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18th May 2017
Duo Digital Marketing Apprentice Nikita Briggs revealed to the Manchester Evening News what life is like at Duo, why she choose a career in the manufacturing industry and gives her advice about what it takes to become a Digital Marketing Apprentice.
What made you want to get into this line of work? When the time was creeping closer to making a decision about whether to go to university or to get a job I decided to be proactive and look for work experience to help with my decision. I approached my neighbour, Anthony Brimelow, as I knew he was a Director at Duo and handed him my CV to consider me for a work experience placement. Anthony was always so passionate and enthusiastic when telling me about Duo, he changed my pre-conceived idea about what manufacturing is like. When I visited Duo for the first time, there was a real buzz about the place and couldn’t have been further from my original perception of manufacturing.
How long have you been doing it? How long with this company? In August 2014 I started my work experience placement and in September 2015 I was become a full time member of staff as Duo’s first Digital Marketing Apprentice.
How did you get the job? Can you remember your interview? I started out on a work experience placement – I was only 17 so I was very green! I remember being really nervous on my first day in the office because it was all so new and I’d never really been in a professional environment before. I never really had a formal interview as I worked across a range of different office departments until I came to marketing, which is where I found my calling!
Give a two-sentence summary of what your job involves As Duo’s Digital Marketing Apprentice, I help to create fresh, new and creative marketing content to share with our clients and attract new customers to help grow the business. I produce reports that analyse the success of our marketing efforts and make suggestions to keep improving and build on our successes.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve done at work this week? It’s a really busy time for us at the moment as we’ve just launched the world’s first carbon negative mailing bag and we did a big PR push about it last week so this week has mostly been spent responding to the hundreds of tweets and messages we’ve been receiving from people on Twitter and enquiries via our website! I get a real buzz when it’s busy like this and with us doing something so positive for the environment it really feels like we’re part of a massive global shift towards more sustainable packaging – it’s exciting!
What do you love about your job? I love how enthusiastic everybody is, it’s honestly infectious and really makes a difference to your day when you’re surrounded by positivity. I also love that as one of only 7% of women carrying out an apprenticeship in manufacturing, I am hopefully helping to carve the way for more females to consider this fast moving and progressive industry.
And what do you hate about your job? There’s nothing I hate but it can be hard to switch off from anything social media related as we’re surrounded by it all the time – I could probably benefit from a little less screen time!
What qualifications, skills and personal qualities do you need for the job? You need to be able to communicate really well and have a natural flair for writing and creating interesting content and a genuine interest in continuous learning as marketing is fast pace and is changing constantly. In terms of qualifications for an apprenticeship you usually just need 5 GCSEs or equivalent including maths and English.
Any advice for those wishing to join the profession? Be prepared to work hard and be prepared to fall in love with the manufacturing industry. Get stuck in and don’t be afraid of doing something wrong if you’re learning on the job like I have – as long as you learn from your mistakes you can’t go wrong!
Source: Manchester Evening News 11/05/2017