Sarah Hicks

Role: Marketing Education
Degree: Marketing and Management at Newcastle University

Role Insight

Hey Everyone! My name is Sarah, I am a Marketing Intern in the Education team at Microsoft. I am taking a year out from studying Management and Marketing at Newcastle University.

My job consists of marketing to students, teachers and institutions from Primary Schools through to Universities. I market to this audience through events, digital marketing, campaigns, partner projects, influencer programs, social media and loads of other really exciting channels. As Education is a really niche market it is brilliant in helping me develop my Marketing experience as I can really get in the head of the consumer and the team really value your opinions as you are a student yourself.

In my role I work closely with the rest of the Education team, who manage different education audiences and partners. As the Education team is quite small you get the chance to take on some impressive and important responsibilities. It also means you quickly build really strong relationships with your colleagues who are passionate to help drive your growth and development throughout the year. In my role I also get to work with other business areas in Microsoft such as Office, Windows and Cloud – providing me with brilliant exposure. My communication skills are key to the role, I have to be professional as I am constantly working with new people in and outside of the company. It’s brilliant for building my network.

Favourite Aspects of My Role

Project Management

In my role I have also had a really exciting opportunity to be a project manager for a new film release, the ‘Enchanted Kingdom’. The film was created by BBC Earth and will be distributed by Universal. Microsoft partnered with BBC Earth to develop educational resources to support the film which could be used by schools.

In order to do this we brought a Primary School on board the project to help create the resources, and then to showcase them. My role within the project was to coordinate the projects activities, make sure everything stuck to the timescale and budget.

I also had to help develop the contracts around the partnership, working closely with our internal Legal team. I had to work closely with very senior people from the BBC and Universal, along with Microsoft’s Corporate Executives in our head offices in Seattle. I also was responsible for managing the Marketing activities around the project. This entailed planning a launch event and devising a PR campaign with an external company and our own PR team. From receiving great feedback and we began to expand the project internationally into French, German, Italian and American markets. This meant I had to be really clear with my communication. The project provided me with a great deal of responsibility which was really exciting.

Events

One of the really exciting parts of my role is events. I get to manage small events from the initial planning, through to execution and collecting feedback of the event. This also means I get to travel a lot and interact with many colleagues, customers and partners. Some of the events I have had responsibility for are:

• The Scottish Learning Festival – This involved spending a week in Glasgow and Edinburgh
• The AoC Conference – Three days in Birmingham
• Digitally Confident – Two days in Newcastle

Along with managing smaller events I have also worked as part of a team to conduct very large events. For example my team organised Microsoft’s presence at BETT 2015. My role involved working with all the partners attending the exhibition (90 partners) to make sure that Microsoft messaging was clear and succinct. I had to communicate directly with many of these partners, along with Microsoft account managers who manage the relationships. I also organised partner schedules for presentations, digital marketing, meetings and prize trails to take place during the event. This taught me the importance of being organised and efficient. BETT also gave me the exciting opportunity to work with over 50 Microsoft employees at the event. It was hard work, but you really get the rewards!

Other Opportunities

I am also part of an intern 101 project called ‘Gen One’. In our project I am working with two other interns and one graduate to organise an exclusive event for customers surrounding Windows 10, productivity and mobility. The project is great as it gives me exposure to business areas and customers I would never see in my role. I also get to work with interns and graduates who I wouldn’t otherwise get to, this is great for sharing knowledge and skills. As part of this project I was also able to pitch our project to the Dutch General Manager in Amsterdam; read more about this trip here. I will also be able to do the same in France and to the UK General Manager!

Applications tip

It is very important to get your personality across all the way through the application process. HR will find an area of the business that suits you. You will be glad you put across your personality further on down the line!

Good luck everyone! 

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