How my creative writing degree kickstarted my digital marketing career

I didn’t know what field I wanted to work in when I started my degree.

I spent my gap year working and volunteering abroad, but realised that I missed studying and the creative projects I worked on in college. I chose a BA (Hons) Creative Writing degree because I enjoyed novels, writing and building characters. 

My course covered creative topics like ballads, poetry and autobiography — but we also developed professional skills in writing styles, proofreading, and writing for blogs, PR and news. 

I chose Portsmouth because it was close to home and offered a placement year. This meant I could work in industry for 12 months before my final year — and although I didn’t know what I wanted to do yet, I knew the experience would be valuable.

Discovering marketing on my placement year

I took a placement year during my course where I worked as the Promotions Assistant for the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University. I maintained the CCI blog and social media accounts, and organised events to showcase the Faculty. 

My biggest project of the year was the CCI Graduate Show 2017, a week-long event where we showed student work from across the faculty. With over 3,000 visitors, this is still the largest event I’ve organised. I even took part in a live radio broadcast with Express FM during the opening evening.  

Towards the end of my placement, we promoted a volunteering role with the Uni’s Sport and Recreation department. They were looking for a student to assist with their blog and social media posts. I applied while I was still on placement, and started volunteering straight away. 

I was introduced to so many different areas of marketing during my placement. By the end of the year I’d worked on events, social media, blogging, presentations, innovation, and graphic design. I’d met staff across the Faculty and from other departments, and saw how the faculty managers and recruitment teams worked. 

I knew by now that I enjoyed blogging, writing, and websites. 

Choosing digital marketing 

When I returned to uni for my final year, I chose a marketing project as my dissertation. 

My placement year gave me the confidence and experience to undertake this project, and the experience really prepared me for my career after graduation. I wrote and executed a marketing plan for my local quadball team that included social media, press releases, and print media. This confirmed for me that I wanted to pursue writing online content. 

When I graduated in 2018, I had a full year’s work in digital marketing, a completed (and successful!) marketing project, and a year of volunteering in social media as well as my degree and the work I published during my studies. 

Searching for graduate jobs 

From my uni experience I knew that I liked blogging, social media, and communications. Now I needed to find a job that let me do these things — but I didn’t know if BA (Hons) Creative Writing would be enough. When I applied to marketing jobs for undergraduate students, I felt like I’d be competing against graduates with much more relevant degrees. 

As I continued my job search, I found there were so many jobs for English graduates that I didn’t expect. As well as working as a writer, I could apply for jobs in business communications, social media, film, and considered continuing my studies to postgraduate level. Although my degree wasn’t directly linked to these fields, the skills I gained in written communication and content planning made me a strong candidate for a range of roles. 

Even within marketing, there were different graduate roles available. Some of the jobs for English graduates were: 

After my degree 

When I graduated I applied for a Web Editorial Assistant role at the University. My placement year experience was really useful here, and I got the job. This was a fixed term role so I stayed with the Uni for a whole year, building my web and communications experience. 

Since then I’ve worked on websites at the University of Portsmouth, the University of Chichester, and for award-winning local startups. I’ve learnt to keep my writing on-brand, and to make everything I write web friendly. 

I’ve now returned to the University of Portsmouth as a Web Content Designer, writing and designing pages on the University website. 

I didn't know what I wanted to do when I started uni, and I discovered my interest in marketing as I studied. Whether you know what you want to do after you graduate or not, a degree is full of opportunities to find out what you love.

Whatever route you take as an English graduate, good luck!