Over a year ago now I remember my first day at ProspectSoft. I had a combination of nerves and excitement for my placement year (mostly nerves to begin with) because I didn’t know what was in store for the year ahead. Fast forward 13 months, and I can’t believe the end of my placement is approaching so soon! Looking back, my time has gone so quickly working at the company, but in the short space of time I have learnt and experienced so much.

I started my placement at the beginning of August 2017 as a Marketing & Events Co-ordinator at ProspectSoft. I decided to do a placement year as part of my university course (Marketing, Advertising & Branding) at the University of Gloucestershire. I never hesitated to do a placement year, because hearing about people’s past experiences, and from reading the reviews on RateMyPlacement, I knew that there would only be benefits in taking a year off university!

As ProspectSoft is an SME, the hierarchy of the business is based on a flat organisational structure meaning there are fewer levels of management. Because of this, placements are always treated as if they were a full-time employee, which allowed for us placements to work on larger projects with more freedom.

Looking back on the highlights of my year, one of the biggest and most exciting tasks I was assigned, was the National Undergraduate Employability Awards application, an awards ceremony hosted by RateMyPlacement. The award application tested my creativity skills as I created a 7-minute-long video on why our placement scheme deserved to win the award of, “Best SME Undergraduate Employer”. After putting in 2 months of consistent hard work, the video was complete, and I submitted the application! A few months later we found out we were shortlisted, meaning I was given the opportunity to attend the awards alongside my Team Manager and Director! The awards ceremony was held in February and I had the opportunity to travel down to London for the whole day/evening to find out if we were successful in winning the award…which we were! When we were called up to the stage, I was so excited in having achieved this from my hard work!

Some other great highlights during my time at ProspectSoft included helping build up my skills and employability on my CV by completing extra marketing courses. For example, I finished a Content and Inbound Marketing qualification with HubSpot Academy focusing on the strategic methods to implement when creating and posting marketing content. I have also taken an interest in the coding side of marketing (as occasionally I use HTML to edit our websites). So as part of my last few months at ProspectSoft, I completed a HTML and CSS course on Codecademy. I think all these certifications add something extra to my CV, enabling me to state marketing specific skills.

I was also given other projects to work on, particularly creative tasks like creating promotional event material and visual content for ProspectSoft’s Google Ads efforts. This has required me to become pretty used to a range of software programmes like the Adobe Creative Cloud suite!

During my placement, I was also part of the Social Committee Team, which allowed me to get involved in organising social events. I helped organise the Christmas party by designing and professionally printing food cards for the employee’s meal choices. I also helped organise the main summer party for the company which was held at Henley Regatta. As the end of my placement is approaching, I thought I would test these organisational skills and individually plan the last social event I will be attending at the end of August, the placement leaving do.

Throughout the year I have been given so many fantastic opportunities, that it would be impossible to mention them all in this blog! Not only has ProspectSoft enabled me to develop a number of technical skills e.g. project management, communication, use of software programmes and organisational skills, but they have helped me develop my professionalism and confidence.

Even though the marketing tasks I have been given have been challenging, working in the great atmosphere in the office with the employees has made my placement so enjoyable. Although I am sad to be leaving, I’ve had a life-changing year as I’ve developed skills I never knew I had and met some amazing people! Finishing off my placement has boosted my motivation to complete my final year of university successfully and achieve the highest grade I possibly can!