Life at Atila

After receiving an offer to participate in the internship program through the Western University Marketing Association, I remember sitting at my desk pondering which start-up I thought would be a good fit for me. I received an email in the coming days that said I was paired up with a start-up called Atila.ca. At the time I couldn’t have realized the impact Atila would have on my life.

This picture was taken at one of our first meetings. I remember after this we all ended up talking outside of the UCC for about a half-hour in the cold just getting to know each other. From that moment on I knew that we had an amazing group of interns working together. 

Each meeting would start off with some small talk about current events, or how our week had been and then we would get into the deliverables for tasks. One thing I noticed right away was how much Tomiwa cared about us. He had barely known us and he was always considerate about work/school balance and how we were balancing life. There was a very collaborative environment. That’s the benefit of working at a start-up: your voice is heard. With such a small group of people, it makes it easier to have your opinions heard and valued. 

In addition to a collaborative environment, I found that myself and the other interns became very passionate about Atila. Maybe it was because Tomiwa was so passionate, but whatever it was made me excited for meetings and to actually get down to work. That is a big deal considering how much I procrastinate my school work sometimes. 

The best part of the culture at Atila is how much you are embraced by the rest of the team. It wasn’t long before Tomiwa was inviting us over for his famous pad-thai (pictured below). I think something that will carry past my time at Atila is the connections I have made with my fellow interns, and Tomiwa as well. I believe that all the team-bonding has translated to better work and a level of respect where we can be honest with each other without offending anyone. Being an intern is awesome when you have this level of support.

 

I felt like I was making a difference. Throughout the entire internship, my actions had a real impact on the content and the image Atila shows publicly. Coming in as an intern, I didn’t know much about programs like Facebook Ads or Google Ads but Tomiwa took the time to allow us to learn by doing. It has helped not only the company grow, but also helped my professional growth too.

What I Worked On

Youth of GTA

In this series, we as a team aimed to create a platform for students to share their interesting stories while sharing advice with our followers. I interviewed guests for the show, asking them around 5-10 questions each. Once the interview was complete, I helped create the graphics and captions and posted them to all of our social media channels.

Schools and Jobs Report 2020 Ebook

My biggest project thus far, this ebook aims to give students an insight into which schools really help them get good jobs. It started with countless hours collecting data on LinkedIn and putting them into eligible spreadsheets to determine the patterns. Using the data collection, I co-wrote and edited the tech and consulting industry chapters and created the graphics used in these chapters with software like Tableau Public and Flourish.

I had the opportunity to participate in the student profile section of the Ebook, where I offered advice and told my own story. In addition, I helped with the design aspect of the student profile section.

After creating the Ebook, I got to help run the diversity marketing experiment to determine if it was worthwhile to target our ads by ethnicity. This involved the use of Facebook Ads; where I created audiences and applied them to ads we created. An interesting opportunity that arose from this experiment was the opportunity for some coding. I ended up adding the specific audience images into Atila’s ebook page so that it showed the images of our target ethnicity using Javascript.I was also introduced to a website called LogRocket. This website basically allows the owner of a webpage to track the users anonymously and analyze what viewers are doing on the identified webpage. I got to make some minor changes to the Ebook web page such as adding Ebook FAQ as well.

University Acceptance Content

The goal of this project was to share some of the previous interviews Tomiwa had done on the Atila podcast to give students advice on certain programs and career paths. I took the long video clips and used Adobe Premiere Pro CC to edit them and add calls to action (i.e. click here to view the full video). Then I used Kapwing, a software that allows you to put subtitles over videos. The final step was posting them on Atila’s social media channels.

OSMO Innovation Project and the Western Global Challenge Challenge

When I started at Atila, I had no idea that I would be competing in these competitions. But, after one of our meetings in January, Tomiwa asked me to compete with him and Melissa in these two challenges. I helped further the idea Tomiwa and Melissa had put so much effort into, and then helped create the PowerPoint and spent hours rehearsing with them. We ended up presenting to a small group of judges in the first round of the Western Global Challenge Challenge, and making through to the Western finals! Presenting in front of an audience of other inspiring entrepreneurs was one of the coolest experiences of my life. I had a lot of fun doing these with the two of them, while also working on my presentation and verbal communication skills.

Web Development Basics

Throughout the beginning of my time at Atila, we only had a few software interns that could make changes to the website. Tomiwa made it his mission to help give us marketing interns a better understanding of web development and begun by helping us create our own personal website. It started with basic HTML editing but blossomed into me helping out with the Atila website. This included basic javascript, where I added variations of the Schools and Jobs report URL as well as adding the Ebook FAQ page. To view the code I’ve written, click here.

Favourite Part of the Internship and Favourite Project

Helping to bring the Atila Schools and Jobs Report 2020 Ebook to life was my favourite project of this internship. As an intern, one of my own personal goals for this experience was to get some hands-on experience. This project gave me the chance to do much more than just be a marketing intern. I got to co-write two industry chapters, edit them, create graphics for them, and even be featured as one of the students who got to share advice with others. This project was my favourite because I worked on it from the ground up, and it turned into something that could be a tool to help other people. That feels good. Being able to create something that can have an impact on others is a privilege, and I am very grateful that I got to participate and create this Ebook with Atila.

This is going to sound cheesy… but my favourite part of the internship was working with the Atila team. I believe you need two things to be successful: 1. You need a relevant and useful idea and 2. And you need a team of individuals who want to work toward the same goal. At Atila, we have both. It makes meetings more open-ended, where we can have discussions about how to make the product better. It creates an environment where everyone can voice their opinions. It gave me an insight into what kind of a leader I want to be one day. 

Skills I Learned

Copywriting

  • When using social media, it is important to write posts in an appropriate tone for said platform. It gave me a chance to re-word quotes and formal language in blog posts into more casual and compelling social media posts.

Blogging

  • I had never been much a blogger leading up to my internship at Atila, but since then I have written countless blogs on guests for the Youth of GTA Series. I liked it so much I even decided to write a blog post about the Toronto Raptors. Being able to convey a message is important, and I am glad I had the ability to improve that.

Social Media Practices

  • Working with the other interns, I was able to learn more about social media culture. I use it every day in my own personal life, but when it comes to posting as a brand it was a new experience. I learned a lot about the importance of captions and spacing, as well as scheduling posts.

Design

  • Creating the Youth of GTA Instagram designs with the team was a cool experience. I became much more familiar with Canva, and how the site can be used to create top tier visuals for companies.

Basic Coding

  • During quarantine, Tomiwa decided it was time for us to participate in some coding tutorials taught by him. In these tutorials, I:
    • Used and connected Github to access my repositories.
      • Check out all the code that I’ve written here
    • Used Amazon Cloud 9 to edit a personal website template.
      • Used basic HTML editing to add my own info and projects.
      • View my personal website here
    • Used Webstorm to access the official Atila repository
      • Used basic Javascript to add in a specific ethnic URL.
      • Added in the Ebook FAQ.
    • Basic React Tutorials
      • Creating a functioning tic tac toe board from a tutorial
  • This was something I found myself genuinely interested in, and I am definitely no pro, but as my time at Atila goes on, I hope to learn some more, as well as develop more coding skills on the side.

Presentation skills

  • I hadn’t done an overly large amount of public speaking since high school, so participating in both the Osmo Innovation Challenge and the Western Global Challenge Challenge gave me the opportunity to hound in on these skills. I noticed I was a lot better at slowing down my pace, using more emphasis and emotion when necessary, and making more eye contact with the audience.

Advertising Skills

  • Facebook Ads
    • Creating audiences to use in our Diversity Marketing Experiment as well as creating the ad design, and scheduling and running them. Once the ad sets had been completed, I analyzed the data provided and created Powerpoint presentations where I shared my findings and the key takeaways.
  • Google Ads
    • I got familiar with the Google Ads interface by using it to track users on our website, by determining where they were coming from, what device they were on etc.

LogRocket

  • I was introduced to LogRocket during my time at Atila and I used it to track users anonymously on our website. Basically, I was able to view how they interacted with our site and use this information to determine what was the most compelling. Using this information we tried to add or emphasize features that would inevitably lead to more Ebook sales.

Time Management

  • Getting this internship through the school year, I had the challenge of balancing my school work with all of my extra-curricular activities. Along with being a full-time university student, I also volunteer as a videographer with the Western Mustangs Communications department as well as working as a LAMP (Leadership Academic Mentorship Program) Mentor for first-year students in my program. When Covid-19 sent students home, and I finished the rest of the year online, I have been able to still play a large role in Atila, while working between 35-40 hours a week at my other summer job. I have improved my ability to organize my time in a way to complete all tasks on time.

How I Would Improve Atila and My Internship

If I had to improve one part of my experience with Atila, it would be the prioritization of tasks. I feel like Atila has a lot of ambition, and with that comes a lot of things to do at once, and at the beginning it was hard to keep track of what we should be getting done. However, as my internship has moved forward, Tomiwa has found ways for us to organize our tasks and prioritize what needs to be done. For example, the introduction of Trello. It is a great way to keep track of things and it really helped me ensure I was getting everything done on time.

Advice for Future Interns

  1. Don’t be afraid to ask questions
    1. Atila can be quite fast-paced at times, but if you ever find yourself not understanding a task or that you just need some more info, Tomiwa or the other interns always have their doors open. Communication plays a major role in the success of Atila or any company for that matter.
  2. Come to meetings organized and punctual
    1. Whenever the team is scheduled to meet, whether that be in person or on zoom, always try your best to show up on time. Tomiwa doesn’t like to repeat himself due to being late. This applies to any place of work too. Also, be sure to read the meeting agenda before attending or joining so that you have an idea of what will be spoken about.
  3. Lastly, you get out of an internship or opportunity what you put into it.
    1. The number one thing you can give to be successful in life is a hard work ethic. Without that, it will be extremely hard. At Atila, if you show up every meeting prepared, with your work completed, the opportunities to succeed will present themselves. Invest yourself in Atila and Tomiwa and Atila will invest themselves in you.