My Armagard Work Experience Diary: Monia Lami
What's it like working for Armagard? In her own words, Monia Lami, Northwood School, gives an insight into day-to-day life at an award-winning outdoor digital signage manufacturer.
Work experience gives students a clearer idea of the work and paths they would like to pursue in the future. I chose to do my work experience at Armagard, a company that manufactures and sells digital signage products and enclosures for computers, printers and touch screens.
As I'm still thinking about my career path, I chose to see a range of areas within the company, such as sales, accounts, IT and marketing.
Monday
On the first day, I was given a tour of the company. This included the offices and some areas of production. I learnt about how LCD screen enclosures are tested in extreme conditions to make sure they work. I spent the rest of the morning with accounts and sales, where I learnt how processing an order works.
During the afternoon, I learnt about different techniques used by copywriters and the various ways a website is designed in order to gain the most views. I also learnt about how search engine optimisation is used in website design in order to appear higher up in search results and gain more views and sales.
Tuesday
On the second morning, I learnt about marketing and advertising, with a focus on how social media can be used to boost brand awareness. I was shown Armagard's LinkedIn page and the monthly newsletter. I also learnt about how a website can be constructed, with a focus on coding and how different functions affect the presentation of a website.
Later, I spent some time with the design team going through the design software and different test results for a new product. I then got to see more of production and how the different PC enclosures and digital signage totems were being built in more detail. This was really interesting, as I was able to take a closer look at the components inside some of the products.
In the afternoon, I did competitor research and found many other companies who also sell digital signage. I did this for another country, which was interesting, as I got to see different presentations of the products.
Wednesday
During the morning, I continued my competitor research, and I was surprised by the range of keywords different companies used in order to get more views of their websites. Afterwards, I completed some research for an article on an exhibition Armagard had recently been involved in (ISE Amsterdam). I learnt that it was a very large exhibition with 1,318 exhibitors.
After this, I asked one of the people from the marketing team for her experience of ISE. I then used her answers to add some structure to my notes and write a draft introduction and conclusion. I did more training on search engine optimisation, which covered the topic in more detail and allowed me to test my knowledge with quizzes.
Thursday
On Thursday, I spent the morning proofreading some new website content, which meant I got to see the process of a piece of text going up on a webpage. This was very interesting, as I had not really thought about the amount of work it took to build a website.
Then, I added to my research from yesterday's article and wrote up some possible headlines. I also found some pictures that would go with the article and finished my write up for today's part of my work experience diary.
Friday
Today, I received feedback on my work experience diary and was able to put all the improvements in place. I learnt that writing for a website uses a different structure than academic writing. Writing for a website uses more concise language and shorter sentences to keep a reader's attention.
I also watched the technical process of this article being built and published. I got to watch the coding process again in more detail, which gave me a real insight into the strategy and work involved in creating content to be published on the internet.
A Word From Armagard
Sue Owen, technical lead at Armagard, said: “It was great to have Monia with us for the week. She was professional, friendly and hard working. She impressed us all with how quickly she completed tasks, and she'll be an asset wherever she works in the future.”
Learn more about Armagard, the leading manufacturer of PC, printer and touchscreen enclosures and digital signage products.
If you're interested in doing your work experience with Armagard, call 0121 608 7226.
