September 18, 2023, by Postgraduate Placements Nottingham
Building platforms, skills and confidence
Parvathi from the School of Psychology on her Researcher Academy placement at BREASTAid.
Parvathi
As a student getting started on an early-stage career it can be a long and winding journey before being given responsibility and ownership over one’s own projects. However a placement which the Researcher Academy team found for me, as Digital Media Marketing Specialist for BREASTAid, helped me shift away from the normal and allowed for the escalation of duties and responsibilities. With guidance from my manager, I started building confidence towards quicker creative decisions, using research to back my ideas, and developing the confidence to work in the UK market.
BREASTAid is a company that aims to make a change in the health sector. Currently, women over 50 are invited by the NHS for free breast cancer screening. However, statistics and everyday stories tell us that women between the age bracket of 25 and 49 also are at risk of breast cancer and can be affected by factors like family history, hormones, obesity and much more. BREASTAid are a company with a mission, and I joined the team to help forge a story across social media.
“From brainstorming how to convey sensitive topics to combining the company brand with topical issues, the process kept me excited each day.”
My work involved steps from ideation to execution for Instagram. From brainstorming how to convey sensitive topics to combining the company brand with topical issues, the process kept me excited each day. Every day in media is different, and this variety brings an opportunity to make things outside the box. Apart from setting up a cadence for posting on Instagram, I also got to play around with the TikTok algorithm and experiment with videos based on the app interface. My manager and I also started collaborating on Youtube and ideating the kind of videos that would fare well on Youtube. Every platform is different, and getting to work on each platform, brings in newness, the experience of navigating multiple projects, and developing excellent communication skills.
“sometimes disruption from the normal is good. We get our hands dirty and learn by doing.”
Getting this creative freedom and the sense of purpose from building things from scratch has been the highlight of my placement. Everybody talks about ‘building experience’ and how it is pertinent to go from step 1 to 10 in an orderly fashion. But the work at BREASTAid has been a reminder that sometimes disruption from the normal is good. We get our hands dirty and learn by doing. As an international student, I also developed cross-cultural skills here in the UK and understanding of work ethics at a UK-based company.
These are skills that do not tarnish with time but amplify. I am grateful for the opportunity and excited to hone these skills to become better, bigger and stronger.
> Excellence Through Experience
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