This week’s blogpost is going to be a slightly different. My name is Sophie Loader and I am the Junior Marketing Executive here at The Point.1888, currently completing a six month work experience placement. It has been a fabulous experience so far, and so this week on the blog I will be explaining my role here at The Point, what I have been getting up to, and the circumstances that meant I embarked on this work experience opportunity.
It’s been a strange old year and a half, one that has made many people change their plans. However, if there’s one thing I personally have learnt from this year, its that sometimes your original path isn’t the one you were supposed to be on.
For the last 3 months now, I have been on this work experience placement here at The Point.1888 alongside my Masters degree in Marketing at Anglia Ruskin University and an additional part-time job. This was never the plan. I planned to work on sailboats in Corfu for 8 months, before trying to enter the ‘real world’ and finding a job in marketing once I returned. When the pandemic hit, I found myself with no job in Corfu and no job opportunities in my chosen career path in marketing. People were on furlough, people had been made redundant, the job market was competitive and not prosperous, it was a tough time for job-seekers everywhere! Therefore, after exploring multiple options, I decided to do a masters that would potentially aid my future career path.
I knew I wanted real-world work experience. Though I have never been out of work since I was 15, I had never experienced a role outside of hospitality, and I knew that I wanted to experience working in an environment I wanted to work in long-term, this being marketing. After talking to multiple friends about this, I got talking to Olivia Wiggett, The Point.1888’s Senior Commercial Executive, who said that where she worked may be able to offer me something. And that was that!
I landed work experience at The Point.1888, and so far it has been incredible. I work two days a week, 9-5 and I am currently working as a Junior Marketing Executive under Ellen Fazakerley, the Marketing Executive here at The Point.1888. The marketing team have entrusted me with the full running of the blog and have given me accessibility to post on the company’s social media every week. I have learnt the importance of planning and scheduling, and how important it is to be organised with your content. I have also been conducting research into social platforms, in order to create a guide for our marketing team and wider team as to how we can optimise the running of different social platforms, whether that be for our own social content, or for Story.1888 clients.
Additionally, over the past few months I have dabbled in assisting Ellen with posting social media content for Story.1888 clients. Story.1888, the Point.1888’s sister business is our creative agency. Exciting things are happening with Story.1888 behind the scenes at the moment which I could not be more excited about…so watch this space!! I have also been involved in loads of smaller tasks that have included a wide variety of things, from helping in some of the process of organising virtual events for clients, contributing ideas of ways to grow the Culture Club in our business, assisted with general admin tasks and organisational tasks for the marketing team, to making gifs haha!
Aside from all this practical experience, I have quite literally been introduced to a world I didn’t know existed. The world of brand licensing. Before I joined the team at The Point.1888, I had no idea what brand licensing was really. I now realise that it is quite literally everywhere and if you know what you’re looking for, you cannot shop the same way again! To me, it seems to be an exciting, fast-paced industry that I have loved learning about. Marketing isn’t conventionally associated with brand licensing, but the past three months has shown me just how important marketing is in the licensing industry. Marketing plays a huge role in licensing from creating brand values and style guides, to logo creation, assisting with launch strategies and planning and hosting events…the list is endless, and I cannot wait to learn more from the Marketing team in my remaining time on this placement!
Overall, one thing my experience has taught me is that graduating from University can be very hard, especially during a global pandemic when job opportunities were minimal for a period of time. But the biggest lesson from this is to optimise every curveball life throws at you!
If something doesn’t go to plan, forget that plan and make a new one.
I now have experience in the industry I want to be in, I have been exposed to a totally new and exciting industry, and have learnt so much already from the talented team around me. The team at The Point.1888 are fabulous, and have been nothing but accommodating to me and so unbelievably friendly. Never once have I been made to feel like less of the team than anyone else and that is something I was personally very worried about embarking on work experience. They are all experts in their fields, and I feel privileged that I have the opportunity to learn from them.
I would say to anyone who is at a crossroads in their lives, is trying to kick-start their career and is looking for how to go about it, be proactive, use the people around you and contacts you have and try to find some work experience. Swallow your pride and forget the misconception that work experience is only for 16 year olds…its not!! It has given me a real insight into the career I have chosen to embark on, and I know that as the weeks go on, I am only going to learn more. Bring it on!
If you are interested to hear more about what work experience at The Point.1888 is like, find me on LinkedIn.