Digital Marketing Placement Review

I have really enjoyed my placement year with Johnson & Johnson working as part of the Digital Marketing team. I have learnt so much both within and outside of my job scope and worked alongside a friendly team. I have enjoyed all the tasks and projects i have been involved with this year including the opportunity to learn and develop skills outside of my day to day job by working with other teams.

I have felt a valued member of the team i have been working in. As a placement, i have been given tasks and projects to lead in which i am the key contact in and where i hold the expertise meaning that some of my team members come to me for help. My team have been so welcoming and friendly that i was sad to leave.

My manager and i have a weekly 1-2-1 in which we can discuss all the projects and tasks i have on that week and which elements of this i may need support in. This has enabled me to work under my own esteem and ask for help and support where needed which has really helped me learn and develop. As well as 1-2-1s, my manager put in learning sessions to help develop my understanding in specific areas of the business.

My tasks varied from week to week which has kept my job interesting and varied. I guess the downside to this was that some weeks could be less busy than others but after reaching out to my manager i was able to get involved in more projects that i was interested in and offer support on tasks outside of my job role which has been really good in developing my skills.

I was surprised at how much responsibility i was given throughout my placement year. Towards the end of my year i was running a website and in charge of the CRM campaign for the email subscribers to the website, definitely not something i thought i would be doing by the end of the year!

I have developed many skills throughout my placement year including communications; leading meetings and organising presentations, time management; working on several projects at once and ensuring all deadlines are met, teamwork; working alongside my team and cross-functionally with other teams with both internal and external partners to ensure projects are completed. These are skills that will easily be applicable to future careers and my final year of study.

The whole marketing department are very friendly and always eager to help which meant that settling in at the start of the year was easy. When there was something i was unsure about, i knew i could go to my team to ask questions and was never made to feel like i was asking a silly question. The atmosphere was generally lively and chatty amongst the whole department and i have come away with friends from lots of different brands and departments.

I think the organizing of the placement year went well. At the start of the year we had a two week handover period with the existing placements to hand over all the existing and ongoing projects and learn more about the job. We also had multiple trainings in our diaries so we were able to learn as we worked.

I have attended lots of training sessions throughout my year both internally and externally including travelling to London for some of the sessions. It has been great to be given the opportunities to develop my own skill base outside of the job i have been doing this year and has boosted my understanding across different departments too.

There is an opportunity to apply for the marketing grad scheme during your placement year however, with few positions available, it makes it difficult to guarantee a position. I think applying internally is a good idea as it also fast tracks your application for a grad role however it is still highly competitive as there are many placement students.

There was around 20 placements in my department which has been good as i have been able to make friends that i will keep after the year. We have self-organised quite a few events this year and we are all a close bunch of people by the end of the year. It also made settling in easier as i knew there were a lot of us in the same boat.

I lived at home as i was fortunate enough to work in the office not far from my home so i am used to the prices. It is more expensive than up North as i am at Newcastle University however, i would say it is cheaper than London prices. Other placements have found that living in Maidenhead is fairly well priced and ideal to live as whilst it's not in London, it is a 30 minute train ride away.

Maidenhead isn't a very big town so there weren't many places near the office we could meet up at outside of work. With the office also not being in the centre of town, it requires driving or a shuttle bus to get there. However, maidenhead has a direct train to paddington so makes getting into london to socialise easier.

As my parents live around here and i have grown up nearby i was able to carry on the sports activities i did before i went to Uni. The company also pay for the gym membership which isn't too far from the office and has many exercise classes on which we have utilised as much as possible.