Alumni- Jessica Hart

Jessica Hart graduated from our BA (Hons) Business with Tourism Management in 2019 and is now a Digital Marketing Executive at Pavers. Hear about her experience of Northumbria University.

What does your current role involve?

I work specifically within PPC (Pay Per Click) marketing and work on the campaign management across the Pavers, Jones Bootmaker and shoe-shop.com brands. I am also currently looking after the international accounts in the USA. My day to day activities include optimisation of Google Ads campaigns, whereby I ensure we are sticking to budget, increasing sales & revenue and growing as a business. I also do a lot of testing on the accounts including ad copy, imagery, audiences and more to continuously improve the performance of the campaigns. I am really lucky to be getting training within the role in multiple different digital marketing platforms. I partake in reporting on the progress of the accounts on a weekly/monthly basis to our senior team.

How did studying at Northumbria help prepare you for your career?

I undertook the Marketing for Tourism and Events module, which involved producing a hypothetical campaign around The Great Exhibition of the North in a group. We produced proposed leaflets, posters, social media posts, billboards and came up with our own ideas for the event. This module brought out my creative side and gave me a real chance to put my marketing mind into practice. The work I produced within this module was something I could refer back to in interviews or job applications.

Northumbria was also great for my confidence. Not only were the tutors very friendly, but my course mates were crucial in developing my confidence in order to portray the best version of myself to employers.

During my time at Northumbria I took a Santander internship. I was an intern at Orbis, a not-for-profit company who works on encouraging the relationships between creatives and communities. I worked alongside the communications and design director Melanie Kyles, with the aim to improve the communications side of her brand by improving social media presence. I did this through tasks such as; creative effective event listings and designing event templates.

In my second year, I took a module in Employability based on my working life so far and my career goals. This really helped me prepare for graduation and working life. The CV writing and interview skills I learnt have transferred to life post-graduation, as I know what employers expect to see and what doesn’t work so well within a CV.

We also did Live Projects on the course and I participated in organising a one-off pop-up café. The café was a ‘pay as you feel’ basis, with the aim to make food more accessible no matter someone’s financial status

Did you make use of our Careers Service during your time here?

I spoke to an employability advisor who helped me through the process of looking for placements. The whole careers service were great at putting your mind at ease.

What skills did you learn from studying here?

The main skill I learnt is team work. Group work may not seem a huge deal whilst you’re at university, but it does a great job in getting you to work with an array of people. I also developed time management skills. Deadlines are never fun but time management really does come into use when you’re in the working world!

What was the support from academics like on your course? How did the teaching staff help you achieve your goals?

Support from my tutors in my final year management enquiry module really helped to hone in on what I wanted to do as a career. You’re told to be specific in what you’re researching and by doing this it enabled me to pick something I was really passionate about and not lose interest along the way. This helped me to achieve the first class degree I needed and give me a talking point I was confident in discussing with employers. 

What advice would you give to students considering applying to the course?  

Do it! Applying for this course will give you a massive array of skills and experience that you can transfer into all walks of working life.  

As a graduate, do you give back to the university? Are you involved in any volunteering such as guest lectures? Are you part of the alumni association? 

I am a part of the alumni association and keep up to date on events/news via the LinkedIn Northumbria alumni association.