My Placement year at The World Disney Company: “Where dreams become reality”

A placement year usually occurs between the second and final year of your study at university and this helps students gain valuable work experience, develop transferable and people skills, and explore potential career paths.

In the early months of my placement year, I worked remotely but soon got the chance to relocate and worked from Disney’s stunning headquarters in London. I worked at Disney’s soft lines division which is within Consumer Products, Games and Publishing.

I assisted with managing the brand collaborations and the use of Disney’s intellectual property – those iconic characters – which other brands want to put on their clothing, fashion, and homeware products.

My course in advertising and digital marketing prepared me for this opportunity, as we frequently worked on creative briefs which had tight deadlines from the business community in Northampton, and the departments within the university. The course taught me industry valuable skills, which prepared me on responding to the creative brief which was part of Disney placement assessment.

Placement year is real life industry work which must be taken seriously. I had the opportunity to work on some complex projects and was able to gradually take on more responsibility as I saw the workload grow progressively. I learnt a lot on the academic side of advertising and marketing and was able to broaden my skills, learn more about the day-to-day duties on working within the field of marketing.

The University’s Changemaker Hub team were super supportive when I decided to apply for a placement year. They supported me in creating my CV and gave me tips on how to tailor my CV to each application. When I received the news that I have been shortlisted for an interview with Disney, the team assisted me further with interview preparations and assessment centres.

I would encourage all students to take on a placement year when the opportunity presents itself. It is a fantastic way to apply the theory from your course to real Industry work. You will benefit from building strong communication skills, and people skills.

My time at The Walt Disney Company has been everything you would want from a placement year: it was challenging, exciting, fulfilling, and with a sprinkle of the Disney magic that we all grew up with.”

If you are a current student interested in the support system available at the university, the Changemaker Hub and Employability team are situated in the Learning Hub.

Tobias Sutton

Tobias Sutton is a final year advertising and digital marketing student at the University of Northampton.