Instead of writing a Modern Drama assessed essay at Part 2, I chose to do an academic placement. For some time I have been interested in online marketing and I mentioned this to Lucinda Becker, the placement tutor. She suggested I work for a company called Reading Rep, a relatively new theatre company in Berkshire.
The initial arranging of my placement was pretty speedy and I managed to decide on my direction, write a case for placement, have it approved and meet with Reading Rep in the space of about 2 or 3 weeks. We decided that the purpose of my placement would be to examine the online marketing of other theatre companies, such as The Progress Theatre, National Theatre and Donmar Warehouse. Then from these observations, I concluded by saying what I feel Reading Rep should do to improve their online presence. I was going to record this process in a blog format, so I can easily show potential employers my work. I worked on the blog from December 2013- February 2014.
I found the process really useful, and I liked the way I could break up the load of my academic work by engaging in something that contributed towards my degree and would hopefully enhance my CV. Although, I will admit that it was a lot more work than I had anticipated, however, this was mainly my fault because I chose to do my placement differently. Usually students do research and then write a report but I wrote my blog, attended report writing workshops and wrote the report. Therefore, my advice to people interested in academic placements is to really consider if you have the time and drive.
Personally, I have found doing an academic placement a really useful experience and it has helped me figure out my plans for the future. If you are interested, this is the link to my placement blog.
