Ghalia Khan

Country of origin: United Kingdom

Placement: Johnson & Johnson

You do a degree at university and learn the theory and some applications of that theory, but for me it was important to be able to gain the practical experience of working in industry to see if that was something I was interested in. I wanted to see if my degree was leading to a future career in the same field, or whether I wanted to do something completely different. For marketing, there is a lot of competition for graduate jobs so I wanted to pair my academic achievements with long-term practical experience.

My job role at Johnson and Johnson was as the marketing placement student on the brands Aveeno, Piz Buin, RoC and Clean & Clear. I was in charge of the budget for all the brands, sales analysis, press releases and the main contact in terms of digital aspects for Aveeno i.e website, banners, PPC & SEO. As Aveeno is both a consumer and a professional brand I was also able to attend health care professional events including conferences up in York, Manchester and in London. One of the best moments for me was the National Sales Conference in March which was held at Alton Towers where we were able to go to the park for a team building exercise.

As soon as I started working for J&J on the 4 great brands I felt that I was immediately part of the team! One day was never the same, and the longer I worked there, the bigger my responsibilities grew. I felt as working on 4 brands I was very busy but this suited me as I like having a lot to do. I always had something going on and if I didn’t my team were very happy to include me in new projects. The amount of responsibility given as a placement student is amazing; I know this differs per placement depending on whether you proved yourself throughout the year.

At J&J I was supported in learning new skills and a lot of training was done on the job, as well as externally. I learnt so much from my team by observing and being taught as I worked and this allowed me to further my skills and extend them beyond what is expected of a placement student.

I was supported by the LUMS Careers team in the way that best suited me. I received regular emails and invitations to events/lectures with special guests that would help further the application process. I learnt a lot about how to make sure my CV stands out and how to make sure that my cover letters were also specific to the roles I wanted. During my placement I was visited by a member of the careers team who had a meeting with myself and my manager, it was nice that this happened because I felt that even though I wasn’t  studying at university I wasn’t forgotten about.

I have managed to mature professionally in the year I have worked on placement and I feel that this will reflect in the quality of university work I produce. In terms of further study, it has allowed me to realise what aspects of marketing I feel I enjoy the most and therefore has given me a clearer idea about where I would like to work in the future.