Student Name: Nok
Pathway Programme: Pathways to Marketing (2026 Cohort)
Internship Role: Sales and Marketing Specialist
Internship Employer: QWERTY Beer Box
Summary of Organisation: QWERTY Beer Box is a business that started at the University of Exeter back in 2020. We curate beer gift hampers that delight and champion independent craft breweries in our hampers across Shopify, Amazon, Funky Pigeon, Not On The Highstreet, John Lewis, Fenwick, Tesco.com, NEXT, Webbs, Debenhams, Virgin Experiences, socials and more.
We’ve made and sold over 100,000 gift hampers, have partnered with 100+ independent breweries and been accepted into the UK’s #1 Business Startup Incubator.
Please briefly outline the project/tasks/responsibilities you worked on during your Professional Pathways internship.
“During my Professional Pathways internship, I worked with QWERTY, an independent craft beer gifting company, across two live business challenges as they expanded in new directions.
On the corporate gifting side, I researched who actually buys corporate gifts (HR, marketing and office teams) and what drives their decisions, then analysed competitors to identify how QWERTY could stand out through more personal, experience-led gifting rather than generic hampers. I researched and contacted over 150 potential UK retail stockists, from farm shops to independent wine merchants, building a full contact database and writing personalised outreach emails. I also developed logo concepts for a new corporate product line and built three email marketing campaigns from scratch.
On the second project, QWERTY Experience, I researched who gives experience gifts and why, mapped out the customer journey from first seeing an ad to booking, and analysed competitors like Virgin Experience Days to find a gap in the market. I built customer profiles, planned social media and email campaign ideas, reached out to potential experience partners, and produced three email campaigns.
Across both projects, I worked through the full process: research, strategy, outreach and delivery.”
How has the Professional Pathways programme helped you in taking the next steps in your career?
“The Professional Pathways programme gave me both direction and proof of capability, and the two elements worked together.
The training sessions were genuinely formative. The talk on PR and the difference between in-house and agency marketing opened up a career path I hadn’t seriously considered before, and I’ve since started actively researching PR and marketing agency roles as a result. The personal branding session was just as valuable in a different way: it pushed me to reflect honestly on my existing skills and how I was presenting myself to employers. I rebuilt my portfolio and LinkedIn off the back of that session, and that groundwork directly helped me secure my next internship.
The QWERTY internship then let me test that direction in practice. I discovered I genuinely enjoy marketing and PR work, particularly within the F&B sector, and built real, practical skills in email marketing and market research, the less visible but essential groundwork behind any creative campaign. Going forward, I’m using both the training insight and the hands-on experience to target roles at the intersection of marketing, PR and food & drink, with a clearer sense of whether agency or in-house environments suit me best.”
Given the Professional Pathways internship is 35 hours in total, what advice would you give to other students to ensure they gain as much as possible from the experience?
“35 hours sounds small on paper, but it covers far more ground than you’d expect, so the biggest piece of advice I’d give is to go in ready to touch as many parts of the business as possible, rather than trying to go deep on just one task. In my case, that meant research, competitor analysis, outreach, campaign strategy and email production all within the same short window. That breadth is actually the point: it’s less about mastering one skill and more about finding out what kind of work you actually enjoy and where your strengths sit.
I’d also say don’t wait to be assigned everything, ask if there’s more you can get involved in. For me, I knew I wanted to build my skills in email marketing specifically, so I proactively volunteered to work on the email campaigns rather than waiting for it to land on my desk. Being clear about what you want to get out of it, and asking for it directly, is what turns 35 hours into something you actually walk away with.”
What advice would you give to a student who has to complete an internship via remote or hybrid working?
“Remote and hybrid internships take more deliberate effort to get right, since you don’t get the natural visibility that comes from just being in the room. My advice would be to use a to-do list and break tasks down into smaller pieces, it’s surprisingly easy to lose track of time when you’re working alone without the natural rhythm of an office day.
Be prepared for sudden video meetings, since remote working often means less notice than an in-person catch-up would give you. I’d also say make the most of whatever communication channel your team actually uses, in my case a WhatsApp group worked well for quick, informal back-and-forth that would have felt too slow over email.
Most importantly, raise questions as soon as they come up rather than sitting on them. Without the natural visibility of being in the room, silence can easily be mistaken for everything being fine, so being proactive about communication is what keeps the work on track.”