Satsuma has had the privilege of having 17-year-old Kesgrave High School student Oli Francis with us for a week of work experience during February half term. Here he explains what he has learnt and why he recommends gaining hands-on experience to others looking for a kickstart to a new career.
When I started with Satsuma for a four-day crash course in marketing, I didn’t know what to expect – but I did know that I was excited to learn from industry professionals, improve my skills and widen my knowledge of digital marketing.
It did not disappoint. In fact, it turned out to be one of the most interesting and uniquely educational experiences I’ve had.
Over the course of four days, I got to understand what it is like to work with different clients, how to read data from posts, how to design for a range of companies, and understand what marketing is like outside of the classroom.
I began the course with an introduction to the amazing Satsuma team, and my first task was to make a calendar of events that each client might piggy-back on for social media traction.
I then made designs on Canva to match some of these posts, and I had great fun doing so.
It was one of my favourite tasks during my placement because of how interesting the process to creating promotional social media content using Canva is.
Before this placement I had never used Canva as a design tool but it’s simple to pick up and now I understand how powerful it is for marketing, and I’m very proud of the work I produced.
I learnt:
At first, I focused mostly on trying to balance proportions and colour. It was fantastic to have a balance of creative freedom to learn by myself and have all the support ready if I needed it.
It included lots of experimentation, but I now feel confident in my skills to look professional on Canva and my ability to understand want a client might want or expect from their social media posts.
Another important skill – and what I thought was the most interesting was learning how measure social media metrics to verify success.
I had no previous experience of this at all, but I was eager to learn.
I was introduced to insights and analytics tools that showed engagement rates, reach, impressions, click-through rates, and what these indicate about the success of a post.
I learned how to analyse which posts performed best and why, whether it was the time of release, the design, or the captions.
It was equally interesting and important to understand what happens behind the scenes of marketing, it is not just about posting and designing content, it’s about understanding the data, learning from it, and improving future posts.
It was unique experience to be able to look at the data from Satsumas clients delivering a brilliant lesson in being able to connect performance metrics back to client goals.
Beyond design, meetings, and content performance I also learned about:
I now understand how every social media post from a company fits into a wider strategy. Marketing isn’t boring or lucky – it’s planned carefully to support client and company goals.
The unique position of seeing how digital marketing is structured helped me to appreciate a side of the industry I wouldn’t have understood from the classroom alone.
The opportunity was special to me and developed both my practical and personal skills. I improved my design abilities and my skills in looking at data, but I also gained industry experience, confidence, communication skills, and professionalism.
Most importantly, I enjoyed working with people so enthusiastic. I now know that marketing is something I really want to pursue. It combines creativity with business in a way that allows you to be creative while still dealing with business. It is a combination I have come to understand and enjoy.
Before the course, marketing was just an idea I had that I was interested in. Now, it feels like a real career path I want to expand and work on.
Overall, the marketing work was more than just learning, it was real, hands on, and extremely worthwhile. Working with amazing people, seeing my skills improve, and gaining industry experience while having the opportunity to widen my knowledge was the most rewarding part of the course.
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