Marketing Assistant Review

I can honestly say I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of my placement at ProspectSoft. Right from the get-go, I was made to feel as though I was a highly valued member of the team, with all the responsibilities of a full-time employee. The placement as a whole was extremely well organised, so I knew what was expected of me day to day - which definitely put me at ease going into a new working environment. ProspectSoft is a relatively young company with lots of the management team being previous placements themselves, meaning they understand what it is like to be in your shoes. Overall, I can see why the placement scheme is a highly successful at ProspectSoft – I have learned so much over the past year and I would recommend it to any undergraduate looking to undertake a year in industry.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues and was given the upmost responsibility throughout the entire year. I was often consulted for my opinion on decisions by other members of my team, which made me feel very valued and trusted. I was also given the responsibility to manage the marketing activities for ProspectSoft's sister company Zing - which was a great honour. The company is very close knit and definitely has a 'family feel' - which is a great benefit of working for an SME.

My manager was constantly on hand to provide me with support and guidance with any task – I was never made to feel like an inconvenience for asking too many questions (which there were a lot of!) and she would often spend time going through things that I didn’t quite understand straight away. If my line manager was not available, I was able to ask anyone else in the office for assistance and they would happily help me.

Overall, I would say my job role in particular was very busy – but this varied day to day and depended on what projects were going on at that time. I spent a lot of time working for ProspectSoft's sister company Zing, which meant I had to split my time between the two company's. So I was never short on work. I am someone who likes to be kepy busy so this job role was perfect for me.

As I have alluded to in previous answers, I could not have asked for any more responsibility on my placement. Giving students responsibility is something that is very much embedded into the culture at ProspectSoft and it has been the perfect placement for me. As I have previously mentioned, I was responsible for all the marketing activity at Zing which was incredible experience in this job field. My manager was brilliant at delegating tasks and responsibility but always made sure I was comfortable - which is exactly what you want from a placement year!

I have developed an abundance of skills since starting my placement and I think soft skills e.g. time management, organisation etc will be of great help in my degree studies. The more technical and role specific skills I have developed with definitely be utilised in my future career.

The office has a great atmosphere! There is never a dull moment in our department – lots of office banter. Even when there was a problem, everyone remained positive and tried to work through a solution together. I never witnessed an argument or anyone being ‘blamed’ for something – if I ever made a mistake, I would let my manager know straight away and she would help me sort it out and that was often the case with other placements.

Extremely well organised! The placement scheme at ProspectSoft is very successful and they have got the management of placements spot on. Our first month was taken up with training programmes to ensure we were fully equipped for starting in our new roles. Part of the training was conducting a demo of the CRM software which quickly helped us understand and learn the product – which was essential before starting our roles. There were two placements in my department and at the start our line manager split the responsibilities according to our experience/interests, but this was flexible throughout the year and we often worked on projects together.

Part of my role was website management, which meant I was required to understand some code (HTML, CSS) so I was given time every week to complete a coding course, which really helped me in my role and will definitely benefit me in the future. Once I'd got to grips with the coding, I was able to take courses in Google Ads and SEO, which would usually be for an hour a week aswell. I was happy with the time I was allocated on my personal development, but if i wanted any more it would have be no issue to my manager. If I needed to do any work for Uni, that was also no problem at all.

Over 50% of the placements at ProspectSoft are asked to return as full time employees - as the placement scheme is their main source of recruitment. So the graduate prospect as a whole is relatively positive.

I lived with 4 other placements in Oxford and we had some great nights out ! I think this is definitely a luck of the draw situation, but we were lucky to get on really well as a house and spent a lot of time socialising together. The company put on several social events throughout the year which were great fun, but unfortunately due to the circumstances (Covid-19) some events got cancelled towards the end of the year! But all the other events were fantastic!

As we lived in Oxford, the cost of living was particularly high, but it never felt as though we couldn't afford to go out!

The nightlife in Oxford was particularly good and we had some great nights out!

I never got involved in any out of work activities personally but there were a group of people that used to go climbing and other activities. But as I was apart of the social committee so assisted in organising company events.