BOLD step for student Lorraine

Advertising and Digital Marketing student, Lorraine Gorimani, credits the University of Northampton with helping her to take a bold step towards a career with Google.

Last year, Lorraine, supported by her tutors at the University, fought off stiff competition to become one of only 24 to make it to the Google Top Black Talent (GTBT) programme 2019. Now, a few months, and a global pandemic later, she’s just completed a second program with Google – the highly competitive Google BOLD Immersion programme.

The Building Opportunities for Leadership and Development (BOLD) Immersion programme is a student focused opportunity, which gives just a handful of students the chance to work with Google mentors as part of a talent-spotting programme. The BOLD Immersion programme takes place in multiple regions around the world, and Lorraine was one of only 50 chosen to take part from across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) in the 2020 program.

Lorraine said: “I’m so proud to have had the opportunity to be part of the Google programme. The whole interview process took me about three months, months filled with a rollercoaster of emotions.

“With the support of my tutors, and the confidence in my skills they’ve helped me to cultivate. I applied back in April. I was fortunate that I was one of the 90 people to be shortlisted for an interview. I was so proud of myself, but I was anxious about what was to come, as well as a lot of nervous excitement.

“I approached the interview like I do my university work, lots of preparation, and research. I was nervous to interview at Google, but the team at Google ensured I was comfortable, they definitely want you to succeed.

“Finally, after spending months of waiting to complete the entire interview process, I got the call to say I had been successful. That was such an amazing feeling, my hard work had paid off.”

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, what should have been a week-long trip to the Google offices in Dublin, was cancelled and Lorraine prepared her kitchen table for the experience. A big box of Google treats, the technology and all the resources she would need for the BOLD programme arrived at Lorraine’s door, which was a welcome surprise. Two weeks before the start of the summit, Lorraine was paired up with her Google Mentor and virtually met the rest of her cohort at the start of July.

Lorraine said: “It’s a shame I didn’t get to travel to the offices, and physically meet everyone. Google did what they do best, they were very innovative and created a fantastic, virtual, experience for me and the other BOLD students. The BOLD programme was an intensive, interactive, week-long, experience, filled with workshops, coaching, activities, and practical work experience, and very valuable feedback from the Google staff. They brought he Google culture of fun and balancing that with work to the programme, they hosted an online concert for us one night, so we could all virtually socialise. That was so special.”

Lorraine will start the final year of her Advertising and Digital Marketing course in a few weeks and is looking forward to applying her industry tips to her studies. She said: “My time with Google has taught me so much, I really enjoyed the practical exercises where I got to work behind the scenes with the strategy development for Google advertising, getting more information about what they do. I can’t wait to get back to University, I’m excited for my third year. This experience is going to be invaluable as and the things I’ve learnt are already shaping how I’m planning my dissertation.”

Read more about Lorraine’s Google Top Black Talent (GTBT) adventure here.