Our Social Media Manager, Bronia impressively has two first class honours degrees. Here, she lets us know what she learned in the lecture hall, and what you can’t learn until you’ve started your career…
If you don’t know me, hey! I’m Bronia and I’m the social media manager at Down At The Social. With two first class honours degrees, I’ve spent a lot of my time in lecture halls being taught the fundamentals of marketing, PR and social media.
I’ve taken a lot of value from my four years spent studying (including how to make a bag of pasta last you two weeks), but there are some things you just can’t pick up in the classroom.
Here are five things my degree didn’t teach me:
1. Google Analytics
I can tell you why they work. I can tell you when to use them. I can even tell you how many times the system has been updated in the past 5 years. But in my first graduate job, could I tell you how to set one up and measure its performance? No I could not.
2. How to write a strategy
Sure - I came up with hypothetical strategies for some hypothetical businesses, but did marketing executive me have a scooby on how to write a six-month marketing plan that didn’t include 70% theory and only 30% creative? Spoiler alert: she didn’t!
3. The art of delegation
The university environment is very much ‘my work, my degree, my grade.’ Even in the dreaded group assignments, everyone is given a section and there’s rarely collaboration in the content. Going from this straight into a team that actively seeks support from each other, it can be challenging to determine what should be your priority and who can help you where.
4. What happens when you don’t hit target?
“I am the worst person in the world,” and “I do not deserve this job,” and “I am going to be sacked tomorrow.”
Yes - those are all thoughts that have raced through my anxiety-clouded brain after realising the stats don’t match the aim. Fear not students! Your head will not be on a spear. Step back, evaluate and work out what it is that’s gone wrong. How does this inform your strategy moving forward? What can you learn from this throughout your career? How can you turn this into a positive?
5. Soft skills
Adaptability. Leadership. Communication. Dare I go on? Sure - these things can’t really be taught, but a workshop on how to develop them and why they’re so important wouldn't go amiss.
Don’t get me wrong. I would not change my university experience for a thing and I’ve never once regretted going down the academic route, rather than jumping straight into industry. My point is, no-one leaves prepared for a career in the big bad world (not to sound like your mum), and you’ll still be learning in your graduate job.
What now?
Now here I am, nearly 3 years after graduation, in a job I love and doing some really exciting things, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t mess up a bunch of times. Guess what? You HAVE to make some stupid mistakes to learn everything that will make your career amazing.
So, my advice to you, dear graduates, is have the confidence to make wild suggestions, ask to shadow someone you look up to, and do anything else you think will make you even better.
Be bold, take the plunge and don’t fear failure. Failure is actually your friend. You’ll be brilliant!
