I have just had the pleasure of hosting a work experience student for three days. We worked remotely – my little home office barely fits me and the dog never mind an enthusiastic student! – but we figured such is probably the experience of many today so why not try it. I tried to think about a range of marketing tasks that I could share with her, to give her the broadest possible ‘taste’ of marketing; she’s currently mid-way through her A levels so I figured I could challenge her a bit! And we had at least one video chat every day to see how she was getting on. I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the work she produced and am delighted to publish below the final task I set her: a blog to share what she’d learnt in our three days. (I’m sure you’ll be as impressed as I was when you read it!)
So, over to Martha, in her own, unedited words:
My Marketing Experience
Marketing is a highly skillful profession which aims to advertise and manage clients’ services and goods to customers in order to get more sales. This task involves lots of research around the product/service, and a secure media strategy to drive sales. Marketers therefore help companies to take themselves further in the industry, and reach new customer bases. Communication also holds a key role in marketing, as it is imperative that marketers are well connected with their clients but also know what the customers want. Through my work experience these last few days, I have learned so much about marketing, and improved so many skills that come with it.
During my three days in work experience I have learned so much about marketing, and improved on many of the skills required to be a successful marketer. My tasks have included designing logos for a Scout group, analysing data around Facebook posts, reading and linking blogs on a website, and creating a calendar full of important dates and social media post opportunities for August. I have also had the incredible opportunity to work alongside Claire Sutton, from Minerva Marketing, who has helped me through all of these tasks and encouraged me to improve on the skills involved even further each day.
These tasks have improved so many important skills for a career in marketing, such as learning how to analyse data for the purposes of furthering its reach and interactions with customers, and furthering my creativity skills through creating multiple logos for two very different companies. This has not only helped to progress my creativity skills, but also taught me how to create different logos for different clients, with different customer bases and services. Furthermore, I was able to further my analysis skills through analysing blogs put together on a client’s website, and learning how to link them together in order to bring more views to the website and company. Arguably the most important skill that I have been able to advance, has been the invaluable communication skills from connecting with Claire each day to evaluate my day’s work.
Marketing work experience has been a really fascinating experience for me, and so beneficial as I have learned so much and improved on many skills. I have been able to progress on so many skills, such as communication, creativity, product research and analysis. I have also learned so much more about careers in marketing, and the typical tasks within these careers. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience,and the knowledge gained around the marketing profession has been very interesting to learn about.