Case study - Anna Bea Gotz

Age: 24

Degree course and graduation year: MSc in European and Comparative Public Policy (February 2005).

Where did you do your placement?

Edinburgh, but it’s possible to take on projects all over the UK. I started in October 2002, first as Student Marketer then as Project Co-ordinator. The structure of the company has been changed recently, so my job title will change.

What made you decide to do a placement in the first place?

In 2002 I was enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh studying for the MA in Social Policy and Economics. However, I have always known that I would never want to continue my career at university, i.e. do a Ph.D. Therefore, I was hoping to learn more about the life outside university, gain job transferable skills for later on and was very happy to search for and discover a challenge that I really wanted to live up. I simply needed to stretch myself a little to increase my enthusiasm about my degree and my prospects.

How did you go about finding and securing your placement?

• University of Edinburgh Careers Service.
• Very short telephone interview to find out about my motivation and skills.
• The rather basic training day at the London office followed about a week later and all transport expenses were fully covered.

What did the work experience involve?

Since it has been such a long time during which I have worked for Virgin D3 Field, formerly www.virginstudent.com, it is rather challenging to summarise the diversity of this work experience in very few words, especially because the company has undergone some organisational changes fairly recently. However, to make it short:

• Very project-related work, which can be ad hoc, but I always had the last say in whether I wanted to accept the work or not.
• Always field work, so you will only occasionally find yourself at a desk or in font of the computer, which was very refreshing for me, considering that I had a load of projects and essays to work on.
• To give you at least a rough idea of what my work involved, though most of it can even be more diverse: market research, awareness building for brands, promotional activity, event management, idea generation and presentation, identifying target audiences and building relationships.
• The style of work is primarily teamwork and can remain like this for the whole duration of the work experience, although I was given leadership responsibilities right away from my second project onwards. Thanks to all this intensive work, I was eventually officially promoted. However, this structure has now been revamped. As a result more students will hopefully find it easier to take on positions of responsibility faster, as long as they work and produce results, which are easily measurable, as sales targets present a clear picture.
• I also greatly appreciated the possibility to complete the Chartered Institute of Marketing Career Development Award 2002/3. It gives me a lot to talk about in interviews and has also allowed me to channel my experience better, as the training day was not very helpful. Therefore, I had a good guide in knowing what to learn and what to look out for.

Do you feel you had enough tasks to complete and responsibility in your role?

At the beginning I would say ‘yes’, simply because I was willing to discover something new at the time and the job offered me more than I was hoping for, especially promising personal growth. Now that I have been working with Virgin D3 Field for about two years, I think I am ready for learning something new, as the work can turn into a repetitive circle without any further opportunity to grow. Since I am not money driven, this is a problem for me and can be for all those, who are looking for more than just a pay cheque. Otherwise, it is definitely great fun, because I never stopped meeting new people to work with.

What did the work experience make you feel about your career choices?

• It assured me that my choice of working in business was and is correct, as I love the energy of what I did.
• That I wanted to discover sales more, which I did last summer.
• That my job has to be great fun, as I am not money driven, though I understand that money is required for living comfortably.

What did you find the differences were between being a student and working?

The most interesting difference was that I recognised how insular academia can become at times and how little I could reach out to people who I really wanted to help growing. Therefore, if you really enjoy talking to people, though you might still be a quiet one, it is worth getting some professional job outside university, where you can meet either students or non-students to listen to some interesting and sometimes even inspiring things to do with your life.

Was the placement enjoyable?

Yes, otherwise I could not say what I said.

Were there any problems during the placement, and if so how did you overcome them?

Problems did not really exist, as the job is very solution oriented, which is why I can only recommend it to optimists. A lot was up to me: if I wanted to work and complete a project successfully, it would be. However, if I had a lot of work on my desk, it was harder to achieve that. From my point of view, it helped to timetable my time better and become more organised.

What kind of skills did you develop (either through official training or just generally) and do you feel that these will be useful in your working life after university?

• Sales skills
• Communication skills
• A lot of people, interpersonal and social skills
• Gained knowledge about advertising and marketing
• Independent thinking and working for my own goal
• Perseverance

All of these will be essential for me in the future.

How well do you feel you interacted with your colleagues at work? Did you find it difficult because they were older than you were or find that you did not have much in common with people?

I would say that it is easy to get on with students in general. I might have been slightly older than the average employees, who are all normally students, but as all of us are young and energetic, it was easy to join in.

Do you feel that your work experience was valuable?

It was hugely valuable and I am grateful for the opportunity that I was given when joining the team in 2002, despite not having excessive experience – a reason why many companies would have turned me down.

The reasons for why the experience was so valuable for me has a lot to do with personal growth and feeling very proud of the fact that I did something that I had no idea about only to learn lots about it.

How has your work benefited the company, i.e. what kind of projects did you carry out and what kind of a contribution did they make to the company?

The main benefits of my work for the company are twofold. The contribution to the company was based on either helping the company to widen its client base by brain storming about what might be relevant or carrying out the projects in the field. In addition to what I have explained previously, I would say that the most important issue was to produce quality and meet or exceed their targets.