
Unit 12: Preparing for placement
Job Profile
Title of Job Marketing Assistant
Type of organisation Public Sector Company
Can you describe your job and what it involves?
What do you do on a typical day?
I deal with enquiries that come in to the department via ‘phone, email, letter etc. We usually have an event to plan. There are a variety of duties involved with this such as organising the advertising (including dealing with the advertising agency, getting quotes etc.) I arrange the design of publicity and get it approved. I book rooms for the event, negotiate with staff who will be attending, organise the catering. I check that the publicity goes out to people who are likely to want to attend the event. I maintain a database so that people can register on-line.
What qualifications are needed to do this job?
I don’t know if you need to be a graduate, but all the people I am working with are graduates and it helps to have the knowledge and skills gained from doing a degree.
How did you get this job?
(Where advertised, via a contact?)
I knew that I wanted to work for this organisation, so I kept checking its website for suitable vacancies.
What do you like most about the job?
I have a lot of responsibility. My boss trusts me to work independently because she is confident in my ability. I like the variety in the job e.g. there are lots of different aspects to organising an event. I like the variety of people that I meet each day.
What skills, knowledge and experience do you use?
I have to be able to talk confidently to a wide range of people from children to senior managers. I have to represent our organisation professionally to outside agencies. I have to be able to prioritise my work and often complete several activities at once. Sometimes there are problems to solve e.g. I needed participants at an event to be ‘bussed between venues and there was a last minute problem with providing the ‘buses.
What don’t you like about the job?
When we are in the middle of a busy event, the hours can be long and will include weekends.
What training is available?
I can access the staff development opportunities open to all employees.
I am looking in to studying the CIM Professional Diploma/Postgraduate Professional Diploma in Marketing course. Until recently there have been two members of the team studying on this course, they have now both moved into better positions with external companies including one management position. Both former employees still have one year until they complete the course but believe that just by studying on the course they have furthered their careers. This alone is an incentive to undertake the CIM Diploma.
What job could you progress on to after your current one?
I could aim to become a marketing manager of a team or move to a central marketing function
SMILE - Preparing for Placement by Leeds Metropolitan University Employability Office, modified by Marion Kelt Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Based on a work at http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/metoffice/employability/resources/learning_objects/workexperience/index.htm.