Marketing Executive Review

I can honestly say that every morning I’d be happy to get up for work as I really enjoyed my role and knew that the work I was doing was making an impact on the company.

I felt extremely valued by colleagues and often found that members of the team would ask for my own recommendations and suggestions in the area of social media, which I specialised in during my time on placement.

From day one of my placement, I was given a huge amount of responsibly managing and developing the social media strategy of the company. Although I was often left to take on projects by myself, my manager and supervisor were always happy to help me whenever I had a question or needed guidance and they would often stop what they were doing there and then to help me which I always really appreciated. During my quarterly appraisals, I would have the opportunity to discuss with my manager any skills or areas of interests that I would like to develop and get involved in and my manager would always make sure that these were seen through. For example, I requested to attend a variety of social media conferences to increase my knowledge in this area which I was allowed to go along to. The company was also happy to pay for me to attend these conferences. As well as this, I also attended client and in house sales meetings as this was also an area that I wanted to gain more knowledge in. I also had the pleasure of attending one-to-one meetings with one of the Co-founders which allowed me the opportunity to ask questions about the company as a whole and also gave me someone else in the company to talk to about any problems that I had.

Due to the cyclical nature of the company, there were times throughout the year where I was busier than others. However, in quieter I was given the opportunity times to work on additional projects that I instigated. The company has a strong entrepreneurial spirit and as a result I was often allowed to run with my own ideas. Overall though, I felt that I had a perfect level of work throughout the year and if I ever felt that I had too much on my manager was happy to sit down with me to discuss which projects and tasks I should tackle first.

One of the best things about the placement is the level of responsibility that you’re given. From day one I was in charge of the Facebook and Twitter accounts of the company, which ultimately meant that I was looking after a complete marketing channel for the company, connecting with students, clients and university placement officers on a daily basis. Throughout the year I delivered presentations to large audiences including a presentation at TUI UK’s head office and to 30+ HR directors at Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s HR conference. I was also sent to over 30 freshers and careers fairs up and down the country where I managed fair helpers and signed up students to RateMyPlacement.co.uk.

My skills, knowledge and commercial awareness have grown considerably throughout my placement. My attention to detail, time management, organisation and my ability to prioritise my work load have developed hugely and will play a huge part at helping me to obtain a 2:1 or 1:1 in my final year at university.

The company has a strong work hard, play hard culture that I really enjoyed.

Although there were a couple of periods throughout the year where I felt that my work load was quite quiet, on the whole I felt that placement was very well organized. The first quarter of my placement involved attending freshers and careers fairs up and down the county. The second quarter focused on pushing the social media presence of the company, the third quarter then focused on organising a Summer Intern Party with the other two placement students and the final part of placement involved setting up a variety of contras and creating and delivering a handover for the new placement student who took over my role.

The company often paid for me to attend social media conferences and I was also trained in house in a variety of areas including public speaking, basic coding/wordpress and excel.

The door is always open for future employment opportunities!

Everyone in the company is under 30 and always up a laugh. We would often go out for Friday night drinks together and every quarter we would also have a company social. A few of the socials we had included playing rounders in the local park, a cocktail masterclass, a meal out at the famous Breakfast club, a boat trip down the Thames and a party bus around London.

I lived in Barnes and paid the same price for my accommodation as I do back at University in Oxford which was £420 excluding bills. I never felt like I struggled for money in London and made the most of living in the capital!

You’re spoilt for choice in London with the fabulous choice of bars, restaurants and night clubs. I often went on nights our in Clapham and Putney and made the most of attending the great range of musicals including my personal favourite… Les Miserables!

Although there aren’t any clubs/activities set up by the company, the girls in the office all ran the Clapham Park 10K Race for Life in June. I also attended events outside of work with colleagues throughout the year that we organized ourselves.