Brand Marketing Placement Student Review

I really enjoyed working in brand marketing. Everyone is so friendly and you are made to feel like a full time employee, not a placement student at all. I was given so much responsibility from leading the content development of the brand website to making first in class content for product pages. I couldn’t recommend the placement with J&J enough.

I was given so much responsibility that colleagues appreciated all of the work that I did while on placement. I felt like the expert of the brand with colleagues from around the world wanting to learn more from me. There was no point during my time where I felt that I wasn’t valued by my colleagues

Throughout my placement I was given so much support to help me develop as well as when there was an issue. There was not one person in my team that wouldn’t help when I needed some support to complete a task. There was some times when it was a bit more difficult to get support straight away especially when we moved to WFH but eventually someone would help.

Normally, I was very busy especially when it came to Amazon event periods and over the last few months of my placement when I was given more responsibility. At the beginning of placement I didn’t have as much responsibility as it was more training, but I felt that I had enough throughout the day

I was given so much responsibility from budget management to creating content for the brand website. I have been able to be very creative with content showcasing ways to highlight key claims to consumers. I have thought of new ways to provide information to consumers and my manager has let me do what I want as long as we had the budget for it, which in most cases we did.

We regularly are given training not just as placements but for all employees, having external companies come in to discuss new ideas and ways to showcase our assets. I have found them very useful to develop my knowledge and skills set throughout my placement. There is also the opportunity to further develop skills if requested.

The atmosphere in the marketing department is amazing. There is always something happening in the office and the marketing department always has events running such as pumpkin carving and decorating pods for Christmas. Everyone in marketing is friendly and there is a warmth when you walk in making it enjoyable to work in.

The placement was well set up by J&J. There was a day before we started where we got the opportunity to meet the other placements and the other colleagues in the office. When I started there was plenty of training courses to attend and all of the accounts were set up ready for me to start.

I was given a lot of training showing that J&J really are invested in my person development. I asked to have a bit more training on a different area that I was interested in and my manager was able to put me in contact with someone that would be able to help me.

There is a lot of prospects to develop within the organisations. Many employees have been with J&J for over 5 years showcasing the investment in employees. Once the placement finishes, you have the opportunity to apply for the grad scheme in a range of departments which helps develop skills even further.

During the first few weeks the placements students went out on nights with the current placement students making it a friendly environment. There were also times when placement student went on night outs with their team members. I had the opportunity to attend 3 Christmas parties where all employees were invited to.

I was lucky enough to be able to move home and commute to the office, so the cost of living was very low for me. Speaking to the other placements, it is quite expensive to live in Maidenhead with it being so close to London so you may need to save some money before moving.

In Maidenhead, there wasn’t much nightlife being in a town. There is the club Smokey’s which we ventured to at the beginning of placement. However it is easy to get to Reading, London and Windsor which have much better nightlife. Most of the time we spent in Reading and London due to them being so close and having better nightlife.

Yes there were. J&J gives employees 5 volunteer days where you can go help out in the local community or international to help out a charity. There is the charity committee which you can be part of to help with charities that you are interested in. As placement students we went to a local charity and helped paint a playground.