Digital, Marketing and Sales Executive Review

I honestly could not have enjoyed my experience more. Everyday I went into work looking forward to the day ahead. There were challenging days but that is expected – nobody enjoys everyday. However, when you believe in the product and you are impressed by the team around you, it makes it easy to look forward to starting the day. I enjoyed it so much that I did more than asked for.

I believe my colleagues valued me and that they felt they could approach me if they needed help. Even if I didn’t know the answer, I would always go and find it out. I have a lot of appreciation for others in the team and felt as if I was always leaning, even if it was just listening into someone’s telephone conversation. I am someone who thrives however on feedback, therefore I sometimes would have liked to know not only the good, but also the bad. At the end of the day, I won’t improve unless I realise what I am doing wrong. I feel I was valued but it would be good to sometimes hear it a bit more. However, what I have learnt this year is that people don’t have the time to sit there and continually say you have done this well. Therefore when it is said, it means a lot.

When I need help or advice, it was always there. The management style as such was not hugely structured, however, this is something I thrived on and as such, I was my own manager. As a small team, everyone is willing to submit their constructive opinions. If you are looking for a placement where you will be handheld throughout, this isn’t the one for you. It requires an independent individual.

I believe in everything you do, there is always something that can be done better. Therefore I liked to load up my working list so that I knew I was always busy. I did struggle at times when I felt I didn’t have much to do – combating that however by saying to everyone, what jobs do you have for me. In short, I was very busy and as a criticism to myself, my time management skills sometimes needed improving.

My employers gave me a huge amount of responsibility. As placement students we were treated just the same as other employees. The small business nature meant that I was in charge of multiple projects and I felt very trusted. If I had an idea that I felt I could implement, I was often allowed to do so at free will.

Going back to University, I will feel dramatically more focused. I cannot explain in words how much I have developed as a person, but I know that this change will help me not only in my degree, but also hugely in later life. I knew I wanted the role from the start because it is my aspiration to set up my own businesses. I could not have asked for a better placement to help me learn about that.

It’s a fun, word hard, play hard nature. At times, we did become so busy that this nature was sometimes neglected – however, as a whole it’s a great atmosphere. We are a strong team and we work together well. I sometimes feel people don’t realise just how good things are and that’s because as a young team, a lot of us don’t know any different.

As a new, small company, the placement had been set up in what some people may describe as not the best. However, I would be the first to argue that it is potentially the best placement you will ever get, set up in the best way – you just need to be the right sort of person. It is unbelievably flexible, one day I could be signing up students at a fair, the next I am coding the website. I was trusted as a full member of the team and in fact the lack of the structure in some aspects, is what makes it great.

I had training from internal staff members, in areas such as Sales and IT. I also had some form of external sales training. As such, I was not taken on any courses, nor did I gain any qualifications, that I know other students on placement have done. I can understand why this is however - as a small business the funding is not there to invest. Also, investing in a placement student when they are going to leave after 12 months does bring up a cost versus benefit issue. I do however think that sometimes it would have been better to train me in areas properly, rather than leaving me to learn as I go. This is simply due to the reason of productivity. I could have worked faster had I learnt some processes properly before being let loose on them.

The company asked me to stay for the summer but I wanted to see the difference between a small and large company. I am therefore currently on an internship at IFDS (International Financial Data Services), which is a very different experience. Employment wise, I also have the chance to continue working for them whilst at University, on-campus. When I graduate, there has been talk of a role and I have informally been asked to return. I will look to obtain a formal offer within the next two months, as I will need to start thinking about my opportunities as a graduate. I can see myself there in the future, however, I worry that, as I did not have a set role at the company – I could become a redundant member of the team. This is why I want to ensure that I seek further work experience to better myself and offer more to the team, should I return to RateMyPlacement.co.uk. At the moment I can only offer them my experience at their company, not my experience elsewhere.

Everyone in the team is below the age of 27. We are a young, fun team and the social scene is good. We regularly socialise after work and the co-founder’s reward us quarterly for our work. Some of the people I work with are those who I know I will stay in contact with for the rest of my life.

Working in London is great, however, it is costly. For me I was lucky in the fact that I lived at home – my parents did not charge me anything. There are disadvantages to this, however, having dinner on the table and my washing and ironing done whenever I need it – I certainly couldn’t complain. On a salary of 16k a year, I took home just under £1100 a month. Of this, I saved £300 for my final year, spent £350 on travel and then used the remaining £450 to live on – which included food at work each day. It was actually quite a struggle to live on – considering I had more at University per month to spend and that was in Loughborough, not London!

Working in London, I am subject to perhaps the best nightlife there is on offer. There are always places to go to after work and at the weekends. It is expensive but I never expected anything else.

There is a 5 a-side football league that the company competes in, however, due to injury I never really had to chance to give it a go. Aside from that, the activities outside of work involve the social scene that I have spoken about. It’s a really friendly atmosphere and everyone is willing to get involved, whether it means staying after to work to compete in fun challenges, or spending the day on a duck tour in around the capital. I really enjoyed the fact that the people I worked with were people who I enjoyed having a drink with down the pub!