Goodbye & Thank You

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all doing great! Well here it is, this is going to be my final post for the business student blog. It has been an incredible year being able to merge my passion of blogging and business to create the ultimate business blog. I have loved being able to write this blog alongside my final year of studying at the university and in some sense it has almost developed into a diary that I will be able to look back on in the future.

I mentioned in my last post how I obtained the blogging position and if it wasn't for my lecturer Simon Reilly letting me know about the role I wouldn't be here today. It has been great being able to discuss business in general, some personal things and all about studying a business management degree at the University of Bedfordshire. I really hope that potential, new or even current students have stumbled across this blog and found or read something helpful that they could take away and utilise during their university experience. If I had known about the student blogs during my first year I would have loved to read advice from a student who is in my position and has gone through experiences that I will be going through also.

Looking back over my posts there have been some ups and downs but overall the past year has been amazing and I would not go back a change a single thing. So much has happened and writing this blog has opened doors for me and aided me in developing my writing skills for my personal blog. Writing this blog allowed me to obtain a summer internship at the University of Bedfordshire's MARC department and it has been amazing to be able to experience a working environment at the university rather than a student one...so much goes on behind the scenes that students would never know about. I have been working on some exciting projects and I was also asked to be part of the universities winter campaign alongside a selection of other graduates from the university. I am so looking forward to seeing what those are like and hopefully I will be able to post something on here for you all to see.

"Life is like a moving bicycle, to keep your balance you must keep moving" 

Good luck if you are starting a business degree this year and remember there are going to be days where you just want to scream and possibly give up BUT there are also going to be amazing days where perhaps you have received an amazing grade on an assignment or have been personally selected on your academic abilities and hard work. The three years will fly by so enjoy every second of it and grab every opportunity that comes your way. Graduation was a day I will NEVER forget and you won't either...relax and be yourself because you have got this!

"Pressure is wonderful. Not only does it make popcorn and diamonds, but it forces us to perform, deliver, and to make wonderful things!"

Hopefully speak to you all soon in the future!

Reflection: Business Blogger Internship

Hello Everyone!

Like I mentioned in my previous post I am sticking around until my exit interview in a few weeks time. Blogging is a huge part of my life so I think I am trying to hold onto it as long as possible. I thought before writing my penultimate post I would reflect on my internship and writing this blog throughout the past year.

I was first introduced to the internship through a lecturer who knew of my personal blog. I kept my personal blog quite quiet until being nominated in the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards last year and then everyone seemed to know about it haha. Either way so much has happened and I am so glad that this opportunity arose for me...It was something perfect for me to do amongst my studies. After my lecturer emailed me about the internship I eagerly filled in the application form and sent it off straight away. Being Bedford campus based it was so nerve-wrecking travelling up to Luton for my interviews and induction sessions...the long car journeys were great for reflecting on everything! The process was very straight forward and staff made you feel at ease but with everything in life I did have a few butterflies in my stomach about it all. Never-the-less I did it and here I am today writing this blog for you all!

After finding out I got the internship it was such an exciting opportunity for me as it was something to do amongst my studies. I thought what better way to combine my love for blogging and business than to write the business students blog?! Don't get me wrong, there has been a few hiccups along the way as my third and final year at university has been quite stressful but I am proud of everything I have achieved. I really hope I have offered some great insight into a business students life with the inclusion of some business news in the mix for good measure. If I could turn back the clock to my first year if I had known there was a business blog I would have read it. There is no better advice than from someone who has lived through what you are about to embark on.

It doesn't seem real that 10 months have flown by, I have completed my degree, I have graduated and I am moving on to my next venture. It has been an amazing experience writing this blog alongside my degree and it has opened offered me wider knowledge based writing that differs from my personal blog and also the opportunity to work a summer internship with the university's MARC department...but I will go in more depth about this in my final post. This internships has also offered me the opportunity to widen my CV and my blogging experiences.

Speak to you soon!

Where Have I Been? - Update

Hello Everyone,

So sorry for the lack of postings the last week, I am away on vacation at the moment and whenever I go to blog the Internet turn temperamental. Never-the-less I am here now and have a new post for you all. I am coming up to the end of my internship now but I am planning on posting up until my exit interview which is the week commencing 25th August...so you are not quite finished with me yet! I thought today I would share with you a post I wrote for the MARC department. I mentioned in a previous post that I am working as a Marketing Administrator until the beginning of October so it runs through everything that is going on with the role at the moment and a little introduction to myself...perhaps a few extra facts you might not have necessarily known about me.

I am Sophia, a newly graduated BA (Hons) Business Management student from the University of Bedfordshire itself (Bedford Campus) and newbie member of the MARC department. I graduated a few weeks ago (15th July) with a 2.1 and I couldn’t be happier. To be honest it still feels so surreal to be able to say I am a graduate and I am still in the process of deciding which routes to take after university life, whether going for a master’s degree or finding my dream job. In a nutshell I am your typical girly girl with an entrepreneurial edge. I have an obsession with rose gold and I can’t get enough of red velvet cake (yum)!

I always knew I had a passion for business and here I am today trying to pursue it. I decided to study a Business Management degree because it offered me everything I was interested in learning more about. My Dad has always been in business and has worked his way up to owning his own advertising and marketing company called ‘Big Marketing Ltd’. I guess you could say I am following in my Dad’s footsteps and I would definitely agree with you there. Growing up watching my Dad gave me my own desire to work hard and succeed in everything that I do. Amongst everything else, I also work for my Dad’s company as a ‘Digital Media Assistant’ and have worked on some incredible campaigns recently with Rolls Royce and Lotus Cars. I am such a busy bee these days haha! I bet you are all wondering why I am not working with my Dad’s company full time right?! Well, here’s the thing…as much as I would love to work with my Dad full time I think I would get too comfortable and eventually lose sight of all of the other opportunities that are out there for me. My Dad worked his way up from the bottom and I intend to do so also. 

I tend to ramble a bit so let’s move swiftly on. So, last week I started my new role at the University of Bedfordshire’s MARC department as ‘Marketing Administrator’. Some of you may know that I write the Business Students blog and I found out about the role because of my internship (yay!). Everything happened quite quickly, so here I am today being part of the MARC team until October. My role consists of assisting all areas of the MARC department from the marketing, admissions, recruitment and communications teams. I feel so proud knowing I was given this opportunity so close to graduating university and I think this is a great prospect for someone like me who has an obsession with all things marketing.

As I mentioned above I am currently writing the Business Students blog for the university, if you would like to read my most recent post you can do so my clicking here. Blogging is something that has become a huge part of my life and I couldn’t see myself not doing. I have actually been writing my own personal blog for over 2 years now and I have enjoyed every second of it. I officially started my blog during the first year at university as a creative outlet for myself, so I feel it has been something that has been with me throughout my student life journey. It is your typical girly girl blog which features beauty, fashion and lifestyle posts about everything else I love in life. If you would like to take a peek at that you can do so by clicking here...I am currently going through a blog re-design so please excuse the mess :). Last year I was extremely fortunate and lucky to have been shortlisted in the Cosmopolitan Magazine Blog Awards. It I still something I cannot believe actually happened and since being nominated last year I have been working alongside a London based PR agency and have had the opportunity to collaborate with well-known brands and attend some fabulous events that are mainly based in London. Recently I found out some even more amazing news, I was actually driving home from my MARC interview when I started receiving all of these tweets saying congratulations…I was so confused! I had forgotten that the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2014 shortlist was being released that day so I couldn’t think what it could have been. Eventually, after some investigating I found out I was shortlisted again this year! I never thought in my right mind that I would be here a year later talking about being nominated for a second year in a row and let alone for two awards! To be nominated with a magazine I read regularly feels like a complete dream. To be shortlisted and going to the awards is an achievement in itself; however, if I actually won it would just be the cherry on top...I don’t know what I would do! So here is where I lay out the cheesy ‘pretty please vote more me’ line! I am nominated under ‘Best Established Beauty Blog’ and ‘Best Use of Social Media’ so if you have a spare moment I would really appreciate a little vote. Thank you in advance :)

Now more of the personals are out of the way, let’s get back into talking about my new job role. At the moment I have been given the opportunity to work on numerous different tasks. The first being to update subject guides for the ‘Business, Finance and Tourism’, ‘Law’, ‘English Language and Communication’ and ‘Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations’ courses. It has been great to dive in and find all the information to give the guides a pick me up. Alongside this I have also been given the task of collating prospectus requests from potential students and issuing them prospectuses based on their specific requests. Being an alumnus it has been great to see how everything works behind the scenes. I remember when I received my prospectuses! My most recent task has been to update the photo library, this has involved me scrolling through all images available on the internal server and updating captions, tags and deleting duplicates. This is a great task to jump between everything else…especially if you get a creative mental block. Also, it helps that I am quite an organised person and love to re-organise things!

Amongst all of the above I have also had the opportunity to help out other parts of the department. I attended two graduations last week where I helped distribute leaflets about the Jubilee Scholarship and film students for some video projects. Being in my second week of my new role I think I am slowly but surely settling in more. I attended my first team meeting this week and it was great to hear about all of the projects that are going on at the moment and what is being planned for the future. So far I have really enjoyed working with the team and on the projects I have been assigned. Going straight from a university course into a full time job has been a leap but I feel I have used so many skills that I learnt across my university journey studying my degree. Being on the other side of the table it has really opened my eyes at how much works goes into every little thing…especially the prospectuses and subject guides! I am actually off away on vacation Saturday so I am really looking forward to escaping to some sunshine. Upon my return I will be working on some of the same tasks as above, also volunteering some time at a University of Bedfordshire clearing stand with some of the MARC team and helping with clearing! August is looking pretty good!

I hope you enjoyed todays post! Speak to you all soon!