Marketing Assistant & Events Co-ordinator Review

During my year at ProspectSoft, I thoroughly enjoyed working as a Marketing & Events Co-ordinator. I have been given so many fantastic yet challenging opportunities that have enabled me to grow both my technical and personal skills for the future. Due to ProspectSoft being a small-medium sized company, this allowed for the placements to work on exciting projects and have a high level of responsibility, as if we were a full-time employee. Not only the tasks within the job role, but the employees and experiences I have had outside of the office at ProspectSoft have made me grow into a more professional marketing student. I’ve had a life changing year as I’ve developed skills I never knew I had and finishing my placement has dramatically boosted my motivation to complete my final year of university successfully.

From the very first day of my placement, I always felt welcome in the office environment from all of the colleagues in the company. Not only did employees who were previous placements give us advice and guidance for the year ahead, but all members of management were extremely approachable whenever I needed to ask anything. Specifically, in my Marketing Team, I felt respected by my Team Manager and the other marketing placement. Throughout the year we all helped and supported each other in tasks and on a day-to-day basis, which allowed me to relax into the role. Even as a placement student, I was valued by all members of the team which was evidently shown from the responsibility I received so early on in the job role.

My Team Manager, Jessica Heald, gave me an incredible amount of support on my placement year, more than I ever expected. With Jess sat beside me in the office, I was able to receive any guidance I needed on tasks but at the same time allowed me to take control of the large creative design projects I was assigned. As my supervisor she was open to any suggestions I had for the marketing department and ensured I got involved in any tasks that I was interested in. To help build up my CV and employability, she researched and found 3 extra marketing courses I could complete and achieve a qualification from. Having Jess as my manager has tremendously improved my motivation to do well, not just at university but for the future ahead. As Jess was a placement herself, seeing that she had been invited back to the company as a Team Manager for Marketing is very inspiring. She was extremely positive and patient when I was first getting to grips with the job role and has made sure I developed my skills to a greater extent but more importantly enjoyed my time at ProspectSoft. Also, all the Directors have given a high level of support to me during my time at ProspectSoft.

As part of the Marketing department, all my tasks were noted and installed on Microsoft OneNote each month. With subheading and colour co-ordination incorporated into this, I was able to determine which tasks had the highest importance and therefore had to be completed as a priority. Once we had completed a task we moved it to the ‘completed’ section so we were able to see what we achieved that month. Seeing what I had achieved each month was particularly good for my university work, as I had to complete a Placement Diary each week for a University module.

As a student, I believe I was given a high level of responsibility in the tasks I was given on my placement. As a marketing role can vary, during the first few months of the placement we were given a variety of tasks to do for example, design, written, report writing, event planning, etc. After completing a few of these, I was able to determine which areas of Marketing I was stronger in and where I needed to improve – helping decide which future tasks were assigned to us. Specifically related to responsibility, throughout the year I was trusted more and more with projects – completing them on my own and with very little assistance. Even early on in my placement year (2 months in) I was assigned the very important task of creating the application for the National Undergraduate Employability Awards hosted by RateMyPlacement. This task was a huge responsibility because it entailed creating a 7-minute-long video to encourage the judges why our placement scheme deserved to win the award of ‘Best Small-Medium-sized Undergraduate Employer’. Also, at the start of my placement, I had full responsibility of creating a placement brochure for students about our placement scheme to hand out at careers fairs. Other huge responsibilities I was given include making changes on the main corporate website and uploading blogs to the placement site. I was also in control of our YouTube channel, as it was a monthly responsibility to edit and upload any webinars or tutorials we recorded regarding our software. Overall, I regarded each task as important as it impacted the company in some way either big or small. Each task enabled me to learn more and expand my skills further.

For the first four weeks of my placement at ProspectSoft, we had an intensive training course. The training is held by the Sales & Marketing Director, Stuart McLaren, who leads the sessions regarding the CRM and eCommerce solution we offer. The training requires us to perform a demonstration on the CRM and CMS editor in front of the management team and the rest of the placements to show your level of knowledge on this. This training instantly improved my presentation and communication skills which I can implement into my final year of university, as many of my modules require me to present a product or idea as part of an assessment. My placement has allowed my technical and interpersonal skills develop to a high standard, especially because I have put into practice the marketing I have learnt at university. The year in industry has also allowed me to define what areas of Marketing I’m interested in, which will help determine the subject I will choose for my dissertation.

Working in a small company can be hugely beneficial, especially to placement students. As every employee in the company worked in the same office, this allowed for great communication between each department. Also, with each department working collaboratively together, this ensured employees could assist each other. I found the general atmosphere of the office calm yet motivating because of the hard-working employees.

As the placement scheme has been running for a number of years, I had high expectations for the work placement and its set up, and it’s fair to say these high standards were met. Before starting the placement, any information or documentation that was needed was chased up on so it could be completed ahead of time. Previous placements at the company also offered to help us with any accommodation queries we had before moving to the new area. Overall, I thought the general organisation of the work placement was very good. As mentioned previously, at the start of the job, each placement had to complete the same training which I thought was massively helpful as we understood how each department worked. The organisation of the placement in the Marketing department was arranged to a high degree as we were given a handover document that told us everything we needed to know about the role and programmes that we’d frequently use.

The company invested highly in all the placement students during the year, as we can be seen as potential employees for the future – and they also want to ensure we learn the most we can during our year away from university. This was shown as regular training sessions were held every few weeks, led by the MD of the company to all employees about ProspectSoft’s business processes. This has helped my business knowledge improve dramatically. Also, every first Monday of the month, there is a company meeting held in the office in which all directors/management perform a presentation on how successful their month was in their department. In the Marketing department specifically, Jess held a meeting between her and I every month to catch up on the tasks I had assigned every month, explaining each one and how I’m getting on in general.

After the experience I have had this year working for ProspectSoft, I would be delighted to be invited back for a graduate job. Many of the employees at ProspectSoft are previous placements, which comes across as hopeful for current placement students. I can see a future working for ProspectSoft, but even if I’m unlucky in achieving this, I am very grateful for having the opportunity to work for this company and will take my experiences and developed skills ahead with me.

As most of the placement students relocate to Oxford on their placement year, planning social events outside of the company was an relatively easy. Most corporate social events are also held in Oxford which is convenient and if not, other colleagues help each other out. As part of my year, I lived with four other placement students and there was a good social scene amongst this as we organised a variety of things to do. Within the company, there is also a good social atmosphere between colleagues because anyone is free to organise any social activity they wish, and as mentioned previously, there are always social company events to look forward to. Work perks include: - Finish at 4:30pm on Fridays but stay in the office and take part in a quiz and grab a beer out of the beer fridge. - Department Curry Nights - Pizza Fridays on the last Friday of the month (20+ pizzas are ordered to the office for lunch) - Social events – Henley Regatta Summer Event, Summer BBQ, Christmas Party event, Placement Leaving Do meal and night out in August. - Corporate events – attending the NUE Awards.

I lived in Oxford during my placement year but there are other options such as High Wycombe or Stokenchurch for cheaper accommodation. Living in Oxford had a lot of social opportunities, especially from living with other placement students.

As the job is located in Stokenchurch, the nightlife is mainly located either in High Wycombe or Oxford. Due to living in Oxford, the nightlife I experienced was always there and from my experience it was really good. There are a lot of really nice restaurants and bars, and normally maintains a good, busy atmosphere because of the city popularity.

We were always given the opportunity to get involved in activities outside of work. For example, every week the office organises a games night after work and during the week there’s also the opportunity to get involved in playing squash and football. Also, there are activities organised in departments such as bowling or meals out in the evening occasionally.