Jazmin Curzon BSc Marketing, 2016
Digital Strategy Consultant, IBM Interactive Experience
Without doubt, my placement year was the highlight of my degree. Living in the city and getting to work in a company that is at the forefront of technology was a fantastic experience. I enjoyed my time there so much that I am now a permanent member of staff. Also, my time at University wouldn’t have been the same without the amazing people I met along the way, both fellow students and staff. The lectures and their passion for the subjects they teach inspired and motivated me throughout my years at Southampton. The curriculum of the marketing degree, although having an emphasis on data and digital marketing skills, teaches a broad range of subjects. This broad curriculum, on top of making the course very dynamic, provides students with essential acumen that will allow them to prosper in any business environment. As my ambition is to run my own business one day and this knowledge will be invaluable.
My time at University wouldn’t have been the same without the amazing people I met along the way, both fellow students and staff. The lectures and their passion for the subjects they teach inspired and motivated me throughout my years at Southampton.
Of the many highlights of my degree, working on my dissertation was definitely the icing on the cake. The opportunity to conduct my own academic research in an area I found intriguing, for me, was extremely exciting. I explored an area in depth and, since finishing, I believe I’m now something of an expert in that field of study. Yes, an expert – I would have never believed it either.
Naïvely, I was shocked to discover just how many analytical and numerical modules made up the course. Believing I was terrible at math, this initially filled me with dread. For anyone also under this delusion, fear not, I now accept that anyone can master math. When you see its practical application it’s easier to understand and, dare I say it, enjoy. When it came to analysing the data I collected for my dissertation I was shocked by just how far I had progressed. I was able to perform the necessary statistical tests with ease, a task I would have cowered from in my first year of study.
I spent my placement year working at IBM within its recruitment marketing team. It was a phenomenal experience; I met a lot of people and worked on some really exciting projects, even getting the opportunity to design a virtual reality tennis simulation. I now have a permanent position at the firm working as an interactive and mobile consultant. My role will involve helping clients to bind the physical world with the virtual in a way that best suits their company’s needs. This will involve developing innovative solutions to problems that clients may be facing with either their operating models or their service design. The placement year notably improved my career prospects and allowed me to apply skills I’d learnt during my course in a real world