Week One in my Purpol Placement – Emily Marks

Today concludes my first week at Purpol Marketing!

It’s amazing to think how much can happen in the space of a week – On Monday I started work as a marketing assistant, have begun bid writing training, began researching the modular building industry in preparation for my involvement in the bid writing process later in my internship, learnt what a whitepaper is and have proceeded to write three and have also researched local publications to add to our circulation for any news Purpol has in future. On Wednesday, I also received my final grade for my degree and I am so excited to say that I am graduating with a first in English Literature!  While I am a little sad that I am no longer a student, I am so pleased that all of my hard work has finally paid off and I am very excited to begin the next stage in my life and in my career. What better way to start this new stage than with such an amazing internship?

This week has been a learning curve and I definitely had a few first-day nerves on Monday about what to expect and how working from home would be. However, I have been made to feel so welcome by Denise, with regular phone calls and emails to keep me updated on what is going on and also what projects I will be involved in in the future, that I already feel like part of the team.

My first tasks were to finish completing Purpol’s new Magnificent Marketing course which I started last week while on holiday. I then got stuck into writing several Whitepapers on the benefits of marketing, target market segmentation and the alternative routes to market.

I had never heard of whitepapers before so spent a short while researching and making notes on how to write a good one and then went on to researching and later writing about the topics. It has been great to be able to apply the writing skills I have learnt in my English degree to the tasks this week. Even though the content might be very different to an English essay, the principles of research as well as writing clearly and concisely and being grammatically correct, remain the same.

I have really enjoyed working from home and, with a diary and a to-do list, I have managed to stay focused and productive. It’s so nice to be really enjoying the job and the tasks set while also being at home – it almost doesn’t feel like I’m at work!

I have learnt so much this week and am excited to get started on the other tasks for next week which include further research into the modular building sector and writing new whitepapers which correspond with the next stage in the Magnificent Marketing course; Acquisition. I shall be producing papers on what the characteristics are of an ideal customer and what aspects should be considered during a pitch. I have loved my first week and am very excited for what the next eleven weeks hold at Purpol Marketing.