Rosie Toe's Marketing Placement at VERCIDA.com

This is a guest post from Rosie Toe who has just completed a placement at VERCIDA.com as part of her Year in Business degree at Royal Holloway. Rosie is studying BSc Management with Marketing (Year in Business) and I very much enjoyed visiting Rosie at the VERCIDA offices in London and hearing from her manager about the excellent work she had been doing during her placement. In this article Rosie tells us about some of the key projects she has worked on, the benefits she sees in working for a SME and also links to an article she wrote for VERCIDA about how to spot a great internship. Rosie tells us:  

I have just finished my placement at VERCIDA.com, a diversity and inclusion organisation that aims to promote and achieve equality within the workplace by providing jobseekers and organisations a platform to advertise and search for inclusive roles within an organisation.

VERCIDA stands for Values, Equality, Respect, Culture, Inclusion, Diversity and Accessibility. 

 It has been a particularly exiting time for me to complete my placement, as Diversity Jobs became VERCIDA, a global platform, who’s transformation required some major changes within the business, including the creation of the new website www.vercida.com.

During my time at VERCIDA I saw first hand the trials and tribulations that rebranding a company brings, I also got to see the great results that were starting to be achieved at the end of my placement. One of my main roles during my time at VERCIDA was creating content for the website, for both our clients and to promote ourselves. I learnt a lot about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), WordPress, Social Media, Analytics and much more during my placement, which meant that I was able to learn how the terms and techniques that I had been taught in my first two years at Royal Holloway were put into practise.

During my time at VERCIDA I was involved in a number of projects, here are three that standout for me:

1.       Managing the transfer of articles from the Diversity Jobs to VERCIDA.com.

This was the first task that I was involved with when I started at VERCIDA and although it was a timely and tedious task, it taught me a lot about diversity and inclusion, both inside and outside the workplace, it also gave me a better understanding of why this is such an important platform for many who face barriers when researching a potential future employer and searching for work; it also gave me a chance to learn more about our members and what they have to offer.

2.       Creating a social media campaign to encourage the transfer of followers from Diversity Jobs to VERCIDA and ensuring audience engagement with content.

During my placement I was involved in creating a variety of social media campaigns for jobseekers, members and potential members. However, this campaign was an important one, as we needed to ensure that our followers would transfer from our previous site and social media pages to our new and updated ones. I helped to create a selection of relevant user content and paid adverts to encourage our users to transfer to VERCIDA. I also helped to create a content creation and scheduling timetable that optimised the posting times for when our users were most active.

3.       Managing the process of content sign-off with contacts from well-known organisations such as Viacom, Bank of England, Lendlease and more.

I was given the responsibility of working closely with our members in order to produce articles and receive sign-off for content that was to be posted on the site. My role gave me the freedom to work independently alongside our members and this was a very rewarding experience that gave me first-hand knowledge on how to create professional relationships with people outside of the organisation. During my time at VERCIDA I built good relationships with a number of external individuals, this increased my confidence to liaise with others in a professional manner.

I particularly liked working for an SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) as I was exposed to all aspects of the organisation and was able to speak to and learn from members of other teams, creating good working relationships with them as I assisted them in their role. It also meant that I was able to be involved in important tasks and discussions concerning the re-branding of the business and the website, which was an exciting time for everyone involved.

I also loved learning more about diversity and inclusion, as this is something that I am passionate about; it felt great to work for an organisation that placed a focused on inclusion and equality. It is thanks to VERCIDA that I would like to further my knowledge and involvement regarding diversity and inclusion, both professionally and personally.

Are you looking for your Year in Business placement? Here is an article that I put together during my time at VERCIDA, titled ‘5 ways to spot a great internship’ - https://www.vercida.com/uk/articles/5-ways-to-spot-a-great-internship.