Creativity and dedication have seen Maisie Bee thrive during a year-long work placement at one of Britain’s largest fashion and home retailers.
The Fashion Buying with Marketing student at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is halfway through her placement in Next’s online department, where she has excelled and has been entrusted with additional responsibilities.
“It’s very exciting to be working in an expanding area of the company, where millions of pounds are being invested in digital marketing,” said the 20-year-old from Hinckley, Leicestershire.
“I love that they’ve tailored the year to my preferences so I get the most out of it. I spent my first six months supporting online trading managers, planning and managing the production of website content, as well as making sure everything launched on time.”
Now, in the second half of her placement, Maisie is working with the online creative design team, producing weekly children’s clothing emails and 'hero' images for the website.
She said: “This role has been the most rewarding and satisfying for my creative side. Never in my dreams did I think that a placement year would give me the opportunity to design emails sent to hundreds of thousands of customers and have my designs featured online.
“It’s an amazing feeling and, what’s more, I’m building up a portfolio as I go along.”
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As well as having her placement extended by more than two months, another highlight for Maisie is that thanks to her own creative online presence, she has been chosen to act as a social media ambassador for the company, a role she is looking forward to starting soon.
“I will get paid extra on top of my main role and it will involve taking photos and videos around head office to create content for Next’s careers social media streams. It’s a brilliant addition to my CV,” she said.
“What I was hoping to get out of the year, I feel I already have. I'm comfortable and confident about the industry and look forward to returning to DMU to put what I've learned to the test."
Maisie will return to complete the final year of her course, which is preparing her well for industry.
"My course covers a lot of areas, from the obvious buying and marketing aspects to broader subjects like trend and colour prediction, current fabrics and materials, product innovation and merchandise,” she said.
"All of these course areas are setting us up for the future.”
Support from #DMUworks - the university’s careers programme - ensured an easy transition between university and work for Maisie.
She said: “DMU has been supportive at every step. My faculty placement team helped me with all of the paperwork and they were just as excited as I was when the offer from Next came through. I’ve also had a helpful tutor visit and will have another one towards the end of my placement.
“I am so glad I’m doing a placement. It’s changed my whole mindset and I’m keen to see where this year takes me in the future.”
Posted on Tuesday 26 February 2019