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Heather McGee is a BSc Marketing and Management (with Finance Studies and with a professional placement year) graduate, currently working as a Marketing Executive for a Tech company. She shares her experience of managing university study with dyslexia and dyspraxia, finding a placement and how she used her degree to carve her career path in Marketing.

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I am currently working as a Marketing Executive in a Tech company, my second full time role since leaving University. I was drawn to the University of Sussex and the Business School initially because of the feeling I got when I visited. I loved that it was a campus and I just felt at home when I visited. The Marketing and Management course was everything I wanted and the module options really stood out to me. It just felt like a place I could see myself.

During my degree I completed a placement year, working for Bosch Professional Power Tools as a Trade Marketing Assistant. I am a practical person so I wanted the real-world experience. I’ve been working since I was 14 and always enjoyed it, so the idea working in the industry as part of my degree was exciting to me.

Before applying for my placement, I was supported by the careers team to work on my CV, which was really helpful. It was challenging studying for 2nd year while completing job applications and making time to attend interviews and assessment days. I was losing hope until I was invited to Bosch’s assessment day. It was my first assessment centre, I got lost on the drive there, and was extremely anxious. I made it through to the interviews after all the task stages in the morning and I was exhausted. I was hesitant going into the role at first, as it was events co-ordination focused and I was more interested in the digital marketing, but I am so happy I took it. Me and my manager got on so well and I was able to develop both personally and professionally.

Doing a placement helped me realise what I wanted to do in my career. During my final year at Sussex, I was working in influencer marketing which introduced me to the world of digital marketing. I was responsible for email marketing, influencer acquisition and maintaining influencer relationships. This was a whole new field for me and something I’m glad I now have experience in.

From this role I was able to get my first job after University in Social Media Marketing for a Gen Z focused fashion brand. While it was interesting and very digitally focused (website design, email marketing, social media management and influencer marketing), I wasn’t enjoying it as much as my placement year. On reflection I decided that I would love to get back into events marketing. So that’s what I did – I left my job and joined a new company.

Being diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia from a young age was very challenging at times. When I was at school, I always struggled. I wasn’t academic, I was creative, which made it difficult to study the core subjects. I was always behind, needing extra help and tuition, and had to put more time and effort in than everyone else when studying because I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

I was grateful that my parents were always able to get me the support and help I needed. When I got the required results at A level to get into the University of Sussex - and was then was then offered a place - I was delighted. I never thought I would be able to make the grades.

When I started in first year at Sussex, I found it so difficult adjusting to the new way of learning. Being in large groups for lectures and seminars whilst information was given at a fast pace was challenging. I received one to one support from a learning specialist which helped me understand the written style and structure of assignments. I didn’t get the grades I had hoped for, but I really put in the extra work on my second year and was delighted when I got my results.

When it came to my final year, we were in and out of lockdown. Studying solely online brought new challenges. I found it hard to concentrate on the course content, and got so distracted that I decided to move back home, as I just couldn’t focus whilst staying in Brighton. I knew final year would be different. I would have to seriously stay focused and put the extra time in. I studied from Monday through to Sunday and rarely had free time, but it paid off.

Being awarded the highest grades on my course felt incredible. I honestly never thought that would be me. I’ve never been top at anything, especially not academically, so I couldn’t quite believe it. I was shocked but so happy, it was a great feeling. The day we got our results I celebrated with my family with dinner out in London. With Covid still around and no official graduation that year, I held a fake graduation at home with my best friend and her family, and another with university friends on returning to Brighton in the summer. We finally had our official graduation in July, and I spent the day celebrating with family and friends in Brighton.

During my time at the Business School, I found it interesting learning about the psychology behind marketing, so when creating/designing marketing material, I now think about the consumer and how they will digest the information, the thought process that they go through, and how I can help them along the way. I also learned how to set up a business, and during my first job after leaving university, I was able to use the skills and knowledge I’d gained during my degree to develop a business plan and help build the start-up company from the beginning.

My key piece of advice for someone thinking of doing a degree at Sussex would be to go into this with an open mind. The campus experience is one that will stay with you forever, but you’ll have to study hard to get the results you want. You’re also going to have great fun and it’s important that you do as you will never get those 3-4 years back.

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