Amber is a BA (Hons) Multimedia Journalism graduate, who grew up in Kent. She started her first media marketing role during her third year, is now the Content Marketing Lead at the same company, and was named Young Digital Woman of the Year at the Digital Women Awards in 2020.
The Multimedia Journalism degree allowed me to combine all the things that I loved, and turn them into something practical.
I always grew up wanting to do something with words, with writing. I wanted to be an author but didn’t have the patience for long-format writing or story-telling. I knew I also wanted to combine my love of art and photography.
I attended an interview day and met the lecturers and knew it’s what I wanted to study - I could see the potential to mould my career in media from what I would learn on the course.
I’m from Folkestone and Kent originally, and I didn’t want to move away because I love Kent too much. I also wanted to be practical, not wanting to spend my first year in debt while I worked out if university was for me. Studying at Christ Church meant I could go home to the seaside whenever I fancied, which was so freeing to me.
All the opportunities for work experience, and the array of different modules covered across the three years, gave me all the skills I needed for my current career and more! Having to work with groups of people, all with different levels of expertise and experience, was so valuable during my time at University. It really prepared me for a modern-day career, and the rest I’ve learnt along the way.
I’m now the Content Marketing Lead at Sleeping Giant Media - a search and social media marketing agency in Folkestone. I lead in the content marketing that markets the agency itself, as well as its sister companies like Giant Campus.
My career at Sleeping Giant Media and Giant Campus actually started before I graduated! I knew I needed to apply to roles, preparing myself through interview practice for when I graduated, so I sent my CV to the agency speculatively and got a reply saying I fit a new role they had. I had the interview on the Thursday, and I started on the Monday… the rest is history! I hadn’t yet finished my dissertation, some coursework and lectures, and it was my first 9-5 job, so it was a real balancing act.
I would also, like a proper geek, do additional learning on top of University, such as teaching myself the fundamentals of digital marketing through Google’s Digital Garage e-learning platform.
For anyone considering higher education, I would advise additional research and learning. Go to your university interview or Open Day with some experience or interesting knowledge under your belt to make the lecturers remember you then, which will set you up well when it comes to joining the course.
And most importantly, if you go to university with no clue what you want to do when you come out of it, that’s ok!
Multimedia Journalism was a great course. I gained real-world opportunities, and my lecturers were really supportive and filled with industry-knowledge and experience.