Students bag media jobs before they even get to throw their mortarboards in the air

Work experience certainly paid off for three students about to finish their course in Multimedia Journalism, who have already started full-time jobs before they’ve even graduated.

Matt Derrig completed placements at the Northampton Chronicle and Echo newspaper and Northampton Town Football Club during his studies, and was offered a part-time internship at the club while he studied. He was recently appointed media and marketing officer for the newly promoted League One football club, based at Sixfields stadium.

“I really enjoyed my time at the University, and particularly the hands-on training I received as part of the Multimedia Journalism course,” said Matt.

“The assignments were really engaging, I had the chance to get out there and speak to people, build up contacts and the Uni’s close links with Northampton Town meant I was able to benefit from the internship with the club. Thanks to the experience I had gained on my course, I was able to adapt to the work quickly.”

From the same graduating year, Jenn Stowell has been given a job with the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) radio department, which she applied for as soon as her exams finished in June. She said: “I’m so happy to be offered a job with BFBS, I made my dream come true – and I’m working in radio which was the best outcome.”

Andrea Pluck hadn’t even let the ink dry on her final media law exam before she started work at the Herts Advertiser newspaper in St Albans. The final year student had completed her second year work experience at an Archant newspaper in Essex, and when she applied for the St Albans job a year later, her editor in Essex recommended her to the Herts Ad’s editor.

She said: “It was so useful to work in a real newspaper office in my second year and then use those skills to develop my confidence ready for getting a real job by the time I graduated. I’m loving the job, if not the early starts.”

All single honours students on the Multimedia Journalism degree have to complete work experience during the BJTC-accredited course, which has certainly paid off for these students already. Andrea, Matt and Jen are all due to collect their degrees at the graduation ceremony on Friday 22 July at Royal & Derngate, Northampton.

Pictured from left are Jen Stowell, Andrea Pluck and Matt Derrig.