Posts tagged career
Exclusive: What My Job in Marketing Actually Involves
Exclusive: What My Job in Marketing Actually Involves

While I love answering all sorts of questions from my readers, I get especially excited when I receive emails from you asking for help with your career. This could be what path to go down, talking over your CV or just a general chat. 

Recently, I’ve chatted to a few of you about jobs in marketing and what that actually involves. And since my posts on “The Pros & Cons of Being a Social Media Marketer” and “A Journey down My Career Path so Far” resonated so well with you, it urged me to share more about my day job with you– which is why we’re here today!

So I hope for those of you looking for a job within the marketing industry, that you gain something from reading this post. Here’s an exclusive look into what my job as a Marketing Coordinator actually involves. 

I figured it would be best to start off by giving you a brief overview of what I do for those of you who have no idea! And if this is your first time reading this blog, then welcome :)

I work for one of the top sixth form colleges nationally in a Marketing team of four – there’s me (Marketing Coordinator), we've currently got a temp until September as a Marketing Assistant, then there’s the Senior Schools Liaison & Marketing Officer, and our Marketing Manager. It’s a small team for all the work we do, but we get on really well together.

My main purpose is to promote the college brand to prospective students and parents, whilst also communicating and building relationships with our current students and wider community.

The best thing about the team is that each of us has completely different responsibilities. There’s absolutely no crossover and we've all got different skills, which is one of the reasons we work so well together.

I absolutely love the things I get to do for my job. So let’s dig into what they are!

Brand Promotion

Everything you do to promote your blog? That’s exactly what I do to promote the brand I work for. Like you all know, word of mouth is one of your strongest marketing tools. Something that really contributes to growing your online presence is how many people actually know about you.

The good thing about where I work is how local it is. Generations of families attend the college and we've done surveys that have proved how strong word of mouth can be. But we’re also planning to branch out further afield so we can get even more students. That means a lot of brand promotion, and here are my daily responsibilities within that.

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Holly Suttonmarketing, career, career pathComment
How to Let Go After a Really Hectic Week

As brilliant as my job is and as fantastic as it is to be a blogger, that doesn’t mean it’s not stressful. We’ve all got deadlines, our inboxes are usually pretty full and there can be a huge overlap between our work and personal life. Especially for those of us who run a blog alongside a full-time job, it can be hard to find a cut-off point.

Sometimes, we become so consumed with everything we want to achieve in our career and with our personal brand that we forget about our own self-care. If we keep on running without pausing for breath, it’ll hit us in a very negative way. We can’t keep performing at our best unless we look after selves. What we need to do is figure out when enough is enough. But no matter how much control we think we have over things, sometimes it all just gets on top of us.

Over the past month, I’ve been very close to the point where I’ve run myself so far into the ground that the climb back up doesn’t seem manageable. I'm pushing myself with my blog to publish content every day, because it’s a change I wanted to make. I'm creating the #BloggingBreakthrough eBook for you. And from January until March, I'm doing two to three evenings a week at my job meaning I’ll be working 12+ hour days – not including blog work.

By Friday, I can be absolutely exhausted. So lately, I’ve been making some changes so I can really let go, switch off and enjoy my weekend. Today, I wanted to share these with you, in case you have a hectic week.

#1 Set Boundaries

It was only in December that I talked about the importance of setting boundaries in the run up to the festive season – but this applies to all aspects of our lives.

We've got to find that cut-off point.

Building boundaries between our career, blog and personal live is something we’ll probably be trying to master for a long time. I'm still figuring it out. But I always try my best to ensure my deadlines and to-do lists don’t spill over into the time I dedicate to relaxing and enjoying myself.

If a person didn't have a blog, they’d be able to come home and have a decent chunk of time to relax. For me, and some of you reading this too, we have to make our own rules. We have to decide how much work we’re going to do and when we’re going to stop so we can spend time with loved ones. Tom and I always give ourselves a deadline of when we’re going to stop working and after that, it’s our time. If we didn't have these things in place, we’d just work all night, which isn't healthy.

Don’t burn yourself into the ground. Your health and your relationships are more important than getting that blog post up within a limited amount of time.

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Holly Suttonlife, career, work, self-careComment
How To Create The Best LinkedIn Profile Ever (Part 2)
How To Create The Best LinkedIn Profile Ever (Part 2)

Regardless of your job role and how experienced you are, LinkedIn is a networking tool you need to be on.

In the first post of the series, we found out that almost 90% of recruiters used this platform to find new talent.  That means the other 10% probably use job boards. So let me ask you this. Think back to when you were last job hunting. Or if you’re job hunting right now, think about your process. Where do you spend the majority of your time? On job boards? Or on LinkedIn?

I started looking for a job last summer and I spent 90% of my time searching job boards. This was a mistake. Especially since the last two jobs I've had have come through LinkedIn. On April 16th  in the first part of this series, I said I’d had five job offers through LinkedIn. Since then I've had three more.

Three.

This might not seem like a lot to you. But it’s just proof that it’s possible.

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Holly Suttoncareer, linkedin profile, linkedin, social mediaComment
Career 101: How To Create The Best LinkedIn Profile Ever (Part 1)
Career 101: How To Create The Best LinkedIn Profile Ever (Part 1)

Did you know that 89% of all recruiters have hired someone through LinkedIn? (source). 

And an even bigger 94% plan on using social media to recruit new talent (source). 

Fewer and fewer companies are spending their time looking on job boards. They’re scouring LinkedIn, searching for keywords and reading thousands of profiles in order to find the right match. The ones that get the interview are the ones that have a great profile. But how do you make your profile stand out? Is it worth taking the time to fill everything in?

That’s what we’re going to explore here. 

Originally, this was going to be one piece of content. But as I was researching and writing down the points needed to make a great profile, I came up with twenty things to do. So to make it easier for you, I thought I’d split it into two parts instead.

Today, we’re going to go through part one of what you can do to create the best LinkedIn profile ever.

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Holly Suttoncareer 101, career, linkedin, social mediaComment
Career 101: 5 Ways To Turn Your Internship Into A Job
Career 101: 5 Ways To Turn Your Internship Into A Job

In today’s world, employers are only looking for one thing – experience.

But where do you start? How do you get someone to take you on when you don’t have that much experience?

That’s where internships come in. 

Some people hear the word “intern” and think about coffee runs and tedious tasks. Yes, sometimes you might be asked to make a round of tea. But there stereotypes are exaggerated.

Internships are brilliant ways to improve the “Experience” part of your CV. They can build your professional and personal skills at the same time.

The subject of internships is vast. It could be a four week unpaid one at a magazine publication, like I did. Or a six month internship with a company, where you’re paid travel expenses. But usually, the pay will be low. So if you’re doing an internship it’s important to get the most out of it as possible. Best case scernario? You get a job out of it.

Research shows employers convert a third of their interns into full time employees. 

The value of internships is only going to continue to increase. The fact that you might be able to get a job out of it would be even better. But how do you do that?

Today I’m going to share some tips for how you can change your internship into a job.

 

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Holly Suttonadvice, career, internships, jobs, turning an internship into a jobComment
Career 101: Why You Need Career Goals & A Mentor
Career 101: Why You Need Career Goals & A Mentor

Where do you see yourself in five years?

It’s a question we’re bound to be asked in nearly every interview. Employers like to see that people have a strong outlook on their future. They want to know you have the drive to look ahead and the determination to achieve big things. The strength of that success can be decided by two factors – setting career goals and having a mentor.

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Holly Suttoncareer 101, career goals, career, mentorsComment
Six Signs You Should Quit Your Job
Six Signs You Should Quit Your Job

Does your job make you unhappy? Are you constantly complaining about it? Do you always feel stressed? If you can answer yes to one or more of these questions, it might be a sign that you need to find a new job. But how do you know when you see a sign? Some people are more aware than others when they need to quit their job. Others need to have it spelt out to them. So how will you know when to move on? I've done some research and picked out the top six signs that mean you should quit your job. Pay attention to them. They can be really helpful as your grow in your career.

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Holly Suttoncareer advice, career, job, quitting your jobComment
Career 101: Do Strong Women Intimidate Men?
Career 101: Do Strong Women Intimidate Men?

When it comes to our career, there are many disturbing statistics for women. In America, women only earn 77 cents for every dollar that a man earns. Australia has one of the highest educated female populations in the world (source). But the gender wage gap has hardly moved for the past two decades. This means that some women return to work after having children for just $3.44 an hour (source).

I know this has started off as a depressing blog post. But that isn't my aim. These statistics don't describe the amazing things that women do. They don’t describe how many women work damn hard to make the best career possible.

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Holly Suttoncareer 101, career advice, careerComment
Career 101: How To Change Someone's Impression
Career 101: How To Change Someone's Impression

“You can’t judge a book by its cover”. It’s a saying we all probably first heard when we were little, and one we’ve all grown up to abide by. I know I have. I’ve always had pride in giving people chances. This includes having an open mind when it comes to first impressions, because they really count. Whether it’s a date with someone or your first proper interaction with your boss. In all these situations we want to give the best impression. But what happens when somebody already has a certain perception of you? 

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Holly Suttoncareer 101, career advice, career, work, workplaceComment
Career 101: How To Set Realistic Career Goals
Career 101: How To Set Realistic Career Goals

What do you want from your career? Creative adrenaline? A nice bank balance? An authoritative role? A relaxed lifestyle? We wouldn’t embark on a journey without a real idea of our destination. So why wouldn’t we do the same when it comes to our career?

Something I’ve noticed around the blogosphere lately and on Twitter  is how people are getting really fed up of hearing the words ‘dream job’. I recently spoke about how we’re made to think that we’ll all get our dream job, no problem – but it just doesn’t work that way. 

When I was job hunting I became so discouraged. I hadn’t set any goals, so I had nothing to work towards. Now I think differently.

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Holly Suttoncareer 101, career advice, career goals, career, goals, realistic career goals, realistic goals, setting goalsComment
[Guest Post]: Oh Look How Far You've Come...
[Guest Post]: Oh Look How Far You've Come...

Today, I welcome a guest post to A Branch of Holly - the lovely Stephie from Tea In Your Twenties. I have had the pleasure of meeting this lady in real life and let me tell you - she is definitely the girl behind the blog. Chatty, open and someone you feel like you've known forever.

So I won't give anything else away. Just go ahead and read. But I will tell you this - she'll put a smile on your face.

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Holly Suttoncareer advice, career, goals, guest post, inspiration, reflectionComment
Career 101: Why It's Important To Think Big
Career 101: Why It's Important To Think Big

So this piece of writing has turned out a lot differently to what I had planned originally.

You see, I tried to formulate this into a long textbook post. My aim when planning this piece of content was to talk with you and explain why thinking big is so important. Instead, I found that a few of the phrases I was conjuring up were much more poignant than endless paragraphs. These days, we’re being told that the longer our content is the better. But the truth is, sometimes a simple post works just as well. So I’m not here to give you the magic formula of how to reach your dreams. I’m not here to talk to you endlessly about what’s important and why. I think you already know. But here are a few words and phrases just to remind you that it is okay to think big.

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Holly Suttonbig picture, career 101, career advice, career, dreams, goals, think bigComment
Career 101: What If I Don't Know What I Want To Do?
Career 101: What If I Don't Know What I Want To Do?

Picture the scene. You’re on the job hunt. You’re desperate to start work so you can start earning some money. You’ve got a degree in a certain field, but you’re not sure if you want a job based on that. Basically, you’ve got lots of great interests and a whole bunch of awesome skills but you’ve no idea what to do with them.

Welcome to the scenario for, probably, more than half of young people across the globe.

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Holly Suttoncareer 101, career advice, career, jobsComment
Career 101: Basic Career Advice
Career 101: Basic Career Advice

Isn't it odd to think just how much of your life is made up by your career? Eight or more hours of one day may not seem like a lot, but when you think about doing that five times a week for a big chunk of the year, the feeling might start to change.

My career officially started in September so I'm still in the very early stages. But I've learnt so much about such a variety of things in just a short space of time. Which is where Career 101 comes in. This is a new series I'm introducing for A Branch of Holly. Our career is so important to us and because of this, there's no harm in having a helping hand along the way. So for the first instalment, I thought it would be good to go over some basic career advice. After all, it's always better to start at the beginning isn't it?

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Holly SuttonCV, basic career advice, career 101, career advice, career, contacts, cover letterComment
10 Reasons Why Graduating Improved My Life
10 Reasons Why Graduating Improved My Life

On Wednesday 3rd December, I graduated from my master’s degree.  It was a year of laughter, love, stress, tears and hard work. But more than that, it was probably the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done, in more ways than one. I won’t lie to you – it was more work than my three years at my undergraduate degree combined. Over ten exams, a 28 page magazine, two group projects and articles written by the dozen. Overall though, I probably learnt more and grew more as a person during this one single year than any other time. 

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Holly SuttonMA, Opinion, advice, career, graduating, graduation, inspiration, magazine journalism, masters course, masters degree Comments
11 Tips For Writing A Stand Out CV
11 Tips For Writing A Stand Out CV

What do you think of your CV? How up to date is it? When was the last time you actually updated it? A lot of people think that once you get a job you can just push your CV to one side for a while.

This isn't true.

20 per cent of employers once said in a survey that they wouldn't hire someone who had a spelling or grammar error in their CV.

What's more, nearly half of employers said that 'confusing jargon' was more than enough to seriously harm a candidate's chances of getting a job.

There's loads more other stats but I think the main point is this: nowadays it's really important to have a killer CV.

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Holly SuttonCV, applications, candidate, career, curriculum vitae, cv tips, employee, employers, interviews, job title, jobs tips, skills Comments
How To Ace a Job Interview With These Killer Tips
How To Ace a Job Interview With These Killer Tips

You’ve found an ideal job and you’ve been asked to go for an interview – so what do you do next? What can you do to make sure you’re at your very best? What can you do to make yourself stand out?

According to this survey  the biggest mistake made at job interviews is the interviewee having little or no knowledge of the company they’re applying to work for. Two other high ones are failing to make eye contact and the way we dress and act.

To get to the point, there are actually a lot of factors during an interview that will help an employer to determine whether you’re right for the job. And sometimes, it can be very hard to know where to start.

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Holly Suttonadvice, career, employers, experience, interviewing, interviews, jobs, life, skills, tipsComment
Thinking About Doing a Masters Degree?
Thinking About Doing a Masters Degree?

Doing an undergraduate degree and going to university is one of the biggest and most life changing experiences of our lives. Even though those three years are hard, but definitely enjoyable, a masters course is on a completely different level.

A lot of people will be starting university this Autumn or going into their second or third year, but a lot of people will also be starting an MA. If you think it's going to be the same, then think again. Here's a few tips and a bit of an insight.

Don't Be Afraid to Do It

It might seem like you're about to embark upon the scariest chapter of your life so far. You might want to change your mind a couple of months or weeks before starting it but don't. The first step is deciding to do it. After that you're already half way there. Well, kind of.

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Holly SuttonMA, career, future, masters course, masters degree, mastersComment