Future You: Life as an alumni - Daniya Kayani
Intro
When you graduate from the University of West London, you automatically become part of the alumni community, a wide network of professionals in every job imaginable. They all started right where you are now.
If the future looks a little daunting, have no fear. Many students have graduated from UWL and gone on to find great jobs and careers. Read on to discover the story of one such graduate, Daniya Kayani.
Article body
Daniya came to UWL to study Advertising and PR after visiting us on an open day and getting inspired by her lecturer Kristin Brewe.
I’d always been very creative. I did media studies at school, and I’d always been interested in marketing and finding creative ways to promote things. I think for me, I really wanted a course that was practical and not just theory. I can engage with that, but I’d just be bored. Before I came to university, I thought I was going to do film and television production, but my parents suggested I do something a little broader. But I came to UWL because I loved the creativity.”
During her time at UWL, Daniya took advantage of access to great lecturers and the opportunity to build up a network of creative individuals studying everything from journalism to design.
Even now I’m still in touch with those guys. I reach out to them to get their help when I’m working on projects, so that was really useful for me.”
Article body
The Advertising and PR course allowed Daniya to practice working on campaigns every semester. These campaigns gave her the opportunity to gain experience, something she consolidated by doing a few internships and working with her local city council in Slough. With the support of the careers team here at UWL, she detailed all of these experiences on her CV, which helped her get interviews for starter internship positions.
I came in with three years of experience, so people were more likely to give me interviews. That experience really helped with the practicalities of applying for jobs and actually securing them.”
Graduate Internship Programme
The University is offering 50 Graduate Internships exclusively to UWL graduates.
Article body
One of the internships Daniya did after graduating was right here at the University of West London as part of our Graduate Internship Programme. The programme aims to help UWL graduates gain paid work experience by working at the University. For Daniya, as a research assistant in advertising and PR, this meant becoming colleagues with her old lecturers. Together they developed a platform for offering graduates advice on finishing uni and finding a job.
It was really nice to go from being a student to a colleague of my old lecturer, because he had taught me about the things I eventually decided I wanted to dedicate my career to. It was really fulfilling. Having been a person who had just graduated, I felt like I was talking from experience."
From here, Daniya secured her first industry job as an account planner at Mediacom, an advertising agency. Suddenly, she found herself doing marketing for British Gas on a national scale.
It was a big step up, but it was great. I had started off working as a communications intern for my local government, and they really liked me, but they didn’t have a job for me. They created a digital content creator role when I was in my second year at uni. Because of that, plus working with the University, I think they felt comfortable letting me take on these bigger jobs.”
But what exactly is the role of a marketing manager at a media agency?
Media agencies work to target people wit the right marketing, at the right time, in the right place. So, what that means for me is clients come along and I do everything for that client. They tell us their goals, maybe they want to increase sales for a particular sofa or something, and they want a strategy for how we will go about doing that. So, I would then devise a strategy, figuring out who their audience is, what they’re interested in, what they use to consume media. I put together a media plan and if they like it, then we book it and run it.”
Article body
Through this work, Daniya has worked with a number of well-known brands, including Ribena, Lucozade and Harper Collins. As well as sending her free books, Harper Collins let her work on a nationwide campaign for Peter Kay’s autobiography.
We had these massive screens in Manchester, and I got to walk around and see my adverts. It’s been three years in the industry, but I still take photos of my billboards.”
In the future, Daniya would like to become a marketing strategist, before possibly going into lecturing and teaching. But she had this advice to offer to anyone about to graduate.
Our lecturers really drilled into us that it’s so important to get experience, and to learn how to use that experience to make yourself look good. That helps set you apart from other people.”
We’re immensely proud of all our graduates, and we can’t wait to welcome you to the group. Wherever you end up, make sure you stay connected to the University of West London and make the most of all the benefits open to our alumni community.
