Alumni - Sophia Palmer

Every morning I drive into the New Forest in Hampshire to start work at The Montagu Arms, part of Greenclose Hotels, a collection of four-star hotels and a five-star spa. My job as a senior digital marketing executive revolves around writing engaging content for our websites and organising events and I also have two executives working below me. I write most of the blogs so I might start researching and planning in the morning before writing one up in the afternoon. I often assist the social media team in producing content – last week we did a shoot of afternoon tea and prosecco in the hotel rooms. A perk of the job is getting to scoff the leftovers!  

It was a creative writing course that happened to be part of my degree at UCL that put me on this path. I loved it so much that I knew writing was something I wanted to pursue in my career. I took on various unpaid internships throughout my 4 years at UCL to get as much writing and marketing experience as I could – two roles at start-ups and a couple of student rep roles for STA Travel and Instant Impact. I spent my year abroad in Mexico which helped me later secure a position as a guest features writer for a Latin American publication. After travelling in Australia for a year, where I worked as an au pair for a family of 3 kids, I returned to England and got a job as a copywriter for the children’s clothing brand JoJo Maman Bébé. I was able to combine my experience with children with my passion for writing and I found it to be something I was really great at. I worked there for 5 years. 

As tough as it might be – and I know the competition is tough – I would advise you to try your hardest to secure an internship or some kind of work experience while you’re studying. If you’re not sure which career path is the one for you just yet, try as much as you can! Being part of a society counts too and it will give you so many great new connections which can open some new doors. I was President of the SELCS Society and was Advertising Officer for Pi Media, UCL’s oldest and largest student journalism society and also did a lot of volunteering work.