Ellie's heads up for marketing career

UWS Digital Marketing student Ellie Lees had a lucky start to her course - but is now on the way to an exciting career...

At seventeen, like many others, I had no idea what I wanted to do once I finished High School. In fact, when it came to deciding what to study at college my decision was made by a coin toss. Heads was Marketing, tails was Midwifery.

Now, I’m well aware that this is not the best way to make a decision of this magnitude. I’m also now aware of the wealth of career advice available to me – at the time though, it’s what I did…and I’m so pleased that the coin came up heads.

From my first year studying Marketing, I knew that I was hooked on the subject. It’s brilliant. When I finished my HND, I still had a drive to learn more. This led me to UWS to study for a BA (Hons) in Marketing.

I loved every minute of the course, but I ended up graduating at a challenging time – during the height of the pandemic, in summer 2020. Because of this, I decided to study an MSc at UWS in Digital Marketing.

At first, I felt a little deflated by how Covid had affected my career plan. I had an idea as to what I wanted to do next, and I’d not considered returning to education. I would come to find, however, that sometimes in life, what seems like disruption can actually set you up for a bright future.

Initially, learning was online, due to the pandemic. I had been concerned that this would making friends and studying itself, harder. I needn’t have worried. Everyone was in the same boat, starting this course in a unique environment. This, and the lockdown, expanded our desire for connection and actually brought everyone closer. As an end result, some of my strongest friendships were formed on this course.

Due to UWS’s innovative system of digital learning, the course itself turned out to be fantastic. There were lots of exciting projects that stimulated my imagination. My favorite project by far was for my ‘Future Technologies’ module. The aim of the assessment was to create a 360-video advert for a charity. Being stuck in the house certainly didn’t mean that all creativity and fun vanished. The opposite was true; learning during a lockdown really improved my resourcefulness, as it forced me to think outside the box.

As society opened up, we moved towards a hybrid system of learning, and I can honestly say that studying for my MSc ended up being my favourite year of learning. It culminated in me earning an internship at the University – everything worked out in a way that I could never have predicted. I’ve learned, from this experience, is that every left turn gives us a chance to grow. If your plan doesn’t work out, it’s not necessarily a setback – it may well be an opportunity, even if you don’t realise it at the time.