Recently I was asked by my former university to give some advice on the wonderful world of work. So on Thursday, I packed up my desk, jumped in the car and headed to the University for the Creative Arts Epsom.
First, a bit of background. I graduated from university in 2013 from the Fashion Promotion and Imaging course, specialising in PR and marketing. And in case you’re wondering, yes, that is why I always look so stylish.
I chose my course because I’m obsessed with all things style and for a long time, I wanted to be fashion designer when I grew up. Upon joining the real world, I realised that fashion design is a saturated market and unless your surname is Vuitton or Lagerfeld you can expect to be less successful than you first thought.
Fashion Promotion allowed me to try three pathways: PR & marketing, styling and illustration which was great and allowed me to tick off the things I enjoyed, as well as learning new skills and uncovering talents I didn’t know I had. I believe that the selection of choices across my degree allowed me to become the well-rounded PR that I am today (as endorsed by BWP Group).
So back to the present day and I had a panel to attend! This took place on the very same day as the UCA careers fair, which saw visits from some ace brands including ASOS, Liberty and New Look. This took place with BA Fashion Management & Marketing tutor, Katherine Boxall. To aid any potential graduates, I thought I would share (briefly) some of my top tips from the session.
- What was your job searching strategy, if any?
I actually found my job using Google maps — bear with me! I believe it’s very important to love what you do and sending CVs to anyone and everyone not only takes the joy out of finding your new career, but it means that you won’t necessarily end up somewhere that you’re passionate about. I made a list of my priorities going into the working world that included:
-Not travelling into London/spending a lot of time on the road
-Being passionate about the brands I work with
-Working with a certain calibre of brands (I wanted well known lifestyle brands on my CV)
-Not pigeon-holing myself — have an open mind, you never know what your next passion project might become.
With this in mind, I set up my home on Google maps and one by one knocked down the doors of agencies in a 25 mile radius of my house. BWP Group is a sweet 22 miles away — success.
- How did you prepare for job interviews?
Research, research, research. It sounds crazy but quite often people trip up in interviews here because they don’t know who we work with or what we do — if you’re not really interested, then don’t apply. It isn’t good for you and it won’t work for us either.
- How do you see your career progressing?
This is a hard one because being the free spirited person I am, I want to ensure I live my life to the max, taking in culture and new experiences where possible. So I’ll give you a breakdown of the next few years.
- Grow in my new role as Senior Account Executive (did I mention I got promoted recently!?)
- Travel to Rome
- Become more hands on in the other parts of the business to learn new skills in experiential and marketing
- Travel to Greece
- Begin to nurture younger talent and become a champion across the business for my knowledge and skills
- Go shopping
So that’s it — my panel experience in a nutshell! For more hints and tips please feel free to contact me and although I can’t promise I’ll always have the answer, I can promise I’ll have a bloody good go!
Happy career hunting.
