Micro Placement with City of Birmingham Rockets Basketball Club

My experience at City of Birmingham Rockets Basketball Club

I completed a placement with City of Birmingham Rockets Basketball club which allowed the development of vital skills needed for the working industry. My role during the placement was a social media assistant. The Placement commenced from 16th July to 3rd August 2018. During this time, City of Birmingham Rockets Basketball Club held their annual 'Hakeem Olajuwon International Summer Camp', which I helped plan and organise along with a small team. This experience allowed me to develop my media skills as well as helped me to understand the running of the event.

City of Birmingham Rockets Basketball club is a non-profit company that aims to improve and develop young peoples basketball as well as teach them life skills needed for society. Robert Palmer is the Managing Director for the club meaning he oversees the day to day running of the company. Robert Palmer was my supervisor during my time at the company, making sure that tasks were met as well as having one-on-one meetings with myself to discuss progress and potential new areas of work to focus on.

During my time with City of Birmingham Rockets Basketball club, I was often left to my own devices when giving tasks to do which gave me a sense of independence as well as showing that Robert Palmer thought I was reliable enough to conduct certain tasks on my own. Despite my overall role being a social media assistant, my role did vary to help prepare for the upcoming event.  I had administrative roles such as sending emails, attending and participating in meetings, making and receiving phone calls and sorting out equipment. As the event week commenced, I was supporting the children especially those who were away from home and finding it difficult to cope. I helped plan, create and develop promotional videos for the companies Facebook page. The videos made helped promote the companies aim and the success of the event as well as letting the parents of the children involved being able to see their child in action.

I worked both in a team and independently, which allowed me to gain and improve on my communication skills both verbal and written forms. Participating in formal meetings as well as answering phone calls furthered my development in communications. The research that I conducted regarding how to improve the companies social media presence proved effective as the videos that I conducted with the coaches and players had one of the highest viewers which demonstrated that the videos reached a large audience.

Not only did I gain a lot of skills from this placement, I also found a fondness for working on projects and seeing it being successful. Working at this placement, I felt involved and valued and my work paid off as the children had fun as well as the event running smoothly. I would love to be given the opportunity to work on a project like this in the future.

Life Decisions 

I am at the end of my second academic year at Birmingham City University. This Academic year, I have tried to push myself into thinking what career I would like to pursue once I graduate. After much research, I am leaning more towards careers involving social media and digital marketing. I enjoy using social media for personal reasons but have also seen the positive side of using social media for revenue and brand promotion. I am currently looking for many opportunities to gain work experience in these fields. 

Review of the Tv show 'Luke Cage'

Review of 'Luke Cage' - Season 1

The Series 'Luke Cage' is a Netflix original created by Marvel. Originally it was a fictional character found in Marvel Comic books but was then created into a TV show. To me, what makes this show so successful is that despite the heavily fictional element of having powers, the character Luke Cage seems relatable and the environment of which his character is based appears to be real. It also gives the minority (poor and black people) a chance to be shown on TV, we are used to seeing people who are higher up in society. However, when the minority are shown it is usually in a negative way which is demonstrated in Luke Cage. It shows how drugs and money heavily impact the northern part of New York and seems to follow what the dominant ideological concept is of black people which is that they aren't as successful and when they are it usually isn't in the right way. Moreover, the show itself is really entertaining to watch and filled with action and justice. 

The way in which it was creative was very pleasing to watch. The definition of the intensity of the shooting scenes make it both intriguing and exciting to watch. Elements of slow motion cause the audience to focus on Luke and appreciate what the character goes through and just how 'amazing' his powers are.  

Media A-level Coursework

The physical coursework I produced in A-level

In my AS level at City and Islington Sixth Form College, I was introduced to the course by learning about the importance of audience. The main products that were made in my first year of college was an opening title sequence for a dramatic film called 'endz'. It was loosely based on dramas such as 'Top Boy', Attack the block' and 'Kidulthood'. Most of the elements in the sequence were planned and created using different software such as Motion. I had fun creating this piece of work and made my studies at City and Islington Sixth Form College enjoyable. 

(The video of the final opening sequence)

Leading on from AS, in A2 I continued to further develop my skills such as research, planning and editing. The main focus was on presenting/selling a celebrity using media. In particular, I came up with a singer called 'Haze' (who was myself) who we had to brand and sell to a targeted audience. The end products were a website, music video and an album cover. I enjoyed editing and being a part of the whole filming process, it helped me understand how much time management is key for a good end product.

(Outside panels for Album cover)

(Inside panels for Album cover)

rhiiana.wixsite.com/haze2016

(Link to the website I created)

(The music video I created)

Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae

Rhiana Letts

07949719081

Rhianaletts.01@gmail.com

Online Profile: http://rhianaletts.blogspot.co.uk/

Profile

I am currently in my final year studying English & Media at Birmingham City University. I am hard – working, punctual and dedicated to everything I do. I am open to various opportunities relating to the media industry as I am willing to further broaden my skills and knowledge. I have strong written and verbal communication skills, I can also work both in a team and independently when needed.

Interests

I am particularly interested in Media, specifically digital marketing, communications and PR. The subject fascinates me, and it has a growing influence on my life as well as other peoples. I enjoy building relationships with people and networking. I love opportunities that allow me to be creative and develop my skills further. Besides Media, sometimes I like to play sports especially football, athletics and basketball. In enjoy being able to apply what I have learnt to my work.

Experience

Primark,

Customer assistant

March 2019 – Present

-          Exceptional customer service

-          Being tidy and organised – keeping my section in the store presentable to entice customers

-          Patience, initiative and determination as the job comes with its challenges

-          Flexibility – Being able to do overtime due to the stores frequent business

-          Money handling – working on the tills, doing cash & card transactions, refunds & exchanges

City of Birmingham Rockets Basketball Club

Social media assistant

July 2018 – August 2018

-          Social media and digital marketing

-          Administration – making sure each players & staff gets their equipment for the basketball events

-          Research – to improve their social media presence, by researching how this can be done.

-          Application of prior knowledge to improve the company’s social media presence which I have taken from my university studies

-          Communication skills – Attending & participating in meetings, producing emails which were broadcasted, participating in a video used for social media

-          Time-management and discipline – being punctual each day and when attending event for each day to be productive.

Showsec

Steward

July 2018 – Present

-          Customer service skills

-          Dealing with customer requests and complaints

-          Carrying out pre-event checks

-          Ensuring customer safety by managing the size of the crowds

-          Monitoring crowds to ensure their safety

Clarks

Sales Assistant

June 2017 – August 2017

-          Money handling – working on the tills, doing cash & card transactions

-          Handling and organizing stock – making sure the shoes were tidy, making them easy to find when needed

-          Working in various departments such as kids and women’s – having product knowledge & product promotions in the different departments 

-          A qualified shoe fitter for women and kids. – I attended training and was also shown in store how to fit children for school shoes

-          Working in a fast-pace environment – during sale periods and busy store hours, I had to move faster to satisfy each customer

-          Great customer service.

Primark,

Customer assistant

December 2015 – August 2016

Fitzrovia Youth in Action

Young ambassador; customer assistant

October 2014 – January 2015

-          Voluntary work – working with a non-profit organization

-          Running and organizing an event (250 people attended) – a Christmas event aimed to bring the community together

-          Dealing with complaints and special requests

Education

-          Birmingham City University | English & Media joint honors                                 

-          September 2016 - Present

-                                                      

-          City and Islington Sixth Form Centre | A-levels

-          Media Studies (B) English Literature & Language (B) Psychology (B)     

-          September 2014 – August 2016                                                                                                   

-           

-          Bacon’s College | GCSE’s,

-          11 GCSE’s including Mathematics (B) and English (B)

Achievements & Awards

Lloyds Banking Group Junior Scholars Programme (2014-2015)

-          Learning and understanding the business behind the bank.        

AQA accreditation for customer service (2014-2015)

-          received as a recognition for all the work I did for Fitzrovia Youth in Action             

National Citizen Service (2014)

-          A programme that developed my confidence, had new experiences and gained a lot of transferable skills i.e. teamwork, problem-solving, leadership.

References

References available on request.

Introducing Rhiana

Rhiana Letts

My passion for Media has grown strong over the years. From taking photos for my family, to being introduced to it in secondary school, I am constantly gaining more knowledge as well as practicing media. I enjoy the satisfaction having a good finished product and knowing that I created it. I am currently looking for Jobs, internships and other placements that I can be a part off and do more successful works. I am hard working, organised and committed to anything I do.