I’m Joe, a stage 2 Marketing Student completing a year-long Marketing placement at the Newcastle University Careers Service.
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Why I wanted to complete a placement year
I saw a placement as an opportunity to gain a year of real experience while getting paid at the same time. In my marketing course, I was learning lots of theories, writing essays and reports but there wasn’t much practical work. I really wanted to be able to apply my knowledge and better understand how a job in marketing would work day-to-day. Furthermore, it felt like a good way to test how much I like marketing and whether I want to continue in the industry after I graduate (SPOILER! I do).
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Finding and applying to my role
I hadn’t planned or thought too much about applications before I started, but I didn't realise how hard it was just to get through the applications and stages of selection. I eventually found that organising the process made it a lot easier. I selected cities and titles I wanted to apply for, and in my case this was primarily Marketing Placements in Manchester, Leeds or Newcastle. Then I filtered by roles, so Marketing, Communication, PR and went from there. I found it was good to list the roles I had applied for and all the application deadlines so I didn’t lose track.
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The interview process for my role at the Careers Service
Ahead of the placement interview, I was given a brief to create a social media marketing plan. I thought it was important to use it as an opportunity to show off my specific strengths: so I looked at leveraging my design skills when building my response to the brief. Making sure it looked sleek and had a clear structure. Which ultimately helped me explain it on the day. I also read the brief over and over again, so I didn’t miss any details.
On the day, I had a 30-minute design task followed by 30 minutes for presentation and interview questions. Going into it I was nervous about presenting, but starting with the task and sitting to create a design completely took my mind off it and calmed my nerves. The presentation itself went well. I think sharing my thought process and how I got to my solution helped reflect my personality and showed the interview panel how I approach problems.
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My first week of work
Before my first day, I had a lot of nerves and questions... Was I wearing the right clothes? Did I have everything I needed? What would I be doing? I was really pleased to get an email from my new manager before my start date, she gave me clarity on everything and a detailed plan of what my first week would look like.
It's important to know that the first day will be the start of an induction period. I was introduced to my team, shown my desk and laptop, given a tour of the office and all the resources. I sat with my manager and got everything set up.
On my first week I had 1:2:1’s with various team managers so I could get to know people and find out how everyone in the teams worked and collaborated. I got to know what was going on around me and my role within the team. This was invaluable to help me settle in and allowed me to get to know various colleagues. On my third day, I was out of the office for a video shoot working with an external video production company. We were interviewing students on work placements around the city and I shadowed my manager, watching her project manage and coordinate a production team. It was a really fun day and got me really excited for what was to come.
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My 6-month reflection
The last 6 months have been a massive period of learning. I feel like I have gained so much from my placement and in ways I didn’t expect. Working full-time (hybrid working) felt like a huge step up for me, but I adjusted to it quickly.
My time management and organisation have improved since starting the role. I have had to manage and schedule posts, campaigns and dealt with multiple deadlines at the same time. For me I have always previously been overwhelmed by having different tasks on the go at once, but this is something I find a lot easier now that I have better organisation and processes in place.
My technical skills have grown too. Working in a big team has allowed me to explore a variety of different tasks and get involved in things I didn't think I'd be able to initially. I’m now much more proficient in Adobe InDesign, HubSpot, Canva and have even made edits on the University website using a CRM platform!
As part of my on-placement assignments, I set self-development objectives to complete while at work. One of these was to improve my confidence. To tackle this, I took on tasks such as presenting reports at meetings, interviewing people at events and working more collaboratively. At first, I found this quite daunting and hard. Although I think constantly throwing myself into all these situations and not taking it too seriously helped. I would now describe myself as someone who is confident at work so I'm pleased I took on these opportunities, even though they felt a little out of my comfort zone at first.
Overall, I would definitely recommend a placement year to anyone who is considering one. I don’t think there is a better place to learn about an industry or a role than to get firsthand experience. Particularly for my interests in marketing. I don’t think there’s a better way to learn than to experiment and see what works. There are so many situations I have been in which I wouldn’t have experienced without a placement, and it has built me a good foundation of skills to take into my final year of University, future applications, interviews and a graduate role.