I worked in the marketing department at Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust for a week, and this is how I found it.
I went into this experience with almost no knowledge about marketing, except that it involved advertising the school. Little did I know that it involves so much more than that.
On each day, I was assigned a set of different tasks to do. On the first day we talked about what I was going to be doing for the week as well as brainstorming ideas for posters that will eventually go into the Shireland Collegiate Academy sixth form base. Being able to choose the pictures that I thought would go well, as well as selecting slogans was very exciting. On Monday and Tuesday, my focus was to design the posters. I was given constant feedback on how to improve my designs. One of the things I learnt was that there should always be a clear margin when creating a poster that has text, because it acts as a safe zone.
This experience gave me the actual thrill of a full-time working job. This is because I got given the opportunity to work from home on Wednesday, which I thought was initially going to be fun but came to a realisation that it wasn’t for me.
I was also assigned to write an article promoting my school, for an exhibition. I gained a lot of feedback and comments from several members of the team on how to improve my writing, which was another learning experience. After constantly improving the article based on the feedback I received, I sent out my final piece to the Director of Marketing. Feedback included “reword, long sentence, no capitals”, which were easy fixes. It felt great to see that my article could reach a professional standard in such a short time.
I also had the opportunity to review social media for one of the other schools in the Trust and have a go at creating my own post.
Overall, this was a wonderful experience. I cannot end this without stating that the work environment was very welcoming and encouraging. Everyone embodied the core values, and I noticed that humility is a key strength in the marketing office. Everyone was exceptionally welcoming of everything I said and suggested, and my thoughts and opinions were also valued. Having such amazing professionals in their fields be so humble is one of the key things that have stuck with me and is something I will want to have more of moving forward.
Although my career aspirations lie outside the field of marketing, I have learnt many skills that I can apply to what I want to do in the future and even in my personal life. This was a valuable experience, and I would recommend it to anyone considering work experience in the future.
Pearl – Year 12 student at Shireland Collegiate Academy Sixth Form
