A day in the life of Rob Cooke, Social Media Apprentice

I don’t start the day without a coffee. Once that’s in my system I’m ready to get going, jumping on the overground from Clapham Junction to Shoreditch High Street, a 40-minute journey, give or take. And a journey like that calls for a podcast, which for me is usually a toss-up between ‘That Peter Crouch Podcast’ and ‘Off Menu’ with Ed Gamble and James Acaster.

After a short walk from Shoreditch High Street station, I arrive at the office at around 8:45am. We run a hybrid workplace, so I never know who I’m going to see. Today I’m greeted with a 2000’s playlist pumping through the office, so that can only mean that Casey got to the speaker first this morning.

That’s enough to get me in a positive mindset, so I crack on, catching up on anything I missed over the weekend and everything that’s planned for the week ahead. This means going through emails, seeing what meetings I have throughout the day, and checking the company workload document to see how my tasks will be split up.

At 9:30am, it’s time for the social stand-up, our daily meeting to go through our workload for the day – once we’ve caught up on what everyone got up to on the weekend, of course! Once that’s wrapped up, I get started supporting on projects with both corporate and consumer clients of the tree. This week, I was tasked with filming a TikTok as a Lime (yes, you read that right!) for the tree’s energy drink client, Boost, who were launching their new “Juic’d” drinks range.

As 12:30 rolls round, it’s lunch time – for me, anyway, as I’m incredibly hungry at this point. And when you’re hungry, there’s only one thing to do – take to the streets of Shoreditch to find the perfect food to match your appetite. This is normally one of two places: Franco’s – who’s Pasta and Paninis are the best in Shoreditch, or, if I’m not that hungry and am feeling thrifty, a Tesco meal deal always does the trick.

After lunch, I’ll either work on content calendars, scheduling posts which are set to go live throughout the month or I’ll research the latest updates to social media platforms, which then get shared with everyone in our weekly kickstarter meetings. However, this week, I was tasked with something completely new, and ventured to Hemel Hempstead with workmates Menuka and Niamh, to film some content for the tree’s bakery client Wenzel’s. This involved getting members of the public to try Wenzel’s new 100% Arabica coffee range and filming vox pops of their reactions, which would later be edited and posted across Wenzel’s social media.

At around 5:30, the workday comes to an end, which can mean one of two things: if I’m tired, I will jump on the next train to Clapham and have a chilled-out evening, watching my favourite series – which currently is Amazon Prime’s ‘The Boys.’ However, the chances are that I’ll still have just enough energy left to join the rest of the team for some well-earned after work drinks. Our personal favourite spot is Barrio’s – who’s 2-for-1 cocktails are impossible to say no to!

A Day in the life Q&A

What’s my proudest moment since starting at the tree?

Each month, the tree announced the ‘Kudos Winner of the month’, which is the person who has received the most credits from colleagues for going the extra mile at work. One of my proudest moments is winning the Kudos award in my first month at the tree!

Who’s my work bestie?

I’d have to say my best friend at work is Jess – we often get the same train in the morning, and she has to put up with me singing along to the office music all day – so I feel like I owe her this one!

What’s been the funniest moment I’ve had at the tree?

My ‘work buddy’, Ollie, and I hosted our monthly social event, where we organised a picnic in the park and got everyone involved in ‘team building’ games like Mafia and Simon Says!

What’s my biggest office pet peeve?

I don’t have many pet peeves, but one thing that mildly gets on my nerves is the moment when you turn up to the office and someone is sitting in your seat – although saying that, we run a ‘hot seating’ system in the office, so really no one has their ‘own desk’!