Glen - Most Interesting Year of My life.

May 2013 - May 2014 was probably the most interesting year of my life. I completed my last piece of uni coursework on my 21st birthday, less than two months later I started my 9 month internship at skignz; my first job in the media world, and the day after by 22nd birthday I began the 22 hour journey to my current location; The Falkland Islands.

The purpose of this blog post isn't to talk about the skignz technology (as impressive as it is), but more about how the skignz internship helped me to get to the Falklands; which is probably the most beautiful place I have ever been.

I'm a Broadcast Journalist, specialising in camera-work and I work for a small Television company out here, based in the capital Stanley. As a journalist you get to experience every facet of life here, experiencing things that the locals don't even get to see or do.

The conservation of wildlife, new business ventures, sporting occasions, overseas governments; all are things that i get to report on, on a weekly basis.

The islands themselves are also truly breath-taking, where wildlife and humans live in close proximity;  
10 minutes’ drive out of town and you can see a colony of hundreds of Gentoo penguins, while looking out to sea, to watch pods of dolphins playing in the waves.

In the summer (which is the opposite time of year here) King Penguins come into town and apparently you can see seals in the harbour. The scenery itself I would liken to the Scottish Highlands, which although isn't rolling grass covered fields like you would get in England, still has its own eerie beauty.

Simply put this is the single greatest experience of my life.

So where does skignz fit into all of this?

skignz understands what a lot of other companies don't, and that is people need to be given a chance.

Everybody knows the situation; you need experience to get a job, but how can you get experience if nobody is willing to hire you?

That is why skignz is special; it was their internship that gave me the chance to prove myself. 

In my role as a content creator I was able to work on real projects!

The work I was producing wasn't for a mark or a grade, it was for a client; it was for something real, and this is invaluable in furthering your skills and improving yourself.

skignz is a mix of experience and youth; in my opinion the way it should be, you aren't told what to do, but rather guided, you have room to experiment, see what works, see what doesn't, and it is this that will let you excel in your chosen field, in whatever area that is; Graphic Designer, Programmer, PR, or in my case Content Creator.

I'm not going to say that I wouldn't be where I am today without skignz, but it definitely made it a hell of a lot easier, and if you get the chance to work with them then you should grab the opportunity with both hands because you never know where it could lead.

skignz Co-Founder & CMO said: "Glen was a pleasure to have in our team, from the very first interview, he had a quiet confidence about him that we really liked and we were not disappointed either, with the way that he conducted himself or the work he produced at skignz. 

In fact he exceeded all expectations and when the opportunity came up for him to go to the Falklands, both Gary and I encouraged him to go! At 22yrs old he's not going to get many better opportunities, to spread his wings and go and see the world.

That was in direct opposition to what skignz need because by then he was a valued and respected member of the team and it would be difficult to find some one of his character and quality to fill the void. 

However both Gary and I felt that, we could not and would not stand in the way of a life changing opportunity.

The Falklands is not everyone's idea of a dream destination, but you could see to Glen it was much more than that, it was an opportunity for him to try something completely new in a different environment and culture and those experiences in life can't be bought.

Glen rightly says he is not in the Falklands because of skignz, he's there because of his own efforts! We would like to think we played a small part by providing the opportunity to enter the working world, as well as some guidance and advice along the way! But he really is where he is, because of his own efforts, determination and hard work. 

We would welcome Glen back into the skignz team should he decide to return to the UK. But we think this is just the start for him and if he does not stay in the Falklands then he will soon be flying off to another destination on the next part of his career.

We continue to wish him well and follow his progress over social media and as you can see by him sending this blog post we consider him to be part of the skignz family."

For further information on skignz please visit our website www.skignz.com

The Teams Work - Matt Hui

Hi,

My name is Matt Hui, I’m a 2nd year student currently doing a summer internship at skignz.

I have just finished my first year studying Interactive Media Design at Northumbria University.

The course involves studying a large variety of interactive design elements, from animation, graphical design, web design, app design and product design. I am throughly enjoying the  course, and had a great first year.

It was the web design aspect of my course that I found the most intriguing, and that it was interested me about skignz.

At the moment I am helping to design a number of new webpages for skignz, to help bring some new features to the website and its users.

So far my time at skignz has been very informative, and I have already learned a great deal about various new coding languages I was unfamiliar with beforehand. This has proved a very useful for me to know, as I can create my design concepts to exactly how I want them to look, now I have the knowledge to code out my designs.

By the end of the internship I hope to of learned a great more about how apps and websites are created and run, and will be able to apply these skills within my course.

The knowledge of javascript and jquery I have learned here has allowed me to create impressive animations within my webpages, this makes the page more interactive and so more user friendly.

These sort of skills will be extremely useful for creating intuitive interactions throughout my career.

Matt Hui