Shaping the Future – Tighe’s reflections on his five month work placement

Hello, my name is Tighe. I have recently completed my work experience placement hours with TPSquared as needed by my T-Level course in Digital, Design, Development and Production. It requires students to complete 315 placement hours to fulfil the pass conditions – yes, quite a lot!

Luckily, my college assisted me with the process of securing work placement opportunities giving us several options. Despite this, I can’t help but feel lucky to have been placed at TPSquared, and here’s why.

Since my time at TPSquared was not short, I was able to accomplish many things enabling me to experience what working in a creative studio is really like. It wasn’t just observation either; the team trusted me with real responsibilities that contributed to the workflow making me feel integrated into the team. Being able to take part in meaningful work rather than standing on the sidelines made the experience much more fulfilling.

There are many things I did and learnt at TPSquared. One of those areas was creating and setting up online forms for different purposes. This helped me understand how important user experience is and how wording in an alternative way can alter people’s perceptions of the statement or question entirely. I also worked on SEO which gave me insight into how websites are ranked on search engines. I also learnt methods to increase traffic by experimenting with different keywords, meta titles and descriptions which provided a unique experience that allowed me to learn much faster.

Another task I worked on was setting up Google Analytics. This showed me how businesses track website performance and that having a website is just the start – it needs to be constantly monitored, analysed and improved. I also helped set up an Instagram and Facebook Shop through Teemill for Miss Chief Threads. It was a technical process that required you to follow the steps carefully. This helped me realise that the depth of digital marketing was much deeper than I thought.

I also carried out competitor research, analysing other businesses to understand their branding, strengths and weaknesses. This gave me more insight into how businesses plan and structure their marketing and design decisions. Seeing how research directly feeds into design decisions was an interesting part of the experience.

Challenges did arrive, of course. Everything required learning and research, but I was given time and guidance to work through it and adapt. Each failure improved my thinking process, to consider more things than I did before and to be more methodical, skills which could not be learned anywhere other than experience. I also learned that mindset could change your situation entirely through a business coaching session that I was lucky enough to partake in.

The team at TPSquared were extremely supportive. I felt that I could ask questions freely, without worry, and I was treated equally throughout my placement. They encouraged me to contribute ideas and provided support whenever I asked.

Overall, my placement at TPSquared was both a memorable and enjoyable experience. At TPSquared I’ve been able to develop practical skills, grow in confidence and gain a better understanding of how businesses function – especially client communication. Being able to watch how businesses interact with each other was a fortunate and compelling experience. I am grateful for the opportunity and proud of what I have achieved during my time at TPSquared, and I know the lessons I have learned will be useful as I continue my journey in digital design and marketing.