Case Study - David Towers

Age: 21

Degree course and graduation year: Bachelor of International Commerce, 2006

Where did you do your placement?

Fingershield Safety, 8 weeks, International marketing assistant (My role was to help them develop a marketing strategy for the US market).

How did you go about finding and securing your placement?

I got my placement through an organisation called STEP (Shell Technology Enterprise Scheme). I registered with STEP saying I wanted to have a placement in marketing, and they then contacted me with a few potential placement options. I expressed an interest at working within Fingershield, and was given an interview with Fingershield, and subsequently was given the job.

What did the placement/work experience involve?

I was responsible for helping Fingershield develop a marketing strategy for their US market. I liaised with the CEO in the USA on a weekly basis and helped Fingershield formulate a definitive marketing plan so that the US market could be penetrated. This project involved me thinking about how Fingershield could communicate with the US market.

Do you feel you had enough tasks to complete and responsibility in your role?

I was fully supported in my role, given responsibility and encouraged to come up with new ideas.

What did the work experience make you feel about your career choices?

Prior to my placement I thought I would like to go in to HRM, however my placement with Fingershield made me realise that Marketing is also very enjoyable and can be very satisfying. Fingershield is a very ethical company and I really saw the benefits of working within an ethical and supportive company. Thus working at Fingershield made me realise I would like to work within an ethical company with a supportive corporate culture.

What did you find the differences were between being a student and working?

Working was great because what I undertook actually had tangible changes to the business! Basically working was a fantastic change from being a student because it was real life! It wasn’t just another case study in a lecture!

Was the placement enjoyable?

Extremely enjoyable! The people I worked with were fantastic, the company I was working in was supportive, and the job itself was very interesting and challenging.

What kind of skills did you develop (either through official training or just generally) and do you feel that these will be useful in your working life after university?

During my placement I learnt a new skill in online marketing. One of my colleagues in the marketing department taught me how online marketing worked and then I was given the responsibility of the control of the online marketing for the USA. I really enjoyed learning about online marketing and I believe this will be useful if I go into a marketing job in the future.

How well do you feel you interacted with your colleagues at work? Did you find it difficult because they were older than you were or find that you did not have much in common with people?

I was very fortunate in that I was working in a relatively small company (15 employees). They were all very welcoming of me and I enjoyed getting to know them all and having a laugh a bit of fun with them!

Do you feel that your work experience was valuable, why?

My work experience has been invaluable because it has given me the opportunity to actually work within a real business environment, and gain real knowledge and experience of how businesses work.

How has your work benefited the company i.e. what kind of projects did you carry out and what kind of a contribution did they make to the company?

At the end of the project I had helped Fingershield to develop a marketing plan for the US market, and helped them to develop their online marketing. Sales online were up by 28% as a result of the changes we had made, and we had over 8 times the total number of people clicking onto the Fingershield through the search engines as a result of the changes we had made.

"“Doing work experience at Fingershield is one of the best decisions I made, it was so rewarding.”"