October 12, 2018, by Carla
How to Gain Digital Marketing Experience Outside of Your Degree
By Imogen Hibberd, English BA (Hons) (2017)
If, like me, you are a student who wanted to get a digital marketing position, but didn’t do a marketing degree, you might be wondering how to get enough experience to land a grad job straight away.
You’ll be glad to know that there are a number of things of you can do to help fill out your CV and not all of them are simply getting work experience.
1. Internships
This is a classic. Everyone knows you need internships or work experience, but they can often seem like the holy grail. I got my current role at Go dine digital through the Nottingham Internship Scheme and there are always new opportunities there. You can even sign up to get email alerts to make life that bit easier. It’s also worth checking with your individual school if they have internships on offer through them.
In my second year, I did a digital marketing placement helping out an internal team at the uni in the maths department. This sharpened my numerical skills – key for English students – and gave me some actual experience to demonstrate my skills. If you do land a place on an internship scheme check out this blog on how to make the best impression.
2. Free online courses
Perhaps you do not have a flexible schedule to get onto internships or devote days to work experience. That’s fine. The opportunity to develop your skills still exists. There are a whole host of online courses you can do for free to gain experience in digital marketing. The following are some good places to start your learning:
3. Try it yourself
I recently set up Atlas Footprints blog with my partner, which focuses on travel and food content. I’m using this to develop my wider marketing and web skills outside of the office. This is something I wish I had set up during my time at uni as it’s been a great learning curve and it allows me to play and experiment technically without affecting a client’s business.
To set up your own blog, I’d advise trying out WordPress’ free blog creator or even something like Wix for easy website builds. If you just want to improve your writing skills, get involved with a uni blog or publication, such as Impact magazine or Her Campus, which are open to all Nottingham students.
4. Networking
Networking is a seriously underrated tool for students wanting to gain experience. The ideal scenario would be meeting an employer, having a chat and then subsequently landing a bit of work experience off the back of it. This isn’t always possible, but networking is still great for developing your skills.
You can do this through going to meetups and the best events in tech and digital marketing. A few in Nottingham you can make the most of are:
- Women in Tech
- Tech Nottingham
- Drink Digital – the next one is being hosted on Uni Park! Information will be posted soon here
- Any related societies at UoN
Don’t feel like you aren’t welcome at these events as a student, it’s a great way to build relationships with employers and they usually put on informative presentations from people in the industry.
If you’re looking for digital marketing experience, you can find it on campus this year. The Digital Marketing Academy connects you with employers, offers opportunities to get practical experience, and you could get an insight day at a top Nottingham agency. Find out more at the Digital Marketing Academy Showcase on Tuesday 30 October.
Imogen Hibberd now works at Go Dine Digital as a digital marketing executive and blogs on the side over at Atlas Footprints. Follow them here.
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