How does landing a job with a well-known events agency and working on a manufacturing expo to support the Nigerian economy sound to you? Including travelling to Kenya and Nigeria in the first couple of years of your new career?
- Graduate profile:
- Name: Victoria Smart
- Home Town: Padstow, Cornwall
- Course: Postgraduate, started Sept ‘15.
Career role model: Event Academy lecturers Rosie and Becks. Victoria says “I learned so much from watching how they both work, the confidence they have in what they do and how they approach problems whenever you ask a question.”
“Having to pitch my ideas for events while on the course is what got me the placement with Clarion”
For
Victoria, the practical side of the course has really prepared her for landing a job and being successful in event management. Not just learning about how to manage an event, but also how to present your ideas to the client. In her
placement interview with Clarion, she was given 10 minutes to come up with a product and present a plan for marketing it. That’s enough to bring most people out into a cold sweat, but Victoria said she felt confident about it after working on live pitches and learning how to present her ideas to real clients while on the course.
The most important thing she learned, in fact, was to leave yourself a bit of time before the deadline to plan how you are going to truly showcase your creative ideas. It’s a hard discipline to learn – how many of us work right up to the deadline? In the competitive world of event management, however, pitching your ideas confidently isn’t just a luxury, it’s a requirement. Clearly, Victoria has what it takes – we were thrilled to hear that Victoria has now been offered a permanent role at Clarion.
“Two years ago I never saw myself working on a Nigerian manufacturing expo or creating a whole experiential marketing campaign”
Victoria says she has never had a firm plan for her career, which just goes to show you don’t have to have it all mapped out to be doing amazing work. Through her placement she started working on a Nigerian manufacturing expo, designed to create opportunities for economic growth by giving big name brands like Cadbury and Guinness the chance to connect to Nigerian based manufacturing suppliers.
Can you imagine starting your career working on making a difference to the African economy? She is now working on long-term planning for events in Kenya and Nigeria, meaning she is involved in building up the experiential marketing strategy right from the beginning. What a fantastic experience to be able to shout about on your CV!
“Being confident in your talents makes other people want to work with you”
From the outside looking in, you’d never imagine Victoria wasn’t super confident and always ready with exactly what the client needs or everything required to make an event a huge success. However, she says she really built up her confidence while studying on the course. She learned a lot through the hands-on nature of the course and also by watching how the lecturers worked on site and in the classroom meaning her confidence isn’t just show, it is really well grounded.
What seemed impossible at the start of the course – to absorb all the knowledge she needed, learn to present it all back to a client in a pitch, run a live event from start to finish and to do all of that under pressure, keeping to tight deadlines – is now part of her every day. By being tested on the course, she now has exactly what she needs to take on all the opportunities she finds at work and love her job at the same time.
If you’re not sure what you need next, but know you don’t want to follow the herd and do something run of the mill, why not have a look at our courses? Better still, come along to an
open evening and meet
our lecturers and find out just how far Event Academy can take you?
