At Pressure Cooker Studios we believe that the best way to innovate is to grow talent.
We are passionate about nurturing creativity in young people. We also want to become role models. So we have an ongoing annual internship programme where we take on anyone with a passion for Music or Audio, no matter their background.
We’ve had over 12 interns over the years, with more than half turning into full time positions at the studio. Read more about some of our intern success stories here.
Earlier this year we connected with Catherine Li, an International Relations student based in the USA with a passion for the entertainment industry. While we’ve had many interns in our Music and Audio departments before, Catherine was our first ‘Marketing Intern’ working under our General Manager Brian Little and alongside Sarah Van Der Spuy who handles all our Digital Marketing.
Although we never met Catherine face to face, we spent a few months working together and learning from each other. Catherine took the time to answer some questions about her experience as an intern at Pressure Cooker Studios.
We are a learning studio and we know that we can all learn from each other continuously.
How did you find your experience working at Pressure Cooker Studios?
I found it very enriching and flexible. Brian was super supportive and insightful about any tasks I had to complete and questions I asked. Every assignment that was handed to me was explained in thorough detail and I felt that I was able to ask questions to anybody. Sarah too was very helpful to talk to about a lot of the digital marketing tasks that I had to complete, and this gave me an insight on how marketing now operates in a digital world. It was a great mentorship experience. I walked in expecting that I would be able to work in a highly collaborative and communicative environment, and that is exactly what I got. The quality of the assignments I got and the environment I was working in made the experience that much better.
What stood out for you most about Pressure Cooker Studios?
I could really feel the core values centered around the “customer experience” when I worked at Pressure Cooker. You feel very supported by the culture at Pressure Cooker and I couldn’t have asked for a better first internship.
The people were the highlight of my experience. The key to having an amazing organization is hiring the right people that have the right skills and the passion to make any interaction with the company amazing, and PCS nailed that. The support I felt from the team at PCS was one of a kind.
What was your most valuable learning or insight?
At the very beginning of my internship, Brian made sure I read up and really got the hang of the unique marketing strategy for Pressure Cooker Studios, as well as general marketing concepts. These concepts ended up being prevalent in my planning and my assignments and helped me understand what marketing is and can do.
This internship opened my eyes up to marketing and what it is actually like for marketers, but also as a potential career path. With the experience and the understanding I have about marketing from Pressure Cooker, I would like to pursue marketing potentially in future opportunities.
What do you think Pressure Cooker Studios has to offer to the US market?
There is a big rise in different global entertainment capitals, with Africa being one of them. Pressure Cooker Studios are passionate about creating African sound for the global market and could pioneer this into the United States as they have the experience and capability to do so.
Tell you mom you work at Pressure Cooker Studios and get in touch with us to join our creativehub of audio pioneers and composers in Cape Town (in person or remotely!).
