In January 2021, we welcomed Marketing Graduate, Marian Dennehy to the team. This was the first time, we had partnered with MTU for their Student Placement Programme, and it certainly won’t be the last. I really enjoyed watching Marian learn and grow in confidence while on placement and I enjoyed teaching and sharing my experience. It also reminded me of my passion to support young entrepreneurs. In January, Marian wrote a blog that outlines her hopes and objectives for her time on work placement, now 15 weeks later, Marian has written a new blog about her experience. Read more….
Marian’s work placement blog – week 15 !! Where has the time gone? 15 weeks of work placement later and the knowledge and skills that I have learnt will no doubt stand to me in my future career. I honestly never expected to enjoy placement as much as I have, both Sandra and her business, Maybury Marketing are so inspiring. I am so grateful for the experience.
When I wrote my first blog, back in January, I shared my hopes and expectations of what work placement might be like. I was worried the remote working might be a challenge, but it wasn’t. I had gone from college life to full time employment, so initially it did take me a week or so to settle into the whole working from home routine. Sandra and I communicated via email and zoom. We had a routine of checking in daily and organised regular catch-up calls. As the weeks went on, I felt more and more comfortable and confident in completing tasks. I was delegated work; my opinions were taken on board and I was involved in many different areas of the business.
As for the hopes and objectives which I set in January for this placement, it would be safe to say, all have been exceeded. At the beginning, I questioned how much I could learn due to the lack of human interaction but having Sandra as a mentor and working so closely with her was an experience that was unmatched. I got to see how much time and effort she puts into her business and working with clients. Also, I experienced first-hand the dedication she has for her clients and her passion for marketing. No two days are the same, which was clear when working with such a diverse client list. Week by week I was introduced to new clients, the message, the content and the target audience changed for each client and therefore gave me the maximum opportunity to grow my experience with developing marketing plans and social media content for these clients.
During my placement, I was encouraged to work on my own initiative to offer solutions for clients. I provided a fresh outlook for clients and gave different ideas on how to increase engagement and how to reach a larger audience. I discovered a love for designing posts on canva, taking into consideration the client’s message and their audience. Canva starts with a blank canvas that can be turned into any post that you need. I liked the simplicity of the app and how creative I became on designing posts for social media.
Every day is an opportunity to learn new skills, as part of my placement, I attended several courses and training, which covered a number of different topics. From these courses I developed essential marketing skills such as communication, analysing online statistics and further IT skills and managing different platforms such as google analytics.
As this was my first job which was directly relating to my marketing degree, it was a great experience to learn the ins and outs of how much thought goes into all areas of marketing and the work put into every campaign. Marketing plays such a key role in every business and having first-hand experience working with clients across various sectors, has really enhanced my understanding of all aspects of Marketing. Initially I did expect this placement to become repetitive but to my surprise it was anything but. It was a learning experience in so many aspects of the word and my time with Maybury Marketing was a very beneficial experience, which showed me that hard work pays off. I am looking forward to the opportunity of working in marketing in the future and Sandra was a great inspiration to take a leap of faith in this career path.