Shadowing the marketing manager Review

I enjoyed my time at Matalan as I witnessed the work that goes into key marketing theory such as PR and Digital marketing and print marketing, including sampling products that went on shoots, investigating competitor’s email marketing, proofreading catalogues, and finding influencers information regarding the Alder Hey campaign. I also discovered how the company measures success and reviews itself when I attended a quarterly performance meeting. Overall, the people were friendly and I learned a lot.

Although the people were friendly, I did feel out of place at times due to periods of not having any work to do and given jobs that were of minimal importance. I fully understand that this is because of my lack of experience and expertise and am still very grateful to have done these tasks, as I now know simple tasks that must be performed to allow the bigger tasks to happen more smoothly. For example, sampling products or unloading products into the stock room.

I received guidance and support for any task I was given. Particularly, I received a lot of help when sampling products as I couldn’t get the hang of it the first few times! But the team around me was extremely helpful and patient. However, I did attend meetings and wasn’t aware of the context or vocabulary used in some situations, but again I am aware that is due to my own lack of experience and knowledge.

The soft skills I developed from tasks were organisation and communication. Firstly I learnt organisation when sampling products and also when offloading clothes from shoots to the stock cupboard. I also gained communication skills when attending meetings in the sense of observing how employees converse with each other and work together. I learnt attention to detail and creativity when proof reading and attending a meeting regarding the print catalogue, and also through investigating competitors’ email marketing and finding possible shoot locations.

Most days I was fortunate enough to work with a different member of the team and gain valuable insights from their area of marketing. However, as previously mentioned, there was times where I did not have anything to do and felt that tasks were not planned, for example, I attended meetings where I couldn’t input anything as I didn’t know the context or vocabulary employees were using. However, attending meetings was still useful as I got to see how different departments converse with each other and work together.

The atmosphere was that tasks were of high importance and reflected that the business is working in a fast paced industry because all employees were on task and striving towards achieving targets. I fully understand that this is perhaps why I was without tasks as well as the fact I was only there a week and due to my lack of experience. The people were very friendly towards me and answered any questions I had.

At the beginning of my insight I was given a health and safety induction as well as watching health and safety videos. Examples of this involve how to carry boxes safely and fire exits around the building as well as a general tour of the building. As I was only at Matalan for a week, I was not given any training in regards to marketing software or theory. However, any help I needed, e.g Microsoft excel or sampling, was given to me.

Because my experience at Matalan was only a week, I believe my insight was limited as I was not given much tasks that required a lot of responsibility or tasks that were specifically marketing related e.g sampling and attending meetings. This is understandable as I was not employed, so I believe I gained a observational insight into what it would like to be working for the company in the sense of seeing employees being very on task and communicative.

The insight gave me a large insight into what it would be like to be working for a fast paced industry. This was evidenced by on task employees aswell as tasks being deadline orientated and well in advance. In addition, it gave me an insight into the fashion industry, which I have learnt is perhaps not the industry I would like my career to be in, due to my own passion not being in this field.

I believe my time at Matalan cemented the path I would like my career to go in, which is the non-profit sector as this is the area I am passionate about, whereas I am not so much passionate about marketing fashion. This was reinforced by my enjoyment learning about the Alder Hey campaign. In regards to areas of marketing, it has opened up many opportunities I could take such as PR that I did not consider before.

As this was only work experience for a week, there was no need to be paid. I did not need to be reimbursed either as I was fortunate enough to arrange car share with some of the employees.

As previously mentioned, I was fortunate enough to work with a different member of the marketing team most days, and so met many employees of the business and learnt about their area of expertise and job responsibilities. This involved employees specialising in digital marketing, PR, Email marketing, Print marketing, photoshoots, womenswear department and regional marketing. I would have liked to learn more about the branding side of the business and meet employees specialising in that if I had more time at the organisation.

As I was only there a week, there was no social opportunities which is very understandable and as expected.

Yes I did learn of previous work events such as a Christmas social event, as well as a charity fundraiser for their partner Alder Hey Children’s hospital.

I would definitely recommend this insight to a friend because you are able to witness an organisation in a fast paced industry and thus can learn if this is the industry you would like your career to go into. You can also learn valuable skills and information about how a large company operates and what areas of marketing it has and therefore possible jobs and career opportunities one can have. However I would recommend more than a week to gain more insight into the company and tasks with more responsibility.