Case studies: Marketing professional: Laura

Laura studied business and event management during which she did an internship at a global technology company. She is now a marketing professional at the same company.

I did a 13-month internship at a global technology company where I worked as a marketing analyst. My role involved editing and updating websites, putting together newsletters and working on the company’s loyalty program.

I had just started my second year at university when the business school invited me to a lecture which was being given by a couple of guest speakers who worked for a global technology company. They talked about what it was like to work for the company and told us about the internships we could apply for if we were taking a sandwich degree (which I was).

Listening to the company’s intern talk about how much she enjoyed working for them inspired me to apply for a role myself. She described the company as having strong values and a commitment to taking risks and helping customers and generally as being a great place to work and I loved the idea of working for such as prestigious brand. I applied for the marketing role, attended a really enjoyable (yes, enjoyable!) assessment day and was offered a position for the following year.

The placement was really enjoyable and probably the most valuable year of my degree. I then returned to university for my final year and after spending some time developing a business plan for a small business for one of my modules, I decided I would like to work for one when I graduated so I could get a better idea of how businesses operate as a whole.

When I graduated I joined a small software company as a business developer, but soon began to miss the dynamic working environment you get in larger organisations. I also missed the opportunities you get to work on a wide variety of projects with a range of different people. Three months into the job my previous employer (the global technology company) offered me a temporary position covering maternity leave and I jumped at the chance to work with them again. Once I was there I was determined to work really hard to show how committed I was and in the end my dedication paid off and they offered me a permanent graduate entry-level role earlier this year. I love it!

I’m responsible for gathering customer information and monitoring data quality so we can adapt our systems and operations to improve customer experience.

I love that I can get involved in a whole range of different projects - there is never a dull day! It can be frustrating when you’re trying to secure resources to make improvements to the systems.

I’m not sure what I would like to do next - perhaps move up into a middle-management role at some point.

My advice to others is get work experience. The job market is extremely competitive so don’t be disheartened if your job isn’t exactly what you hoped for - concentrate on what you will be able to take away from the experience when you move on to bigger and better things.