Posted In: Uncategorized by
Sarah Lightfoot,
July 14, 2026
At Boutique, we believe supporting the next generation of talent is one of the most important investments we can make. Great work experience has the power to shape confidence, spark ambition and open doors, so we make sure every student who joins us gets a genuine insight into agency life. Rather than sitting on the sidelines, they become part of the team. Over the course of the week, they spend time with every department, learning how each specialism works together to deliver brilliant marketing. They tackle real briefs, collaborate on ideas, and finish by presenting their recommendations back to the agency. It’s a hands-on experience designed to build practical skills, encourage fresh thinking and give young people a true understanding of what a career in marketing can look like. We’re proud to play a small part in helping the next generation take their first steps into the industry, and these blogs are a reflection of the work, ideas and enthusiasm they brought with them.
Before I did my work experience, I thought marketing was just one group of people convincing you to by their product through words and a small bit of logo design every once in a while, I thought you would just sit at a desk all day and just write convincing paragraphs about products.
During my time at Boutique, I spent time with different people from different sections of the team, they gave me a lot of insight into what goes on behind the scenes of huge projects. I found out how different everyone’s job is, yet they all work together perfectly. I was well looked after by Sarah and other members of the team, and I had a project to work on about a vegan hair company. At every step of the project, someone was there to help and support me if I had any questions about what I was doing. For example, when I finished my social media section, Holly from social media read through it and gave me some advice on what I’d done well and what I needed to improve. I really enjoyed my week, and it has given me a lot of insight into what goes on for huge projects to get finished.
After my time at Boutique I have decided I would like to go down the marketing pathway for my career, because I had the most amazing week. It was truly a unique experience, I loved the fact that I had my own project work to get on with instead of helping other people with theirs. Instead of being on the side lines I was truly stuck in and I felt like part of the team which was a really nice feeling saying I had only been there a week.
My placement at Boutique gave me valuable insight into working at a marketing agency and I really enjoyed my time since, I felt like I learnt a lot of new information about marketing, that has made me more confident about the possibility of career in marketing. When I began to look into where I might want to do my week of work experience, Boutique stood out to me as a marketing agency as somewhere I would probably enjoy and get a lot out of my time there. Before my placement, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do as a future career. Marketing kept appearing as a good match for my interests and A-level subjects, and I was interested in learning a bit more about what a career in marketing would involve. This meant that my placement at Boutique has been so helpful and strengthened my idea of a future marketing career.
On my first day of work experience, everyone was extremely welcoming and friendly. After arriving, I had a laptop set up for me at a desk and I was handed a notebook, placement itinerary and the three briefs I could work on over my time. Throughout the placement, there was a mix of independent work on the briefs and meeting with members of each team to learn more about each aspect of marketing and what each role involves.
When I worked independently on my briefs, I started by going over all three, making notes on what I would need to do for each and some rough ideas I had. Following this, I made a decision to focus on one brief in a lot of depth, where I began researching about competitor brands and their work, as well as the target audience. This helped me to generate some more detailed ideas for the marketing of the product and brand, which was also made easier as my placement went on and I began to learn a bit more about each area of marketing.
Meeting members of each team like media, influencer, social, strategy, PR and digital was not only beneficial for my work on my brief but also for my understanding of marketing and what the whole process involves and the different routes I could choose to explore in the future. Some of these sessions introduced me to new websites or features that get used frequently and helped boost my knowledge of everything that goes into marketing and this made working on some areas of my brief much easier.
One of my favourite parts of my placement was learning about the different media channels because I found it so interesting learning about different types of advertisements and understanding what is best for my brief, I also enjoyed learning about the social/influencer side of marketing. I probably enjoyed these two areas the most because I found it so engaging to learn about the process and what goes on behind the adverts and collaborations, I see normally on social media or in everyday life. I also enjoyed sitting in on a brainstorm for one of Boutique’s new campaigns, I found it fascinating to see how the teams work and create ideas during a discussion, and I felt like it really added insight into a marketing agency life, showed the collaboration that goes on between everyone at Boutique and it was an experience during my placement that fascinated me.
I would definitely recommend to other people in a similar position to me to do a placement with Boutique since I found it very interesting and an extremely eye-opening experience that gave me valuable insight into a future career in marketing and agency life. Everyone I met and spoke to in the office were very helpful, friendly and kind, which made my work experience very enjoyable and an opportunity I’m very grateful to have had and to all the people who took their time to share their knowledge and job with me.
My time at Boutique was an eye-opening experience. Before coming to my week of work, I thought that PR was simply about promoting businesses and I never realised nor appreciated everything that goes on behind the scenes such as the strategy and digital content which I knew nothing about prior.
During the week, I met with people from different departments and learnt what their roles were and how they contributed to promoting the product. The department I enjoyed the most was Media Buying with Chloe as it was fascinating to find out how businesses advertise, and how certain ways of advertising fit certain companies best. Also, it was interesting to learn about the drop-ins as I never heard of that method before. Now, whenever I see an advert, I will always think about the challenging work that agencies like Boutique put into them! I also liked spending time in the Influencer Department and learning with Holly. I was intrigued by Klear and how influencers and content creation are becoming an effective way to market products to a younger audience.
Learning about the different departments helped develop ideas of promoting a vegan haircare brand which was fun to do as I produced creative ideas on how to promote it. Furthermore, attending a brainstorm meeting for Astonish was interesting and gave me a valuable insight on how the team collaborates, shares ideas and develops campaigns. My experience helped me improve my teamwork, professionalism and punctuality.
Overall, my work experience at Boutique was the best I could have ever asked for. Everyone was so welcoming and great to talk to, and it gave me a real insight into the media world and how it is constantly changing. It has also been invaluable in helping me think about my future as I wish to pursue a career in journalism. I have always been set on journalism as a career; however, my experience here has opened another door for me. I have seen first-hand the creativity, collaboration and the multitude of possibilities PR and marketing has to offer. I really could see myself working in a place like Boutique in the future.
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