Muhammad Mehroz Ashraf

Country of origin: Pakistan

Placement: Astute Ltd.

My placement year gave me an opportunity to work in my chosen field and put into practise the theory learnt in the first two years of Lancaster University. The experience also gave me an opportunity to apply different concepts and ideas that I learnt throughout my Entrepreneurship course whilst gaining valuable professional and paid experience. The year in industry not only provided me with the practical work experience that boosted my confidence level, but also helped in building connections and networks with various work colleagues and clients that could be of immense help in future.

I was responsible for investigative work to determine business requirements and specify effective business processes, through improvements in information systems, information management, practices, procedures, and organisation change. I gained valuable experience by working closely on marketing campaigns with the leading IT technological companies such as EE, HP, VMware, Siemens, Vodafone, BT and Virgin Media. I was also responsible for leading a email marketing team of 5 people, providing them with support and training as required. The role also involved making outbound B2B calls and conversing at high levels with potential customers and preparing comprehensive reports for our business clients. I organised some of the biggest technology events in UK with Samsung, Atlassian and Clearvision along with my team.

The year in industry was overall an astounding and very constructive experience, especially for me, as I had never had a full time paid position role in the UK before. I was regularly required to deal with several different people and with different tasks at the same time and that enabled me to develop my skills in working under pressure and working to complex deadlines. Working with Astute gave me an opportunity not only to work with the company itself but also with various different clients of the company; I was not only working with Astute Ltd but gained an experience working alongside other companies like HP, Samsung, EE and Virgin Media.

There were many financial and non-financial incentives that were put into place to motivate employees to work harder and more efficiently; these included uncapped bonuses, lunch vouchers, team dinners, night outs, recognition awards and promotions. The overall work environment was very friendly and the work colleagues and managers were always there to support you. I learned multitude skills during the placement year, which might have not been possible working in any other big organisation. Working in the SME like Astute ltd helped me to acquire entrepreneurial skills as well as build required connections to start up my own enterprise. 8 months after the start of the placement, I was able to launch my own business in Bournemouth ‘Paleo 2 Go’ which was a dream come true for me.

LUMS Careers Team most definitely helped me throughout my experience during the placement year. Different services like mock interviews, assessment centres and constant guidance in CV writing not only assisted me in securing the placement successfully, but will also benefit me in future when going for graduate roles. The careers team at LUMS guided me comprehensively and provided required support when I was facing problems during my placement year. With thorough guidance and counsel, I was not only able to overcome the difficulties during the year but also excelled in the organisation by hitting my personal targets and getting promoted to the Senior Level of the Management Team at Astute.