marketing plans and together with the team we made it work! It’s always fun to be in the office. Di has always a good story about things that happened in the past. It’s always good to talk to Bonnie and help her. Upstairs (were we sit) we had a great time together with Andrew and Marcel. From Colombian music with Marcel, to Andrews iPhone and discussions on 2day FM. It was good to work in this company and I learned a lot about marketing, clients but most of all about myself.

Thanks for the awesome time at Marketing Mechanics!

Cheers,

Willem

With love from The Netherlands.

…or Southampton if you please. It has been nearly four months since I have left Marketing Mechanics and ten months since I first set foot in the office. The fact that I am still prepared to write a blog about my time at MM might give you an indication of my fondness for the place.

If you are thinking about starting your internship at MM, go for it! You will never find anything like it. There will be times of laughter, there will be times you would like to rip the hair out of your scalp but there will always be a great team to work with.

Marketing Mechanics provided you with hands on experience in the ever-changing industry of marketing. Interns mainly work individually whilst being supervised by management. The company has an open door policy and provides feedback and guidance where necessary.

My internships has provided me with a diverse range of marketing skills but has also contributed to my professional conduct.

All in all it was an amazing time and if I had the chance I would do it over again.

Yvonne Lemmen

My name is Julia Stark, I am from Germany and study Information management in Neu-Ulm, which is located in Bavaria. My studies are split in 3 different parts, information technology, economics and design. Last July I got the chance to study for one semester in Sydney, Australia at Mac Quarie University. I took 2 subjects, Public Relations and Organizational Planning. In addition I undertook an internship at Marketing Mechanics twice a week from 21.08.2007 until 31.10.2007 . At Marketing Mechanics I hade the chance to deepen my theoretical knowledge into practical knowledge. My main tasks were Website reviews, writing Marketing plans and designing different advertisement for their clients. I got the chance to see Marketing from a different angle. I am very glad getting to know the Australian working environment which is very different to the German one. People are very friendly, helpful and appreciate your work. I really enjoyed working with the Marketing Mechanics team and I will always remember them in a very positive way! End of January I will go back to Germany finishing my studies but I am sure that this wasn’t my last time in Australia!Thank you for your encouragement! I enjoyed a lot working in your team!

Suling van Roy

Hi there, my name is Suling and I'm from the tiny country that people call the Netherlands /Holland/Dutchland (according to the French).

When I first got the opportunity to do an internship abroad, I thought to myself: ‘I have to get away from home as far as possible.’ At the time, I wasn’t sure if I was being adventurous or just plain suicidal.

But luckily, my adventure began when I received the opportunity to do an internship at Marketing Mechanics. When I finally got off the plane in Sydney (alive, thankfully), I knew I was never going to return home the same after 4 and a half months.

First off, I’d to thank Diane & Bonnie for their help, encouragement and feedback. It was great working with you guys and thanks for accepting my awkwardness. I’ve learned so much from this experience, being in such a different working environment(the Aussie 'No Worries' motto) and getting to know so many different clients (it was definitely intimidating to be in such direct contact with some of them)

Thank you Andrew for introducing me to the company on my first day and showing me how everything works in Marketing Mechanics (and for saving me from my very disorientated second day -___- )

I will miss making coffee (soup) for my lovely coffee-addicted colleagues, Marcel & Giorgia. Thank you guys so much for your insight in marketing and design.(thanks Marcel for curing my phobia for html, I still hate it, but not as much as I did before =D) Thanks Giorgia for introducing me to the Frankie magazine, another thing to look out for when I'm back in Holland. I wish you guys all the best!

Special note to former fellow intern: Bianca, if you’re reading this, du bist toll!!!(Please don’t laugh at my german) It was great working with you and thanks for being such a good friend!

Now that my time in Australia is coming to an end, I feel like I’m going back to a different world I don’t really recognize anymore. I might pick up my old life back in The Netherlands, going back to the same old routines, but Australia & MM will always have a great influence on me, no matter where I am. I will remember it as the place where I grew up and as a turning point in my life. I seriously can’t think of a better way to enter my twenties and leave my teenage years behind.

Thank you guys so much for everything!

Suling van Roy, The Netherlands