Emma Tran

Country of origin: Sweden

Placement: Warner Bros.

The placement year was a compulsory part of my degree and something that I valued highly when I applied for university. I figured that being able to get real work experience would be so valuable once applying for jobs after I graduated as experience puts you at the forefront when a lot of other graduates don’t have any experience. It would also be great way to dip my toes into what I thought I would be interested in and help me determine whether my interests were something I thought was worth pursuing because I feared my academic interests would not correspond to practicality.

In my role as International TV Marketing Research Intern on the Research team I assisted the Research Manager by tracking the ratings and performance of not only WB shows but also other studios looking at the TV landscape. We worked with marketing, TV-production, sales and distribution to further the understanding of the worth of our content to further our position for bargaining power. 

My placement year has been everything I had hoped for and more. I have learned a huge amount about the TV industry and it has really helped clarify my interests and the modules that are actually of relevance for me in the future. 

The working environment and the people really make Warner Bros the company it is. I have not just been treated as an intern but as a valuable part of the team and been gradually been given more and more responsibility. Being on the research team means I have the opportunity to work a lot more cross-divisionally compared to other roles having working with the production-side, distribution, sales and marketing. Having been exposed to the business side of things and presenting to senior management about my bigger projects and having them really appreciate it and finding it useful has been a huge boost in both confidence and motivation.

In my day to day, excel was my best friend, having worked with it extensively every day will not only help me in university but also in any type of job where excel skills are valued. Also researching, working with numbers and having contacts in research will be essential to my dissertation.

In the months prior to securing my placement, I found the emails that LUMS sent out with available placements very helpful as I applied for a lot of positions that came through the Careers team.