July 21, 2016, by Postgraduate Placements Nottingham

My motivation and ambition was set on fire

Rebecca Gölles talks about her Postgraduate Placement with up-cycled fashion company Paguro Ltd.

Rebecca Gölles

During the first semester of my MSc in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Management, I heard about the opportunity of doing a Postgraduate Placement. I started regularly checking the offered placements but never felt like the right opportunity for me was listed, until one day I found the placement offer from Paguro, a small company offering up-cycled fashion and home accessories ethically handcrafted from recycled materials. The company was looking for a German speaking person with an interest in marketing and sales to help their international expansion, which was the perfect fit for me.

I applied for the placement, was invited for an interview with Yen, the company owner, and as we got along really well, she offered me the placement right after our interview. This is how my journey with Paguro started, which initially should have lasted 3 months but in the end got extended for another 3 months and if I wouldn’t be too busy with my Master thesis now, I would even have continued after 6 months. You can see, what started as just a placement became a really interesting, challenging and fun experience or why else would you further extend your placement contract.

My main tasks were social media marketing, translation of the e-commerce website from English to German, SEO for the website and approaching German speaking retailers. I was given the opportunity to work independently from home as well as to decide on my own what to share and how to engage with customers through Paguro’s social media channels. This freedom not only stimulated my creativity immensely but also motivated me to further research my field of interest and work to see how social media engagement can be measured.

“I thought I already had a relatively good time management when I started the placement with Paguro but I improved immensely”

My biggest learning outcomes were also in the field of marketing, especially regarding SEO and content creation for social media channels as well as how to measure the impact my work actually had. My personal development focused on working independently, improving my time management and being able to call up my creativity when I need it. I thought I already had a relatively good time management when I started the placement with Paguro but I improved immensely as pursuing my Master degree and working 20 hours a week was quite a challenge sometimes. However, it taught me a lot and that’s what education and working is all about and it’s even better when this process takes place in such an open-minded, supportive and friendly environment as it was with Paguro. When I started looking for a placement, I just wanted to gather some more work experience and have something to add to my CV but when I first met Yen and saw how much passion and effort she put into Paguro, my motivation and ambition was set on fire. I really enjoyed seeing how my effort and work were worth while when the first orders from a German e-commerce platform, for which I helped to launch Paguro’s products, arrived.

In the end, I am sad to leave Paguro but at some point I had to admit that my Master thesis demands more time and focus. I am now looking forward to my new journey as I am writing a business plan for my own business as my Master thesis, for which I was also motivated and supported from the team behind Paguro and by seeing how Yen operated her business with a lot of passion and dedication – this is definitely something I want to experience myself in the future.

“All in all I can just recommend every student to look for a placement with a business that he/she is passionate about as the learning outcomes, from a practical and a personal perspective, are absolutely invaluable.”

If you’re interested in doing a postgraduate placement visit our webpage for more information, or check out current opportunities at the Placements Portal.

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