Marketing Communications Placement Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year at Cummins. My role in marketing changed significantly over the course of the year which gave me the opportunity to explore multiple areas of the business. The company values having placement students on-board and this evident through their effective support system and friendly working environment. I feel as though I have developed both personally and professionally over the course of the year and I am still of the opinion that nothing can prepare you better for a career than practising a year in industry part-way through your degree.

At the start of my placement, I was given the lead role for a campaign called Rumst. As a marketing team, we were promoting the launch of a distribution site in Belgium and wanted to communicate this effectively with our key stakeholders and customers. Taking early ownership of such an important project made me feel as though I was already a valuable asset to the team. I received some encouraging feedback which motivated me to continue working hard over the course of the year.

I have had one to one meetings with my managers since the start of placement which has been the perfect opportunity to voice any concerns that I might be having about my role. It has also been great to be able to utilise this time to set any SMART objectives for my year and identify some of my main strengths and weaknesses. This way, it's easier to reflect on your improvements. I was also allocated a buddy at the beginning of my year which was another effective support system. I had fortnightly meetings with a manager of another department which really helped me to settle in.

Over the Christmas period, things quietened down quite significantly regarding my workload. It was a little bit challenging to stay motivated and request more tasks to do. However, as soon as the new year kick-started, I have been very busy on a daily basis. I'm currently preparing for an event in London called the Africa Energy Forum, often covering for my manager while they are away at another exhibition. I have been responsible for the collaboration of all of our literature and giveaways and to ensure that the logistics of the event run smoothly.

I have been given much more responsibility that I anticipated over the course of my placement year. At Cummins, there is the opportunity to get involved in work that helps the wider community and I have managed the onsite Blood Drive for three consecutive events this year. Being responsible for such a great cause has been highly rewarding and I have really enjoyed the whole experience.

The main skills I am taking away from my placement year are my team working, flexibility, communication and leadership skills- all of which will be very useful in my final year of studies. Changing job roles part-way through the year has challenged my levels of flexibility and keeping our stakeholder informed of these changes has meant that my communication skills have had to remain at a high level. Working in a warm team environment has helped to develop my team working ethic and I believe I will utilise this when engaging in team projects next year. I now also have the confidence to actively volunteer for leadership roles which wouldn't have usually come naturally to me.

There are lots of different characters in my office, however, I am always surrounded by people smiling and laughing. It's been great to meet people from various cultural backgrounds and to learn so much about other people. Cummins has undergone some reorganisations during my placement year which has affected the team moral at times but all of my colleagues have remained positive and kept me well-informed of any changes that were occurring.

The placement year was very well organised and Cummins take on new students every year. We had various training schemes towards the start of the year which were useful for enhancing your interpersonal business skills and practising things such as presenting. There were also lots of inductions set up to allow new placement students to start networking with one another. At the end of the year, there is the opportunity to take part in Cummins Bursary Scheme which gives students the chance to present an overview of their year in the hope of winning one of the three potential prizes.

I had quarterly reviews with my manager to discuss my projects to date, including a review of my performance and how I could start to improve. It was clear that Cummins valued my progression and made time to ensure that I was content with my workload. Cummins offer Graduate Schemes to those placement students that excel during their year and to me this is proof that they are actively seeking out the best individuals to employ at a later stage.

My new marketing role is now more events-based and this is an area that I particularly enjoy. Consequently, I would love to come back to Cummins as a Graduate and to develop some of my marketing and event-organisation skills even further. Witnessing some restructures throughout my year has made me question the brutality of working in the corporate business world, however I know that this is just part of it all and my market awareness has improved massively.

I have made some really good friends over the course of my year who I plan to remain in contact with for the rest of my working life. Being a member of the Sports and Social club has allowed me to attend quite a few trips during the year such as Bruges Christmas markets. This was another great chance to socialise with my fellow placement students and have fun. We have also made an effort to get together on weekends to relax and enjoy reflecting on another week at work!

The cost of renting is quite standard for student living and the bills were reasonably priced too. As a student at Newcastle University that is used to buying drinks for under £2.00, it was quite a shock to see how quickly you could spend your money on night's out in Kent. Being on a full-time wage counterbalances this cost though and I have managed to save a fair amount of money over the course of the year.

Ramsgate is quite an old, seaside town and the nightlife is therefore fairly limited. There are some nightclubs on the seafront that can get lively on the weekends, especially during summer, but they don't compare to those in bigger student cities such as Newcastle. We have still managed to have some good nights out- often in Canterbury rather than Ramsgate, which is a short train journey away.

There were lots of opportunities to get involved in events outside of work. We had loads of meals out as part of the Sports and Social club at discounted prices and I have been a member of Cummins Badminton Club for the entirety of my placement year. It has been brilliant to be able to continue networking with people outside of work and it definitely makes the overall working environment at Cummins more relaxed and enjoyable.