November 20, 2019, by Postgraduate Placements Nottingham
An incredible pool of talent
This week Postgraduate Placements Nottingham (PPN) hears from Lorraine Young, of Verve Garden Design, about her experience hosting University of Nottingham postgraduate placement students.
I learned about the Postgraduate Placements Nottingham (PPN) programme while on an Ingenuity Breakfast event at Jubilee Campus, where the University provides useful topics and networking opportunities for local businesses. Verve Garden Design had already collaborated with the University to help with our marketing strategy and so I was delighted for the chance to develop this further with the help of MA student, Didem Gorcegiz. As a small start-up, it is very difficult to fit all of the business development needs into the day and the placement programme provided me with an affordable solution that made a real impact. The PPN team at UON Graduate School were amazing in helping me find some excellent candidates and supporting us throughout the project.
The project involved establishing and developing the social media channels needed to launch VerveGardenDesign.com, a new blog-based site that we established to demystify garden design for homeowners. The blog aims to establish trust in our new brand and provide free help to householders who may become customers of the garden design online courses that we are developing. Substantial infrastructure is needed behind the scenes of this site. I needed enthusiastic help from someone able to develop ideas from my strategy, research appropriate tools to implement them and think outside the box.
“There is an incredible pool of talent in University of Nottingham graduates who could add a great deal to your business. Why not try them out and help someone along the next step of their career?”
When I interviewed Didem I was blown away by the research she had done on my company and the marketing suggestions that she proposed. She had worked previously in digital marketing in Turkey, before coming to Nottingham to study, and brought an incredible amount of experience and ideas that undoubtedly facilitated launching VerveGardenDesign.com more rapidly than expected. Although Didem was used to working with much larger companies and budgets, she immersed herself quickly into understanding our business niche. Beyond her social media work, Didem also set up excellent systems for growing our email list and using Google Analytics.
There is no doubt that the project exceeded my expectations. Didem is continuing to do some freelance work for Verve Garden Design and it has been a pleasure to give her more insight into the UK start-up world. I had only intended to recruit one graduate but I was very impressed by two candidates that I interviewed for the placement and so I recruited them both! This blog is about Didem and so obviously I have focused on her contribution. Peishi Wu has now gone home to China after completing her Business School Masters was also a huge help to me. Together Didem and Peishi have grown my Pinterest account to over 12,000 followers. The three of us had a very productive few months of fun, collaboration and hard work. There is an incredible pool of talent in University of Nottingham graduates who could add a great deal to your business. Why not try them out and help someone along the next step of their career?
If you are a business interested in offering a postgraduate placement please visit our webpage for more information.
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