Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

Plan and execute in-store marketing strategy.

Attend meetings with local distributors, creative and production agencies and retailers' management. Do market intelligence studies on different data that come from different sources and try to understand shopper habits and address them in in-store activities.

There is a great satisfaction in seeing your activity across different stores and how shoppers react with it.

To drive your categories/brands you have to push people in supporting functions in order to have perfect executions on time. Sometimes this is difficult and needs you to develop great people and conflict management skills.

Because it is the side of marketing that has an immediate measurable impact on sales and numbers. You plan your activity right and execute it and you can see the results immediately, unlike when I was in brand management and results could take months or years.

Data analysis and research is a key skill. It is also very beneficial when working in a multinational that you are aware of key cultural differences that would affect how people communicate. The subtle differences in how The West, East and others confirm or deny for example is good to know

When I first graduated the university of Sheffield I worked briefly in the finance sector but realised it was not for me.
I then moved to a distributor of FMCG goods (Pepsico and P&G) and worked as a trade marketing assistant; this helped me get ground knowledge of the industry. I then moved to Unilever as a brand manager for a couple of years which gave me brand building and consumer understanding. My brand manager role and my experience in trade marketing allowed me to help in creating a new Shopper Marketing department in the business unit with a shopper-centric trade marketing role. After a few years I moved to Groupe SEB where I am the Trade Execution manager for the country.

The learning of the consumer goods industries is key for everyone who is planning on starting their own business. It exposes you to all different parts that you will need to know: finance, accounting, branding, sales and even how to deal with custom clearance.

I see myself working at multinationals for a few more years before starting my own business in a related sector.

Try to link everything you study in what you see companies do. Do your best in any real life projects that you get a chance to do. Talk to students from other parts of the world, it is a small world and you will work with many different cultures.