Being a 'Wildwon Fresher'

"Over the past year of Wildwon, we've been approached by a number of young people wanting to undertake internships. Well aware of how many crappy internships are being suffered through these days we decided to things differently. 

As an alternative to offering internships, we decided to run a concentrated 8-week immersion and training program for young people who have a demonstrated passion for gaining work experience and making the world a better place. There are great benefits to Wildwon of course, and to our "Fresher" we offer:

- a chance to see how a business works
- practical training and experience
- becoming comfortable in a work environment
- valuable skills for any career
- coaching to find passion, purpose, career path and exposure to alternative career paths
- attendance at events and talks at our expense
- personal profile via publishing on Wildwon channels and listed as alumni on Wildwon site

We called it the "Wildwon Fresher" program and Louise Pow was first off the ranks. "

 - Sally Hill - Co-Founder, Wildwon 

Wildwon: an  experience design, event production and communication company.

Me: Louise Pow  a first year uni student studying Marketing and PR at Notre Dame Sydney.

 I was seeking an opportunity to see what new exciting event production companies were out there in Sydney. I was given the opportunity to be part of Wildwon for 2 months on a full time internship.  Wildwon opened my eyes to positive business that believes in social change and environmental sustainability. Sally Hill and Yvonne Lee have brought to life a company that has a  positive social impact on society; they also are strong believers in the importance of creativity.  This was instantly demonstrated to me as my eyes beamed open with excitement as the spacious office in Surry Hills which was clutter free and clean cut.

This past 8 weeks i have focused myself to be like a sponge to take in the amazing and incredible knowledge that Sally and Yvonne have shared with me, enabling me to grow throughout this experience. Wildwon works in different ways, they taught me about mind apples, different ways of thinking and keeping updated in the ever changing society.  They spoke about where they received their inspiration, through ‘inspiration dates’ from all different people who would pass on good advice and business opportunities to them.  I was fortunate enough to be able to have an inspiration date with both Sally and Yvonne together as well as separately, where they gave me insights to project management, content marketing, different skills, tools and the process that they use.  These meetings were mind blowing in the way that they have developed and found new ways of working.  During these meeting their body language and eyes conveyed the passion and love they have for their work.

The way Wildwon works and the way I was taught to work was through visualising information, for example by using ‘post it notes’ - a necessity in the Wildwon office!  Just imagine a wall full of colour by different post it notes signifying different  tasks and ideas about project timelines and eco systems. I learnt how effective post it notes are with their different colours to make it easy to use, being able to overlap ideas, and remove ideas not needed anymore.

Sally and Yvonne not only taught me about the Wildwon business and how it works but changed the way I look at learning.  How important it is to always read and research beyond your circle, and that you can always find inspiration anywhere you go.   With this it is important that with anything small or large make sure you never get stuck in a pattern or to make sure that you are always using your brain.  This inspired me to want to keep learning, and to want to keep looking for inspiration.

This experience has taught and given me a lot to think about as to where I want to go next.  Sally and Yvonne have shared incredible insights and advice to me about the future.   That I should never just settle for ordinary, if I am passionate about something, find the drive and do it.  Don’t do things you don’t love, always search for the right job so that you can enjoy your work.  Never advertise or sell something you don’t like or believe in, if you don’t believe in it then everyone else can see it too.  One thing that has has stood out for me over the past 8 weeks was about project management and where I would fit:  

“The project is set up like an engine, all the people that are working on it are the gears and mechanics for the car.  The project manager is the oil that ensures everything works. If the project is running smoothly then the oil should be invisible. And all everyone sees is the project and the workers, and when things go wrong the project manager can smooth everything out.  I need to work out whether I want to be the oil or the gears.”