February 6, 2020, by Postgraduate Placements Nottingham

Placements: “not a rite of passage but an opportunity for personal growth and enjoyment”

This week’s blog comes from Roberto Berardi who did a Graduate School PPN placement at Bartco UK using his marketing and language skills.

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Thanks to the Postgraduate Placements programme at the University of Nottingham, I had the chance to do a placement at Bartco UK. I worked as French Marketing Specialist / Translator, which gave me the opportunity to build on previous workplace experiences of marketing and translation, and to gain important skills and abilities that have augmented the value of my academic career.

My main duties were managing social media in French and I was responsible for the translation of the English language website into French. This mix of marketing plus language tasks was exactly what I was looking for. In particular, the use of my pre-existing translation skills plus my passion for social media gave me the motivation to crack on and to enjoy the whole experience. Another benefit of this experience is that it was remote working so I was free to work whenever I had time but I was always aware of any incoming deadline. In fact, this aspect helped me to develop organizational skills and personal time-management which supported me to complete the tasks on time.

Initially, I had to create the French Twitter and Instagram accounts from scratch, and I had to create some digital content too. Getting photography was my favourite activity and I took some of the pictures in April while attending Traffex, the largest exhibition for business in the highways and traffic engineering sector. It was a mesmerizing encounter with that industry and helped enlighten me to effective marketing strategies and priorities. I also had the chance to revise the marketing strategy with my colleagues and to start the creation and translation of the French website, Bartco.fr. I faced a few challenges in the process but with the support of my colleagues, we were able to write a website in French that is user-friendly, appealing, and filled with translated materials that are relevant for French consumers and companies.

This placement was very important to me because it helped me to develop my professional skills, and to understand the relationship between business needs and marketing more deeply. It was a good opportunity to be able to see a project through from start to finish and see the results of my work. I enjoyed it all the way along. In addition, the small size of the business allowed me to establish a close relationship with my colleagues, which turn out to be extremely beneficial for my networking skills!

I suggest to any student who wants to have a postgraduate placement to see it not as a rite of passage for improving personal employability but as an opportunity for personal growth and enjoyment. Any work experience should be intended as a further step to personal achievements and motivation is the key for it. The placements allow you to gain first-hand work experience without interfering with your studies at university, and this is definitely a good start for future successful career choices, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” (Steve Jobs).

If you’re a student 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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