Aline Scherff

Name: Aline Scherff
Club 21 Employer: Arnold Clark Automobiles Ltd
Degree Subject: Psychology
Year of Graduation: 2010

Having progressed through the several stages of selection (initial Club 21 selection, my first interview with the Recruitment Department, and my second interview with the Marketing Department) I was very excited indeed to finally start my Club 21 placement at Arnold Clark Marketing.

During my first week on placement, I was shadowing staff across a range of positions such as Franchise Management, Design, Web, PR and Events, Brand, CRM and Direct Marketing. As well as representing an opportunity to get to know the many employees of the department, this was very useful in providing a comprehensive overview of the number of stages and amount of work involved. While the updating of newspaper advertisements was daily business at Arnold Clark, thinking up, designing and running new campaigns always involved the combined efforts of the entire department. The launch of Arnold Clark's new website and my own involvement in its testing (and overcoming teething problems) was also something I found very interesting.

My remaining weeks on placement were spent in each of the sub-departments, which allowed me to develop new task-related computer skills and an in-depth knowledge of other processes.

The presence of another Club 21 student in the department, with whom I could share the experience, was also a real bonus. In addition, the administration by the Club 21 staff was great. Their level of correspondence, mid-term and end-placement visits while I was on placement were of great help.