Work Experience by Ethan

Week 1 reflections:

Tell us a little about yourself Ethan…

I’m a 20-year-old University Student who is currently studying Multimedia Journalism at Canterbury Christ Church University. Some of my favourite types of journalism are print and radio, especially when it comes to features because they allow you to get really deep into one topic in a really personal and creative way.In the years after Uni I do hope to find a Journalistic related career, even if it is just to get my foot in the door and see where it leads. However, nowadays there are so many different careers, and ways to get into them, that I am keeping my mind open and not setting my sights on one career in specific. Instead I’m just spending as much time as I can learning as many skills that could help me in whatever career I find myself a part of.

Why did you want to do work experience at The Marketing Collective?

Since I am studying Journalism at University I have always heard that marketing is a career that my degree could lead to. So I thought it would be a great idea to try to get work experience at a marketing company to see first hand what it is like.I also thought it would be better to get experience at something I’m not entirely familiar with, because I already know what a career in Journalism would entail, but I didn’t know what it would be like to work in marketing.

What have you been working on this week, Ethan?

The most familiar thing I have worked on this week would be the articles for Southampton Airports magazine ‘Breeze’. It was very similar to the writing I do for University so I found it very useful and also interesting to see how a marketing company had to do the same things a journalist would have to do.Perhaps the most fun and different thing I worked on was the Polaroid for Hampshire Farmers Market. The Polaroid is used for people to hold and pose for photos with, and we’d share the photos on social media. Creating it was a lot of fun and allowed me to be a different type of creative compared to what I do as a journalism student.I also worked on a few other projects, but I think these two just show what varied a job marketing can be.

What have you enjoyed most about your first week of work experience?

I think I’d have to say that the best part of this work experience by far has been learning invaluable things that you can’t just get from a classroom. First of all just being in a working environment is something that is extremely helpful experience for entering the working world. Then learning more about things that are useful in almost every career these days, such as social media. And most importantly I have really enjoyed finding out more about marketing, and it’s similarities to Journalism.

What is the most important thing you have learnt from your first week?

I would have to say that the most important thing I have learnt so far is that you should be open and willing to look at careers that you don’t know much about. I knew almost nothing about marketing before I arrived, and now that I know what it entails I feel like it has peaked my interest in looking at is as a potential career path.After this work experience I’m really interested in branching out into areas related to journalism and I may even look into more work placements, maybe in somewhere like PR next!