Content Developer Review

I enjoyed my 3 month internship at Pearson, working to create questions and content for a new digital app Maths app. Pearson are diversifying their offerings away from traditional textbook content to online offerings, especially given the current situation with the coronavirus pandemic. They hope to turn their performance around.

I was highly valued, because despite having no previous experience of working in the publishing industry, I was given a lot of help and responsibility which indicated that my colleagues trusted me. This was all the more so given that I was working remotely, and I achieved a lot with their help.

I was adequately supported at all times by my lines manager and the wider team. The work required collaboration with the Marketing, Sales and backend teams - and this was achieved through regular communication on Teams. There were also regular meetings, giving me the opportunity to ask for specific advice.

I was very busy - not only because I wanted to draft as many questions as possible and input them onto the app system, but also because I was interested in getting involved with the Marketing and Sales side of things. I wrote numerous blog posts in addition to creating content.

I was given responsibility from day one - this required me to communicate how I was going to create questions and have them reviewed before inputting them onto the app. I did so by working in LaTeX - a special typewriting software - and having the PDFs checked by my team.

I developed a lot of transferrable skills, especially since I had not worked in the publishing industry before. For instance, despite having limited coding experience, I was able to learn the fundamentals of Visual Studio. My Excel skills also improved through regular updating of spreadsheets. Further, I gained a thorough understanding of online working.

Great - we all got on well because we were a relatively young team comprising of recent university graduates, current university students and experienced app developers. The regular meetings helped to create a good sense of camaraderie. Further, the relatively easy communication channels helped to make sure that every one was on board.

The application process was relatively disorganised but thereafter it was fine. After applying the day after the internship was advertised on my university careers website, I was interviewed on the same week but did not receive further correspondence until a week later. I then started and was able to create content quite smoothly.

There was not that much investment per se as I was only there for three months and the emphasis was on finishing the content in the app and creating as many questions as possible. I was given the opportunity to purchase different textbooks for ideas for questions. I also learnt a lot of coding.

Decent - Pearson are a large international education publisher operating primarily from the UK. There is going to be a major transformation in the Education Technology sector in the coming years, so most of these opportunities will require technical aptitude which I feel I have gained throughout my short internship.

Yes

Cheap

Not great

No