Francesca

Francesca landed a work experience placement at Oostor.com, a Cambridge business that provides an online store to help customers discover the best independent brands around the world.

Three images of Francesca Luisi: working on computer, standing outside and with drawing of a dog

"Working at Oostor.com during the summer gave me insight into how small businesses operate, and how to grow a business. It was an amazing experience seeing first-hand how animation can be used to help them grow a brand.”

Work experience offers many benefits, including enhancing your personal skills like teamwork and communication, while providing a taste of the workplace environment. Francesca told us: "The thing that I have enjoyed most is working with the people, and the atmosphere in the office. It is quite a noisy office and people are always chatting, which helps because the work can be quite stressful at times. We work well as a team and everyone is really friendly."

Undertaking work experience in their chosen field also provides a great opportunity for students to meet industry contacts: "For the role, I was interviewed by Partha the CEO, and Karina the Chief Marketing Officer. In the interview they asked me a lot about the things on my CV, and the other things that I could offer the company; if I was good at thinking of new ideas - especially for the website - and if I was willing to learn. I also took with me a sample of some written work that I had, which I think was helpful because they could see my written work was a good standard."

Francesca was able to learn new skills during her work experience that will look great on her CV: "I have learnt how to write SEO (search engine optimisation) documents and press releases, things that I had never done before. For example, we wrote press releases for a collection of products with a similar theme, so I recently wrote one for our urban jungle collection. I also helped with blogging as well as working on a series of animations that have been used to draw attention to particular product ranges."

Work experience can be a scary experience, but also a rewarding one. Francesca's advice for other students was: "Try not to be nervous, and be yourself."

Find out more about our BA (Hons) Illustration and Animation