This is a guest blog post by current student Megan Voice, studying BA (Hons) Media Production who secured a B2B Marketing Associate role at Lenovo.

Megan Voice: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-voice-media-production-marketing/

The three words to describe my placement search would be challenging, daunting and informative. The three words to describe my placement experience would be valuable, varied and busy.

The most interesting part of my placement was the events management as it is a part of marketing that uses so many elements of my course, from creative stand designs, social media coverage and end-to-end project management. Additionally, I learned how ROI and business strategy is integrated through projects like events when going through the review process.

I’d say the hardest aspect of my placement has been prioritisation, as I was a part of quite a thinly spread team with numerous projects going on. This meant that I had to learn the key strategies for the company and my team, to address the most important tasks as efficiently as possible to avoid being overwhelmed.

Throughout my placement, I enjoyed networking with different areas of the business and marketing agencies. This included getting to know the career paths people have been on to get where they are and their role in the company’s success. Luckily, I spoke to numerous agencies over my placement on a regular basis and worked on projects from different sides of the business from HR, to Channel Sales, to EPS Sales and 4P.

Something I’ve learned that I didn’t think I would, was how to manage budgets for projects using a new budget management system for the company. Aligning with this, I learned about co-branding and how compliance works to align with certain budget pots – something I never thought I’d be able to manage when typically I’d purely manage creative work for my coursework.

The most satisfactory element of my placement was leading a project, whether that be digital or an event, and seeing how would it be interacted with by the wider business to drive sales. And even better when sales leads came out of it too!

The top tips I’d give to future placement students are:

1. Be confident in your abilities that you learn from uni
2. It’s okay to ask questions you might think are silly – 9 times out of 10, you aren’t being silly at all
3. Use being Gen Z to your advantage and bring ideas to the table when you can.

My Media Production course helped me prepare for my placement by covering different creative projects, allowing me to talk to agencies very specifically when providing creative feedback. the skill of being organized helped hugely as well. Throughout my experience, I am much more confident to network with people in new situations, and professionally I am a lot more decisive and efficient when leading different projects. I now feel like I have more direction as to where I want to be after university, knowing what I enjoy and also what I don’t. This experience has also inspired me for my final year grad project and dissertation.

Megan Voice
BA (Hons) Media Production

Supervisor Questions

What was it about your placement student that secured them the position with you:

Good interview and good extra-curricular experience.

What has it been like having your placement student on the team:

BRILLIANT! a genuine extra pair of hands.

What 3 essential things do you expect to see on a student CV applying for a placement:

Work experience, extra-curricular experience ideally marketing based and relevant degree.

What has been the best thing about having your student on placement:

Seeing personal development, growth in confidence take place over the year.