Laura Biskupowicz
Marketing (Advertising and PR) - BA (Hons)
Laura’s passion and drive means she is thriving on our Marketing, Advertising and PR degree. Although she’s excelling, she is aiming to land an industry placement at a top company and it’s proving to be very competitive.
She knows a placement will enable her to apply the knowledge she has already learnt and give her the experience she needs to stand out when she graduates. Laura’s academics and the University’s Careers+ team have helped her to develop her CV, her interview skills and confidence to give her the best chance of securing a great marketing placement.
“I always knew I wanted to study something creative but also something that would open many doors for me in the future. My initial thoughts when researching degrees was to find something that allowed movement within my course modules and broaden my career prospects. I settled on advertising and started looking into it. I found that most universities only offer Marketing degrees, whereas BCU actually offer Marketing with Advertising.
The first time I visited Birmingham was for an Open Day and I was mesmerised by everything; the city, the course, the facilities. In fact, I felt that the Marketing course at Birmingham City University suited me more than anywhere else, because the modules within it were more creative and had a lot of variety; including an events management module which meant that, if I ever wanted to go into events management, I would have the knowledge to do so.
Since starting my course I have learnt so many new things. Having never studied marketing or business before, my understanding of it now has increased so much and I feel that I have the skill set and knowledge to do well. The modules ensure that I have insight into many aspects of marketing including finance, creative, analytics and management. I’ve been really pleased with my assignment results and I have also gained much stronger presentation skills from my course. Presenting is strongly encouraged in seminars and works effectively in ensuring I gain more and more confidence in presenting and public speaking.
A key part of our course is ‘Pizza with a professional’ where a professional from the marketing world comes into BCU and discusses their work with students. It’s a relaxed environment that all marketing students are invited to attend, to ask questions or have insightful chats with the industry expert. As well as this, professionals also come to give guest lectures. These are done at least once every semester and provide a lot of insight. Since starting, marketing directors from as many as five different agencies have come in to talk with us, as well as actors and event organisers.
The course also offers roles in our in-house agency called, ‘The Link Marketing Agency’, which allows you to work with real clients on live client briefs. Being a part of the agency has been beneficial in teaching me critical and creative thinking, as well further improving my team work and presenting skills. It gave me the opportunity to work with one of the UK’s largest businesses, Hammersons plc. It gave me a real insight into what marketing is really like and what it’s like to work in a team alongside a client.
I’m always looking to develop as a person and improve my career prospects, so I decided to apply for placements to invest the knowledge I have already learnt, as well as learn from others and gain new experiences. University is full of challenges, but my greatest challenge has been actually securing a placement. The Careers+ team have been endlessly helpful; they send tons of placement roles each day via email and the appointments for extra support are extremely useful. Career appointments have clarified everything for me. They told me in depth how to find placements and helped with the initial stages of my CV, which made me more confident to start applying. Even when I feel down and stuck with it all, they do anything they can to re-motivate you as well as giving you a hundred and one ways to improve your CV and cover letters. I was very pleased with how much the Careers team is willing to help. It’s really shown me why the University is 7th in the UK for graduate employability.
To me, I AM BCU means that every student in the University represents Birmingham City University. We as students make up the whole uni and without us there would be no BCU. Even if you may feel like you don’t make a difference, everyone studying here makes a difference and adds something, to make it what it is. We are all part of a community and we all add something special to it.”