Horizonworks Marketing has taken on a summer placement in a mutually beneficial appointment which will provide the student with work experience and give the company workplace support as it looks to grow.

Marketing student broadens her horizons with placement

Posted: 10/06/2011

Horizonworks Marketing has taken on a summer placement in a mutually beneficial appointment which will provide the student with work experience and give the company workplace support as it looks to grow.

The student’s joining the company as a Marketing Executive, aiding Marketing Account Manager, Gaia Hudson, was announced via twitter last week. Grace Noon, aged 21 and from Jarrow, is currently on a ‘sandwich’ year of a Business and Marketing Management degree from the University of Sunderland. The consultancy-type role will provide the 3rd year student, who has already gained experience in an internal marketing department and acted as the sole marketing force for an accountancy firm, with a well-rounded placement experience in her chosen business discipline.

Horizonworks Marketing is a strategic marketing company, based in central Newcastle .The company acts as its clients’ external marketing department by ensuring they properly understand what its clients want to achieve in the long-term; the team take a fresh outlook to the clients’ marketing and provide them with innovative solutions that work towards their future goals. Grace will be working on a variety of tasks for Horizonworks and its clients, including social media management and input into the company’s up-coming summer campaign.

Samantha Davidson, Horizonworks Marketing’s founder and Managing Director, and former placement student herself, explains: “We find placement students are a great asset as they’re keen and up-to-date with the latest marketing trends – something that has come in particularly useful when it comes to the social media boom! This is one of the reasons that we continually provide this platform for promising students looking to gain experience.”

Universities strongly advise its students to take a placement year as they typically get a degree class higher than those who don’t.* This is thought to be partly due to the more mature and focused attitude the students develop whilst working full-time on placement, which they then apply to their university work.

Samantha continued “I’ve been there myself; the placement year I took during my degree played an integral role in kick-starting my career. I believe in today’s job-market this kind of work experience is now essential for graduates to find employment in their chosen field once they leave university.”

As the media has publicised recently, the job market for under 25s is tough and graduates are struggling to get jobs in their chosen profession. Placements give students a great opportunity to gain the experience employers are looking for, as well as industry contacts and, if they impress, they can often be taken on by their placement organisation when they graduate.

Grace commented: “Since beginning university 3 years ago, my tutor has continually reinforced the importance of gaining real-life experience to supplement my degree in order to greatly improve my chances of getting a job when I graduate. The graduate job market is so competitive these days that you need to do all you can to set yourself apart from the competition – a good degree class just isn’t enough now. So I knew I needed to gain as much experience as possible to give me the best chance possible of getting a good marketing job when I graduate. I think the experience with Horizonworks will give me a good breadth of experience, as well as help to build some great contacts, which should hopefully serve me well in the future.”

Grace will commence the final year of her degree in September in which she will complete a dissertation focusing on the projects she contributed to whilst on placement, with which Horizonworks has pledged to support her fully. Also elected as the Advertising and Promotions Chair for the University of Sunderland’s Business School Society (USBSS), she will carry out these duties of this role alongside her studies, graduating in summer 2012.

Speaking of the future Grace is optimistic: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working in marketing over this past year; it has confirmed for me that this is the career I wish to pursue in the future. As for my career, I hope to work in the marketing department of an esteemed company, gaining a junior marketing manager position within around 5 years and, in the far off future, succeed in a senior marketing role, such as a Marketing Director position. It’s ambitious but if I continue to work hard I am confident I will be successful and achieve my goals.”

* http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/study/foundation/workplacements/