Annabelle Rose

• Year of study: Third year (2025/26)
• Length of course: Three years with a placement year

I chose to study at the University of Northampton because I knew I wanted to stay local, but also when I visited the campus, the classroom learning approach and the modern campus really appealed to me. Since starting university, I’ve really enjoyed the teaching style and the smaller classes.

Through the variety of modules, I’ve obtained a broad range of marketing knowledge and practical skills that I will take forward into my graduate position at TJX Europe. Opportunities to present for my modules helped me to grow confidence in public speaking which has really benefited me on my placement year and will also support me on my graduate scheme. Overall, completing the optional placement year that my course offered, alongside my assignments, helped me to improve my time-management skills and overall professionalism that comes from a year in industry.

My career goal is to work my way up to senior buyer/merchandiser within fashion, and the skills I’ve gained on my degree that I feel will be most useful for this are my presentation skills. I had three modules in which I had to present, which helped me to feel more comfortable with public speaking. I’ve also gained practical marketing skills that I can take forward into my career and apply to real-life scenarios, as well as communication skills, as the opportunities for group work helped me learn how to effectively collaborate with others.

I completed my placement year at TUI as an online merchandising assistant. Within the role, I was able to put all my degree knowledge into real-life practice, which helped me to feel much more confident when securing my graduate scheme position.

It’s hard to list all the skills I gained because I learned so much – my communication, confidence, commercial knowledge and public speaking skills grew, but overall, I feel so much more confident in my abilities and employability through everything I’ve learned. The placement enabled me to become familiar with the job application process, and I found I had a lot of strong examples to discuss from my placement year during interviews. My application feedback always noted the strength of my examples and the experience I had gained.

My tips on applying for a placement are to tailor your CV to the job description, so it’s clear how you will meet each element of the criteria the employer is looking for – this really helped me. When your placement begins, say yes to everything! When I first started and someone in my team needed support with their workload or a task, I always volunteered even if I hadn’t done it before. This meant I was constantly learning new things, whilst my effort was being recognised, and I went from merchandising TUI’s smaller sub-products to creating merchandising for the core website through pushing myself and saying yes to any opportunity I was given.

Alongside my studies I enjoy reading, baking and creative activities. For me, each of my hobbies reinforce my creativity which is beneficial not only for creative campaign generation, but for thinking creatively when problems arise.

The advice I would give to undergraduates interested in this career path would be to take any opportunity you can. My placement year was so insightful and so was the work experience I did as part of a module. Attend any events, trips and opportunities the University offers as these all look great on LinkedIn and your CV.

My experience at the University of Northampton has helped me grow so much as a person!