I have just completed two weeks of work experience at Car Throttle and I must say, it was a great and extremely valuable experience.
The last time I completed work experience was for my year 10 placement back in 2010, so I was naturally nervous for my first taste of working as a journalist, in a proper office environment.
And what a website to work for (for two weeks anyway). Car Throttle was created in 2009 by Adnan Ebrahim during his time at University. His main aim was to create the next big car brand but for the more specific market of digital natives and those young or 'young at heart.'
After graduating in 2011, Adnan jumped in to running Car Throttle full time and has engineered it into its current guise, with a bit of help from Passion Capital - investors who have been involved in the rise of Skype, AOL, Last.fm. To see more on the website, check out the 'about' page.
The website is now hugely popular and it's easy to see why. Targeting a market that the car industry has never really focused on before - media wise - has proved to be a big success and the whole project is growing from month to month, alongside the many side projects under the CT umbrella.
I was massively impressed with the website when introduced to it by Dan Puddicombe and even more so when doing my research prior to my work experience - I like to know as much as possible before going in to anything.
So I was obviously eager to get some work experience at such a popular and successful website, cue the all important email.
Adnan was kind enough to allocate me two weeks, starting on the 22nd of July and finishing on August 2nd. However looking back at the experience now, I wish I could have been in the office more and really participated fully during that time.
You see, I live a good few hours drive away from London by car and the train takes 90 minutes, and with ticket prices being so expensive and my own limited income, I just could not afford to travel in every day. So we settled for two days a week at CT HQ and three days working at home, obviously one of the perks of the Internet is that this can be done but I personally think I would have learnt a bit more had I not been restricted by funds.
I was extremely busy over those two weeks and that was a really good challenge and pushed me out of my comfort zone. I was so busy because not only did I have work to do for Car Throttle but the two weeks proved to be the bread of a rather tasty sandwich, with my trip to Brands Hatch being the filling. At the circuit I managed to interview Alice Powell (Powell Post writer) for the site. That was a really good experience as it was my first sit down interview with a racing driver, nerve-wracking but that eased as the time ticked on.
However whether I was in the office or at home, I enjoyed every minute of writing for Car Throttle. Because of the overall brand being relatively informal, it gave me the challenge of writing in a different style to what I was used to with other projects like RichlandF1.
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Another challenge was moving away from motorsport and Formula 1, obviously it wasn't too far out of my comfort zone as I was still covering things on four-wheels but it was refreshing to write about a different subject and having to do more research because of this, I think I adapted quite well to what was thrown at me and my speed for finding stories has definitely improved as I know how to and where to look.
I also gained some new skills using Wordpress - which I use for other sites but not for my blog - alongside the more obvious things: developing my writing style, writing articles with a range of different lengths and improving my construction and selection of titles.
I think the pieces that I am most proud of are the ones that took the most work. The ones that I had to research, write up, continuously change and explore differing ways of doing them. I really like delving into the resources available and finding some real gems, it's quite rewarding.
This is particularly evident with my Kimi Raikkonen piece, where I picked 12 reasons why the sport would be a worse place without him. I also thoroughly enjoyed analysing one of the Top Gear episodes and picking out the best and funniest moments. I have never re-watched a programme for that purpose and to be honest, who can complain about spending a few hours at work re-watching one of their favourite programmes?
I did cover some Formula 1 and motorsport related things, including a news piece summarising the Hungarian Grand Prix which I obviously enjoyed writing. It was great to bring my 'specialist subject' - if you will - to the website and broaden their coverage of motorsport as a whole - they cover it but not very much - as it is a big part of the industry and is helping to promote the sport in a different way.
I also think I dealt with London transport pretty well! I'm a worrier and so left myself with plenty of time, but I rarely travel to the capital and so I was pretty impressed with how I handled myself and managed to not get lost. That was an achievement in itself.
However I think my highlight of the two weeks was the end. Not because it finished, but because Adnan and Alex (the editor who I worked with over the two weeks) had a short meeting with me at the end of my work experience and said some truly incredible and kind things.
I'm not the most confident person and while I know that I am a good writer, I know that I have a lot to learn and improve. So hearing their kind comments and how impressed they were with my writing, work ethic and attitude alongside my ideas was amazingly cool and a real boost to my confidence.
That really helped because that's what I was trying to do. My main aims were to work hard, work professionally, learn and improve. So to get told I met all of them was a big boost.
I know that in this blog, I haven't gone in to too much detail about the pieces I have written for the site. I have posted 30-odd articles on Car Throttle over the last two weeks and Adnan informed me that the collective hit rate for all my pieces is in six figures. Which is pretty damn cool. It's not a common thing, getting so many hits and it just shows how popular the site is.
My main focus was writing up news articles, short video or picture stories and some longer feature and list pieces. Take a look at my writers portfolio on their site to check them out, some of them are hilarious and I'm really pleased and proud of how they all turned out.
I haven't mentioned the team much, but they deserve a big shoutout. Adnan - founder and editor-in-chief - is a very focused and successful entrepreneur but he is also a extremely nice guy and pretty funny too - although I must admit that I didn't get all of the banter. What he has done with the site is hugely impressive and it's quite inspirational really, for someone so young.
Alex - the editor who previously worked for Autocar - was a massive help and I worked directly with him over the two weeks to produce content for the site. I appreciated his honesty when pointing out my mistakes but he is also, like Adnan, a really nice guy and a good laugh. Although reading this piece, he has probably found a number of apostrophes errors already (that was the only criticism I really received, which is pretty good!)
He is also a very talented writer and is very good at what he does. It was great to meet them and work alongside Alex and Adnan. Ethan is Car Throttle's producer and if you check out the websites YouTube channel, you can tell that he is very good at his job. The rest of the team are largely freelance but all do a good job from what I have seen and heard.
Car Throttle is a website that I have only known about for a few months, but is now firmly saved in my favourites (I would recommend you do the same!). I'm so pleased to have had my work posted on such a popular and fantastic website so I really appreciate Adnan saying yes to my work experience request.
So, yeah! Big thanks to the Car Throttle team for all the help and advice, I have learnt so much and taken away a lot from the experience. I wish I could have been at HQ more often but it was fantastic nonetheless.
One last thing, if you are looking to join the car or motorsport journalism industry and you are a similar age to me (18), I would definitely recommend work experience at Car Throttle or any that you can find elsewhere. So if you want to contact Adnan about doing something similar to what I did, visit the Car Throttle contact page.
So in short: I learnt a lot, I enjoyed it a lot, I would recommend it a lot and it was a really invaluable experience.
Check out Car Throttle alongside all their social network links: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Update: The epic guys at CT offered me a job on their freelance team as their F1 correspondent. I'll be writing about my favourite sport alongside all the usual hilarious and jaw-dropping goodness, check out my writers profile for all my latest pieces.
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| Busy working at CT HQ |
And what a website to work for (for two weeks anyway). Car Throttle was created in 2009 by Adnan Ebrahim during his time at University. His main aim was to create the next big car brand but for the more specific market of digital natives and those young or 'young at heart.'
After graduating in 2011, Adnan jumped in to running Car Throttle full time and has engineered it into its current guise, with a bit of help from Passion Capital - investors who have been involved in the rise of Skype, AOL, Last.fm. To see more on the website, check out the 'about' page.
The website is now hugely popular and it's easy to see why. Targeting a market that the car industry has never really focused on before - media wise - has proved to be a big success and the whole project is growing from month to month, alongside the many side projects under the CT umbrella.
So I was obviously eager to get some work experience at such a popular and successful website, cue the all important email.
Adnan was kind enough to allocate me two weeks, starting on the 22nd of July and finishing on August 2nd. However looking back at the experience now, I wish I could have been in the office more and really participated fully during that time.
You see, I live a good few hours drive away from London by car and the train takes 90 minutes, and with ticket prices being so expensive and my own limited income, I just could not afford to travel in every day. So we settled for two days a week at CT HQ and three days working at home, obviously one of the perks of the Internet is that this can be done but I personally think I would have learnt a bit more had I not been restricted by funds.
I was extremely busy over those two weeks and that was a really good challenge and pushed me out of my comfort zone. I was so busy because not only did I have work to do for Car Throttle but the two weeks proved to be the bread of a rather tasty sandwich, with my trip to Brands Hatch being the filling. At the circuit I managed to interview Alice Powell (Powell Post writer) for the site. That was a really good experience as it was my first sit down interview with a racing driver, nerve-wracking but that eased as the time ticked on.
However whether I was in the office or at home, I enjoyed every minute of writing for Car Throttle. Because of the overall brand being relatively informal, it gave me the challenge of writing in a different style to what I was used to with other projects like RichlandF1.
.jpg)
Another challenge was moving away from motorsport and Formula 1, obviously it wasn't too far out of my comfort zone as I was still covering things on four-wheels but it was refreshing to write about a different subject and having to do more research because of this, I think I adapted quite well to what was thrown at me and my speed for finding stories has definitely improved as I know how to and where to look.
I also gained some new skills using Wordpress - which I use for other sites but not for my blog - alongside the more obvious things: developing my writing style, writing articles with a range of different lengths and improving my construction and selection of titles.
I think the pieces that I am most proud of are the ones that took the most work. The ones that I had to research, write up, continuously change and explore differing ways of doing them. I really like delving into the resources available and finding some real gems, it's quite rewarding.
This is particularly evident with my Kimi Raikkonen piece, where I picked 12 reasons why the sport would be a worse place without him. I also thoroughly enjoyed analysing one of the Top Gear episodes and picking out the best and funniest moments. I have never re-watched a programme for that purpose and to be honest, who can complain about spending a few hours at work re-watching one of their favourite programmes?
I did cover some Formula 1 and motorsport related things, including a news piece summarising the Hungarian Grand Prix which I obviously enjoyed writing. It was great to bring my 'specialist subject' - if you will - to the website and broaden their coverage of motorsport as a whole - they cover it but not very much - as it is a big part of the industry and is helping to promote the sport in a different way.
I also think I dealt with London transport pretty well! I'm a worrier and so left myself with plenty of time, but I rarely travel to the capital and so I was pretty impressed with how I handled myself and managed to not get lost. That was an achievement in itself.
However I think my highlight of the two weeks was the end. Not because it finished, but because Adnan and Alex (the editor who I worked with over the two weeks) had a short meeting with me at the end of my work experience and said some truly incredible and kind things.
I'm not the most confident person and while I know that I am a good writer, I know that I have a lot to learn and improve. So hearing their kind comments and how impressed they were with my writing, work ethic and attitude alongside my ideas was amazingly cool and a real boost to my confidence.
That really helped because that's what I was trying to do. My main aims were to work hard, work professionally, learn and improve. So to get told I met all of them was a big boost.
I know that in this blog, I haven't gone in to too much detail about the pieces I have written for the site. I have posted 30-odd articles on Car Throttle over the last two weeks and Adnan informed me that the collective hit rate for all my pieces is in six figures. Which is pretty damn cool. It's not a common thing, getting so many hits and it just shows how popular the site is.
My main focus was writing up news articles, short video or picture stories and some longer feature and list pieces. Take a look at my writers portfolio on their site to check them out, some of them are hilarious and I'm really pleased and proud of how they all turned out.
I haven't mentioned the team much, but they deserve a big shoutout. Adnan - founder and editor-in-chief - is a very focused and successful entrepreneur but he is also a extremely nice guy and pretty funny too - although I must admit that I didn't get all of the banter. What he has done with the site is hugely impressive and it's quite inspirational really, for someone so young.
He is also a very talented writer and is very good at what he does. It was great to meet them and work alongside Alex and Adnan. Ethan is Car Throttle's producer and if you check out the websites YouTube channel, you can tell that he is very good at his job. The rest of the team are largely freelance but all do a good job from what I have seen and heard.
Car Throttle is a website that I have only known about for a few months, but is now firmly saved in my favourites (I would recommend you do the same!). I'm so pleased to have had my work posted on such a popular and fantastic website so I really appreciate Adnan saying yes to my work experience request.
So, yeah! Big thanks to the Car Throttle team for all the help and advice, I have learnt so much and taken away a lot from the experience. I wish I could have been at HQ more often but it was fantastic nonetheless.
One last thing, if you are looking to join the car or motorsport journalism industry and you are a similar age to me (18), I would definitely recommend work experience at Car Throttle or any that you can find elsewhere. So if you want to contact Adnan about doing something similar to what I did, visit the Car Throttle contact page.
So in short: I learnt a lot, I enjoyed it a lot, I would recommend it a lot and it was a really invaluable experience.
Check out Car Throttle alongside all their social network links: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Update: The epic guys at CT offered me a job on their freelance team as their F1 correspondent. I'll be writing about my favourite sport alongside all the usual hilarious and jaw-dropping goodness, check out my writers profile for all my latest pieces.
1 comment:
Excellent work mate! Shame I wasn't there to give you more banter ;) I've not seen much on my travels but looks like you did an awesome job, keep up the good work :)
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