I grew up in Hertfordshire, did English Literature, Economics and History at school and left during COVID (which feels like a lifetime ago!). I go to the University of Leeds and I study Economics and History. I’m a part of many societies, including Ballet and Girls Training Together, and love to spend my days on campus studying, going to fitness and dance classes, meeting up with friends, and, of course, going to my lectures.
On my placement year I worked in the partnerships and sponsorships team, leading and managing relationships with multiple partners and working on projects to save the business money and create great products and experiences for our customers. I’ve worked on projects including American Express presents BST Festival, a Saudi trade expo, brand licensing, BrewDog, product placement, and launching our new partnership with the Times. I also supported our creative team on shoots across the year.
The most important thing I’ve learned is to be proactive. One part of this is to talk to people. Building connections has been so helpful on my placement, and so interesting to learn about areas of the business I didn’t even know existed! I’ve been able to go to events like Farnborough Air Show and shadowing dispatchers because of the connections I’ve made in BA. You also make connections outside of the business, networking with all different types of people from many different businesses. I also mean be proactive in terms of work and projects, if you hear about a project or experience you like the sound of, ask about what it is and if you can be involved – these are great learning experiences, and you never know who you may meet and what you could learn!
While I am not currently a graduate, my journey into becoming a placement student wasn’t straight forward. I hadn’t really considered travel or aviation as a career before I joined, I’d been on family holidays but never had a huge urge to travel the world.
I didn’t know much about aircraft or the aviation industry either, but while applying for placement years I found that there weren’t many schemes that seemed shout at me. I wasn’t sure what area of business I wanted to go into, having no prior experience in a professional environment, but when I saw the BA scheme and how broad it was, and that I had the opportunity to go anywhere in the business really interested me.
Having the opportunity to do training courses and being on a ‘future leaders’ scheme I thought would really set me up for a future career. Since joining BA, I have become a bit of an aviation geek, learning how to identify different types of aircraft and learning some of the science behind how they work has been fascinating.
