Last Friday I finished my placement year with 3M, working as a Marketing Assistant in the Separation and Purification Sciences Division, basically we filter stuff – it’s cooler than it sounds, especially when you realise some of your customers are whisky distillers and your favourite breweries ?
It’s been a very fast year, but certainly one of the most interesting and educating I’ve ever had. With that in mind, I’ve tried to decide on 3 things I’ve learnt this year. It’s not easy to just select 3 and the following aren’t necessarily the 3 biggest lessons learnt, but certainly 3 that will help me in the future.
1 – Work with good people
All employees praise 3M’s culture – they do a good job of hiring ‘good people’. I can’t think of a single argument I witnessed over the year, I can’t think of any people I met that I actively disliked. Everyone in the company has time for you, are good to work with and easy to get on with.
All this creates a culture like no other and it is one of the big pluses for 3M. A year in an environment like this has really highlighted the importance of working with good people. Whenever something wasn’t working, you felt a bit stressed or down, or you had a tight deadline that relied on others, the people around you would help you in any way they could.
It’s a reminder that recruitment processes need to evaluate the person for who they are and not just their skills – hire the wrong people, no matter how qualified they are, and it could threaten the sense of community within teams. A bigger issue than you might realise.
2 – Be busy
This is a lesson I’ve always known and may have already written about, but this year has emphasised it even more.
The more I take on, the more productive I become.
I was by far at my laziest when I had little to do. I’d think I was busy and hesitate if more work was passed to me, although I’d still take it, but a day or so later I’d find I’d finished most things with ease. The extra workload boosted my productivity and helped me to work smarter, reducing the need to increase my hours.
3 – I love numbers
When it comes to ‘Marketing’ as a role, there’s a big variety. Just within 3M placements, your type of work as a Marketing Assistant varied depending on your division. For some, it was more of the stereotypical marketing; communications, promotions, events. Lots more creative and design work. For others, it was more product management; pricing, sales analysis, market research.
Many of the other placement students spoke about how they preferred the creative work and disliked excel. This year taught me that I’m the complete opposite. I’ll happily design and structure the creative work, but don’t get me to be the person creating, amending and implementing it. I’d much rather number crunch, research or communicate strategies due to product changes.
I will also add, I don’t believe this doesn’t mean I’m not ‘creative’, I found I was constantly improving processes in a creative way. I have ended the year able to say that some of the prettiest things I’ve made are some lovely excel files. Files that needed a lot of creativity to get to the end solution in few steps.
It’s an indication for the roles I’ll want to look for in the future.
Overall, it’s been an incredible year – if you’re looking to do a placement year, 3M is the hidden gem (you may be reading this having no idea who they are). Look them up and apply, trust me.