In the Spotlight on the mentoring stage:

Melanie Köppel

Melanie Köppel has the job many want. She is a Content Creator. However, her social media postings are not about her own life, but rather she writes, produces and publishes posts specifically for customers of missMIND Digital, the digital agency of missMAGAZIN. How her path from graduating with a degree in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies to becoming a to becoming a project manager for major clients, she told us during the Mentoring stage talk.

Mrs. Köppel, what are you responsible for at missMIND?

MissMIND is the digital agency of miss MAGAZIN. That means we are mainly responsible for miss' social media channels and customer:inside projects. One of my big clients is Dyson, for example. We coordinate with the client, attend appointments and make videos, produce the content and, as soon as the project is finished, also the reporting. Four times a year, together with our colleagues, we produce the miss magazine for the target group of women aged 16 to 35. That means we prepare the content in such a way that it appeals to this target group and at the same time our customers are satisfied.

How did it come about that you applied for your current position?

The current position was actually always a girl's dream of mine because I grew up with miss magazine. Especially in social media, miss magazine is the biggest women's magazine in Austria. I applied several times and was only taken on the fourth or fifth time. I think it's an important message, if you want something, you should definitely apply more often.  
To what extent does your journalism degree help you in your work, and to what extent does your degree in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies?
The journalism degree helps me, of course, with the basis that you acquire with copywriting, with - especially in terms of video journalism - the special skills that you learn. Of course, that's a great advantage, especially since I now work in content creation, i.e. I produce content and mainly work with film. That's very essential for what I'm doing now, but it's probably not the biggest requirement. I also have female colleagues who haven't studied at all, for example, but are still in the position simply because it fits in terms of the person and the initiative.
Gender studies simply interested me a lot. I wasn't really looking at what I could do with it in the future, but there was just a basic interest and I just really wanted to do it. And of course, language is constantly changing. The topic of gendering - how do you gender correctly, do you gender at all - is of course always a big topic in the media industry and is often discussed at our college and explored how exactly we should do it.

In general, how well does working at a women's magazine go with this degree?

I think it depends on the perspective. Women's magazines have changed extremely in the last ten years. So from "How do I lose 10 kilos in 10 days" is the miss yes completely gone. We want to produce content and write texts where readers feel good afterwards and don't think they have to lose weight or anything else. Our message is "You are beautiful the way you are". Positivity simply. Of course, it is still a women's magazine. Very diverse often becomes difficult. We're looking to incorporate that as best we can anyway, we're becoming more open and making the content more broadly focused.

Mrs. Köppel, what would you recommend to someone who:who says "I would like to work at a magazine." How do you get your foot in the door?

Internships or gaining work experience are the be-all and end-all. And: Seize opportunities! I notice that quite often with younger women that they think, I don't yet meet these qualifications, therefore I can't apply yet. Nonsense! Just apply. Either you get the chance and acquire new qualifications there or you have a missed opportunity. I advise that if you want to go somewhere, apply, make contacts and above all take advantage of opportunities.

Paid or unpaid internships - how did you do it?

I did it half-and-half, depending on what was. I would say from today's point of view, every internship should be paid at least with a small fee, because it's time you spend and because you can only do it unpaid from a privileged position. If you then have two jobs on the side to earn a living, it's already very time-consuming and nerve-wracking. But I think if you recognize this added value and say you absolutely want to gain insights and make contacts at these companies, then the internship pays off in this way, that you then have new contacts for the future, have made the experience and have something on your CV that someone else doesn't have.

Can you prepare for internships in a company?

I highly recommend looking at the company: Research on the website, what does the company offer, is there a social media account, what do they do? After all, an internship is there to learn, to gain experience and not to enter and already know everything perfectly. You go there with the idea of learning something. With your own initiative and company research, you are already very well prepared. In the internship period itself, you then learn the things you need to be able to do.

If you want to work in social media and you apply for a job, do they check social media profiles?

I would say LinkedIn is perhaps a topic where employers:inside look at it. But there the content is also quite different than on Instagram, for example. I think that a personal social media profile is not really decisive whether an application process continues or not. Because then it depends on how you build the content for a brand and that is of course totally different from the personal content that you might post on Instagram.

Dear Melanie Köppel, thank you very much for the interview.