Alison Hanlon – National Theatre Group, Marketing

BA(Hons) Journalism, 2010

Before university - Solihull College, Solihull (2005-2007)

Image: Alison is pictured at the press event for the show Legally Blonde at The Regent Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, holding Lola, the Pets As Therapy charity dog.

I have had a mixture of jobs since graduating. After much persistence, volunteer work, use of work-related facilities, networking and lots of hours of hard work, I am now working as a Marketing Assistant for Ambassador Theatre Group – the largest national theatre group in the UK. I genuinely love my job! Honestly, they don’t pay me to say that – I actually do! As a team, we manage the marketing campaigns for the performances at The Victoria Hall and The Regent Theatre, in order to sell tickets. Our day-to-day schedule varies all of the time, from organising events, dealing with the press, designing promotional material to whatever else comes into our creative minds. It’s great! No day is the same and I couldn’t ask for more from a role! I’ve decided that marketing is for me.

A lot of the volunteer work that I have embarked on has involved marketing and now in my current role, I’m addicted. In the long term, I wish to work my way up to Marketing Manager, whether that be within ATG or elsewhere. I have always had a strong pull towards charities, especially animal welfare charities and although I made the decision at the age of sixteen to never go down the route of animal welfare as I felt that my emotions and passion for the cause would compromise my professionalism, I am now thinking that having grown up, this may be a route that I will go down in the future. I am thinking that using my marketing skills within this field would be a great idea, as then I can combine my two major passions into one and create something amazing! I enjoyed my course at Staffordshire University.

This, and my varied work history, prepared me for my job, in terms of developing journalistic skills, learning about audiences, appeal, design, copy, dealing with the press and knowing what sells. I do feel though, that of what I gained from going to Staffordshire University, my course was approximately only 50% overall.

In addition to studying, I was a Student Ambassador, Student Warden, worked within the Students’ Union in a number of roles, worked for Staffordshire Police, met a huge variety of people, experienced lots of new things and generally, grew up, opened up and became me. My overall university experience at Staffordshire University is what has prepared me for my current job and all the wonderful things that lie ahead.