Almost a full year ago I wrote about why I chose to study MSc Marketing at Salford Business School. And now, almost twelve months later, I wanted to write an update on why this is one of the best decisions I have ever made.
When I last wrote about my attendance of the business school, I was two and a half days into my first module… Fast forward a year and I have now finished all four of my Masters modules and have moved on to the Business Innovation Project in order to turn my Postgraduate Diploma into a full MSc in Marketing.
After working extremely hard and overcoming various obstacles and challenges, I have so far been thrilled with my grades, and have most definitely exceeded any initial expectations of myself and hope to continue to do so throughout the somewhat lengthy process of researching, presenting and writing up my final project.
My favourite attribute of MSc Marketing at Salford Business School
My favourite attribute of my chosen Salford Business School course, and many of the other courses, was the block learning structure.
This generally means that you are in for two and a half intensive days every three weeks, with additional learning sessions (often optional yet highly recommended) in between.
Study to suit you
Block structure
The block structure was perfect for my 24 hours per week working schedule, and although all of my holidays and most of my weekends were sacrificed for a year, the end was always easily in sight with each module done and dusted (including the learning time and assignment hand in) after just six weeks.
There were many others on my course with jobs, family commitments or even travelling from a different part of the UK to attend, which worked well. When needing to participate in group projects everyone utilised communication resources and arranged meeting times to suit all.
My Final Project
Business Innovation Project options
The BIP (Business Innovation Project) module offers four options, an Internship (3 months), Work Placement (6 months), Group Project or individual Dissertation. I initially chose the Internship option, as I strongly felt that I wanted to secure ‘real life’ experience in the Marketing industry, before the end of my course.
It was at this time that I secured a grant from Santander Universities, in which they provided me with an Internship at Forest Sofa Ltd, part funded by them.
What is it like to be a Marketing intern?
Forest Sofa Ltd. is the parent company of Forest Contract, The Chesterfield Company, The English Sofa Company and The English Bed Company. My role as Marketing and PR Assistant means that I have a broadly defined role.
I work in SEO on a weekly basis, edit web pages on the backend of the website, work with Google AdWords and at times Google Analytics. In terms of content development and updating I am responsible for taking photography images of products and venues, write blog posts for each of the brands on a monthly basis. To produce content for the websites I tend to use visual material such as graphic based content, working with Photoshop and Illustrator on a daily basis. My role also involves the design and planning of email marketing strategies and their implementations.
From intern to employee
Image left to right: Jonathan Rostron – Head of Breakthrough UK; Ryan Mohieddin – Sales Director Forest Sofa Ltd; myself – Katrina Winstanley; Simon Bray – Managing Director, Santander Universities UK
I have so far found the above experience invaluable and have since been lucky enough to be offered a full time position as Marketing and PR Assistant at Forest Sofa Ltd, and because of this I changed my BIP choice to the Work Placement option. My final hand in and presentation is due in October, and so far I am finding the write up relatively easy, given that I am simply required to apply what I have learnt in my lectures, including theories and research e.t.c. to my day-to-day role.
If you would like to know more about how I found the MSc Marketing at Salford Business School, my internship or any of the above information please contact my LinkedIn, Twitter or email me at k.n.w@live.co.uk.