Work Experience, Copywriting and Journalism

By India Wentworth

It all goes back to A-Levels. I knew I wanted to go into journalism but also wanted the option to teach at some point in the future too. English was always my favourite subject, and kept things broad, so it seemed like the best option as my undergrad. 

Now that I’ve graduated, I’m about to complete my journalism diploma with the National Council of Training Journalists (NCTJ). This is an accredited qualification that allows me to eventually secure a trainee journalist position (fingers crossed). I decided to do this as a distance learning course, and gain work experience by taking advantage of the flexibility this route offers. I was advised on Linkedin that the NCTJ accreditation with lots of work experience was what employers would want. As a side note, I’d definitely recommend using LinkedIn as a way to ask questions, because although a lot of people will never reply, some will, and as a result you gain valuable advice around the industry you’re interested in.

My experience with DeltaNet International came up with an email from the university careers team that went out to all students. They were looking for a copywriter, and I figured that any experience in writing was worth having. The role wasn’t limited to writing for the website; I was working on a large-scale digital PR project, as well as getting involved with other ad-hoc marketing duties, such as creating a marketing hand-out for exhibitions and conferences. 

I was in charge of creating databases to work out what questions people were asking on Google around the topics DeltaNet dealt with as a company. From these databases I then went on to write the articles – they were like an extended FAQs section to the website. These pieces explained things that might seem quite dry and confusing (like cyber security) and turned them into an approachable, easy-to-understand articles for people to read. The result of these articles have been an increase in business for DeltaNet because more people are coming to the website, and consequently their numbers of customers have shot up too.

I may not be aiming for a career in Marketing, but the skills I gained from my two summers with DeltaNet have enriched my CV massively, as well as getting my work read by hundreds of people - some of the articles have more than a thousand views! 

Experience is everything nowadays. The extra things you can get on your CV, in addition to your degree, will make you stand out, especially in the creative industries. 

About the author

India Wentworth has recently graduated from the University of Leicester in English. Her aims are to go into broadcast journalism after completing the NCTJ diploma over the next year. As a northern girl from York, she is looking to take advantage of the ever-growing media in the northern cities such as Leeds and Manchester.