“It
is better to do little things with love than big things without love.”
Lailah
Gifty Akita
When my mental health was really terrible (2009 – 2013) a huge mindset which exacerbated my suicidal thoughts and feelings – which led to very genuine attempts – was around the idea that my purpose in life was to kill myself young so as to bring attention to the failures in mental health services. For at least four years, I honestly believed that’s why I’d been put on this earth. And it made me feel hopeless, uninspired, and unmotivated to try to do anything different with my life. Finally, as a sectioned psychiatric hospital inpatient, I had therapy around the mindset (I blogged about it at the time too, you can read it here) and having started blogging just over one year earlier, I found myself able to overcome the mindset and replace it with the notion I’d slowly developed; that my blogging career – and all the good I was achieving with it – was why I’d survived everything. Communications and marketing, that was my passion and my purpose and having that opinion of the industry has led to me being passionate, dedicated, and determined to do well in it. So, as I’m NOT Disordered reaches the 2.7 million readers mark, I thought I’d finally share some of my knowledge and experience in the form of advice about starting off in this industry…
Education in This Industry
In addition to learning ‘as I went’ in so far as with
my blogging career and through formal career/job experience in both voluntary
roles and an Internship (I’ll talk about both after this); I mostly learnt
about this industry via a few different educational websites who provide online
learning through courses in various topics and within varied budgets/price
ranges. My three favourites for online learning are: Training Express,
FutureLearn,
and Centre
of Excellence! Here are my ten favourite courses
from those three education providers:
1. Content
Marketing: currently (12.02) on offer for £20 and you get
one year access
2. Strategic
Planning and Analysis for Marketing: again, £20 at the
moment with one year to do it
3. Marketing
Management: also reduced to £20 and with one year access to
complete it
4. Why
We Post: Anthropology of Social Media: with UCL, 5 weeks
with 3 hours per week
5. Social
Media in Healthcare: with Taipei Medical University, 5
weeks with 2 hours per week
6. Digital
Marketing: with Accenture, 2 weeks with 3 hours per week
7. Digital
Skills: Social Media: with Accenture and again, 2 weeks
with 3 hours per week
8. Internet
Marketing Strategies for Small Business: with unlimited time
to complete it
9. Freelance
Journalism Diploma: with again, unlimited time to
complete it
10. Digital
Wellbeing: with University of York, 3 weeks with 3 hours per
week
I really enjoy online learning because with the
rape and abuse happening whilst I was at High School and with the
considerations of who was involved and responsible for it, I’m really not a fan
of school and I’ve come to realise that I’m actually really not a classroom
learner anyway. There are different types of learners in terms of the ways in
which a person learns best e.g. auditory learners are those who learn best
through sound, visual learners are where seeing something helps… I’m a kinaesthetic
learner which means I learn best by doing something e.g. hands-on engagement. If
you haven’t heard of this before or have but haven’t established what sort of
learner you are, there are quizzes you can take online to determine this!
Here’s one: Free
Learning Style Quiz: How Do You Learn?. This could really
aid you in establishing the best way for you to learn and gain an education
specifically in the communications and marketing industry too.
In May 2024, I did a blog post that’s very relevant
to this part of the blog post; it was… EVERYTHING
YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH & LEARNING ONLINE | INCLUDING ALL THE
COURSES ON MY WISHLIST | I'm NOT Disordered and it
includes a lot more in-depth information and details that include: my first
memories around education, my education story, the benefits of learning online,
5 tips to choosing the right course, my online learning journey, 5 tips to
succeed in your own online learning, wishlists for courses at those three
favourite websites, and tips to manage your mental health whilst learning
online.
Two things I’d like to pick out from that post and
write a bit differently about in this post too, are the part about how to choose
a course for yourself and my wishlist… I’m going to melt these together by
whittling my wishlist down to one communications and marketing course from each
of those three websites and then I’m going to chat through why I chose it so
that you can gain some insight into what I consider in choosing a course in
this industry and can also garner where I’m at in terms of what I’d like to
learn more about and also a, in my opinion, hugely popular misconception with
the industry of communications and marketing is that a lot of people don’t
recognise that even within that, there’s a whole range of types and formats to
it that open up entirely different departments and teams in terms of careers in
this industry e.g. internal communications and digital marketing. So, I thought
that choosing three courses, might also hint at where my areas of interest and
passion are most pronounced in this industry and then I’ll talk more about that
after…
So, from Training Express, I’ve picked their Copywriting
Course. I partly chose that because out of the five, I’d
listed in that old blog post, I’ve actually completed one of them (I actually
listed it in the top ten, it was the Content Marketing one!), and then two of
them (Social Media for Health and Care and Creative Writing) are ones which
I’ve completed other courses elsewhere with very similar titles and contents in
terms of the modules. So that helped trim the wishlist to this one, but I also
chose it because I checked out the Course Curriculum (something I recommended
you do in that older blog post) and the two modules which stood out most as
being interesting, relevant, and exciting to me were: Module 03: Eye-Catching
Headlines because this is actually something I often mull over a lot when
writing blog posts – the titles of them and which wording of the title is most
effective in terms of garnering interest and intrigue and persuading someone to
want to read more. The other module I liked the sound of was Module 04: Attention-Grabbing
Advertisements because I thought that could be really relevant and useful
specifically for my recently-launched (January 9th) pet bereavement
project: Gracie’s Way (www.graciesway.co.uk)
and, in particular, its Instagram content (which you can follow/find on: @gracieswayuk).
From FutureLearn, I chose A
Reporter’s Toolkit of the Digital Age which is actually on
there through a partnership with the University of Kent (FutureLearn is basically
the site which hosts the courses that are actually created, facilitated, and/or
supplied by external organisations/schools/companies etc). I chose this one
which wasn’t on the wishlist in that old blog post because only one of the
courses I chose back then, is still live so before just automatically settling
on the only one still valid, I decided to see if there was anything new too and
happened across this Toolkit one.
I mostly chose this because, alongside another
Service User with a background in the media, I’ve actually teamed up with Waythrough
(who were previously Richmond Fellowship and have now supplied my Recovery
Workers – who I see twice per week – for over eleven years!) Communications and
Marketing department to do a complete overhaul of their newsletter; Coming Together
(I believe you can still subscribe, here).
In determining the role that the other Service User and I play in the new
newsletter, I’ve been labelled Lead Reporter (and Social Media Coordinator!) so
that I have a level of superiority over other service users who may want to
write stories/articles for the newsletter too. And, with things like that – positions like that
– there’s always the danger or possibility of getting that Imposters Syndrome where
you feel like you’re unworthy, undeserving, and/or unqualified to be in that position
of the ‘food chain!’ So, it’s always good to have some sort of qualification,
skill, or experience to back it up and comfort and reassure any thoughts of
doubt or questioning that you may have.
Finally, from Centre of Excellence, I have chosen: Pet
Bereavement Counsellor Diploma! Now, a bit different considering the theme
of the blog post is communications and marketing, but I thought that discussing
how helpful this would also be for Gracie’s Way was a good opening to
highlighting how important and effective it can sometimes be to do this kind of
work (communications and marketing) in an area, about a topic, or regarding an
industry e.g. for me it’s mental health and pet bereavement, that you have some
sort of knowledge, experience, passion, or an interest in.
Here’s 10 reasons why:
1. You
spot the real story faster: Industry familiarity helps you
instantly see what’s actually newsworthy, distinctive, or emotionally
resonant—saving time and avoiding bland, generic angles.
2. Your
messaging sounds credible (not “marketing-y”):
Audiences can tell when copy is written by someone who gets it. Subject
knowledge helps you use the right language, references, and tone—without
overexplaining or sounding fake.
3. You
avoid costly mistakes and tone-deaf moments: Every industry
has its sensitivities, taboos, and unwritten rules. Experience reduces the risk
of missteps that can damage trust or brand reputation.
4. You
ask smarter questions of stakeholders and experts:
Knowing the space means you can challenge assumptions, push for clarity, and
extract better insights—rather than just transcribing what you’re told.
5. Your
creative ideas go deeper, not wider: Passion fuels
originality. Instead of surface-level concepts, you’re more likely to develop
ideas that tap into real tensions, desires, and culture within the field.
6. You
understand the audience’s motivations—not just demographics:
Industry insight helps you grasp why people care, buy, or engage—not
just who they are—leading to more persuasive and human communication.
7. You
collaborate more effectively with clients and teams:
Shared vocabulary and context build trust. Clients and colleagues feel
confident you’re a partner, not just a service provider.
8. You
move faster and more confidently: Familiarity reduces
ramp-up time. You make decisions more quickly, brief more clearly, and iterate
with purpose instead of second-guessing basics.
9. Your
work feels more authentic—and audiences feel that:
Passion shows. Whether consciously or not, people respond better to content
created by someone who genuinely cares about the subject.
10. You
stay motivated and resilient under pressure: Marketing and
comms can be intense. Interest in the topic helps you push through tight
deadlines, feedback rounds, and revisions without burning out as quickly.
How to Research The Comms &
Marketing Industry
Now, originally, I was going to go straight into talking
about other ways to gain experience in the communications and marketing
industry and how I’ve completed an Internship and volunteering
roles/opportunities. But, I remembered that earlier, I mentioned that choosing courses
might highlight my favourite parts of this industry and that I’d talk more
about that ‘after’ and I realised that actually, I’d recommend – where possible
and practical – trying to really recognise your favourite parts before taking
on any sort of volunteering or Internships etc because the last thing you want
it so commit to something much more formal and official and then realise you
hate what you have to do…
I’m fully aware that those who are outside of this
industry, will likely be surprised to hear firstly, that there are incredibly
different parts of the industry and that these parts are so different that you
can actually have a different job depending on which area you’re doing! A key
example of this – which really runs into a part of the industry I’m most
definitely not too fussed about – is internal communications and marketing.
This, area of the industry is described by Marketing91 as: ‘Internal marketing is the
internal promotion of a company’s mission, goals, products, and services with
the employees and staff members to help employees understand the organization
better and optimize employee engagement.’
For further information, the Institute of Internal Communications also has a
ton of details about the role/industry, what it is, what it can entail, and
advice on working in it (because, obviously, that’s something I can’t provide
as I don’t enjoy that side of the industry so I actually have very little
experience in it!): The
role of internal communication IoIC, The Institute of Internal Communication.
So, why am I not keen on this part of the industry?
I think it’s mostly because it requires a lot less creativity – and we all know
what being creative is one of my absolute favourite things to do! And I love
that it’s a skill that is more necessary and effective in external and digital
communications and marketing. With internal, because it’s more about updating
and informing staff, there’s more reason to simply stick to facts and collate
details for them rather than creating a story or imagery and having a more imaginative
flair for your content creation. I want to be explicit in saying that I am in
no way saying that internal is less effort or requires less thought – I’m
simply saying that it actually takes its own/a whole different set, of skills, knowledge,
and experience to do well with in that field.
So, I think that education is a really good place
to start but, in addition to that, a good method of learning more about the
industry without committing to a job, would be to get doing some research into
it…
Here are ten things you can research to learn more
about the industry:
1. The
different roles within comms & marketing: Research how
PR, content, social, digital marketing, brand, internal comms, and strategy
actually differ day to day; not just in job titles.
2. What
a “typical day” really looks like: Is the work mostly
writing? Meetings? Analytics? Client calls? Crisis management? Creative
ideation? Execution?
3. Common
entry-level tasks vs senior responsibilities: Many people
love the idea of marketing but hate early-career realities like
reporting, revisions, or admin-heavy workflows.
4. Work
environments and pressures: Agency vs in-house vs freelance:
pace, expectations, overtime, client pressure, approval chains, and stress
levels vary hugely.
5. Skills
that are actually valued (not just listed): Look beyond
buzzwords—what skills consistently show up in real job ads and are praised by
people doing the work?
6. Career
progression and mobility: How easy is it to move between
specialisms (e.g. social → strategy, PR → brand)? What do people do after 5–10
years?
7. Pay
ranges and financial sustainability: Especially early
on—research realistic salaries, unpaid work norms, and long-term earning
potential in your market.
8. Industry
reputation and ethics: How does the industry handle
diversity, burnout, sustainability, misinformation, or “purpose washing”?
9. How
success is measured: Are you judged on creativity, numbers,
client satisfaction, growth, or speed? This affects stress and job satisfaction
more than people expect.
10. What
people dislike about the job: This is crucial.
Every role has trade-offs—know what frustrations you’re signing up for, not
just the highlights.
Next, here are five ways to research these things:
1. Read job ads like research documents
Don’t apply—analyse.
- Compare
junior vs mid-level vs senior level ads
- Note
repeated skills, tools, and expectations
- Spot
contradictions between creative language and reality
2. Follow people doing the job
(honestly)
Look for:
- LinkedIn
posts about wins and frustrations
- Blogs,
newsletters, or social media accounts from marketers/comms professionals
- “Day
in the life” content
3. Conduct informal informational
interviews
No CVs. No pitching. Just curiosity.
- Ask
people how they spend their time
- What
surprised them?
- What
they wish they’d known earlier
Most people love talking about their
careers—especially if you respect their time.
4. Analyse real campaigns and comms
outputs
Reverse-engineer:
- Who
the audience was
- What
the objective likely was
- What
channels were used
- What
trade-offs were made
This shows you whether you enjoy the thinking
side—not just consuming the end result.
5. Run low-stakes experiments
Test the work without the commitment.
- Write
mock social posts or press releases
- Build
a mini campaign for a fictional brand
- Start
a small content project and track engagement
If you hate the process, that’s valuable data—not
failure.
Gaining Experience in This Industry:
Internships
So, the additional ways in which I’ve gotten
experience in the communications and marketing industry (aside from education
and research) have been volunteering and an Internship.
I actually completed my first three-month-long
Digital Marketing Internship in 2019 and wrote a blog post during it: WHY
I’M A FAN OF JUMPING IN AT THE DEEP END | MY DIGITAL MARKETING INTERNSHIP WITH
DOCERE | LAUNCHING THE BEHIND-THE-SCENES PROJECT | AD | I'm NOT Disordered.
After the introduction, I started the blog post off
with a little bit about how I found the role to begin with via the recruitment
website Indeed which, despite not feeling mentally well enough to work
fulltime, I was still systematically checking for the chance of more relevant
opportunities. I also remarked that I wanted more experience in interviewing –
my Mum’s always said that these days, with the amount of unemployment there is –
it’s a win just getting the interview or shortlisted for one! And I think this
is a really motivational and opportunist attitude or mindset to have in applying
for jobs.
Next in the blog post, I talked about why I went
ahead and applied and how my interview was so successful, and I learnt some
more really appealing details about the Internship, that I became more and more
eager to get one of the two positions they were recruiting for. My favourite
two factors about the Internship were that because the opportunity was aimed at
University students, there was no set shift-pattern – the company were
completely flexible around our own commitments. The second thing was that it
was for two organisations (one an ‘umbrella’ of the other) who had very little
to do with mental health. And whilst my passion and interests and experience mostly
laid there, I discovered that creating content around recruitment (one
organisation was for education recruitment) and for healthfoods (the other company
was about health and fitness) was actually a really welcome relief and break
from the heaviness and overwhelming emotions typically surrounding the creation
of mental health content.
By the end of my first day in the Internship, I
wrote in the blog post that I actually made the comment to my Mum that I
thought my brain was going to explode with how much new information had been
put into it in the one day! By the end of my first week, I had learnt create
and edit product information on their Healthfoods website, how to write
articles for their recruitment website using SEMrush, how to run an ad campaign
on both Facebook and Instagram, and – the one I still use most often now – I learnt
about the existence of Canva and was taught how to create memes and
images/graphics on there.
At the end of the three months in the Internship, the
other Intern and I were told he had been chosen to be hired, and, in all
honesty, I hadn’t realised until halfway into it, that we were basically applying
for a job; I thought it was just the Internship! So, I think that perhaps part
of the reason I wasn’t chosen was because I hadn’t recognised that factor in it
and maybe I didn’t seem as dedicated to it initially as I perhaps should
have been. I also think (I’m having to say ‘think’ because they were quite
short and abrupt about who was chosen and I was just actually told I could just
leave my shift early once we were told!) I was unsuccessful because we were
both in very different situations in terms of education/career.
The other Intern was actually studying marketing at
University and so the job was more officially the right way for him… Whereas I
was doing it more as a pastime or hobby, I suppose? Like, perhaps they didn’t
see any seriousness in me for the industry at that time? To be honest, even
before trying to explain it all now, I’ve always thought it would have been
useful to have gotten feedback and that’s why now, whenever I’m unsuccessful
for an interview/job application, I always check whether I can have any
information on the reasons why (if they weren’t already disclosed/obvious!).
Gaining Experience in This Industry:
Volunteering
My first voluntary role in this industry was
actually in 2017, and it was as an Advertising Assistant for a support group
for unemployed people and it was called LEAPS (Listening Ear And Positive
Support) and based in a nearby town. I was told I was successful in getting the
role right there at my interview because they said they (the Founder and the
Chair at the time) couldn’t imagine meeting anyone more suited!
I remember my first meeting – the core group used to
hire a room in a Library to meet weekly – and the Chair at the time just
completely dominated the entire meeting about politics and I ended up walking
out and when the Founder (who hadn’t attended the meeting) called me later, I told
her it hadn’t been what she’d told me. She told me she knew he had done this
before and that she would be at the next meeting and promised she would
confront the issue and that it would never happen again. So, I went to the
following meeting and despite how my time there ended, I couldn’t be more
grateful that I went back and gave them the second chance because I ended up
learning so much and gaining some very valuable experience and knowledge from my
time with that organisation!
I actually ended up spending five years with LEAPS
and after my first two years, I was unanimously elected into the position of
Chair when the person who has been in that position since I started said he was
ready to ‘hand over the reins.’ The reason I said I’d be happy to take over was
because I had started to feel like I had reached the maximum in terms of
opportunities or achievements I could have in my role as Advertising Assistant.
I felt I’d reached the top and that I really needed a new challenge. I had
also, around that time, been offered the Internship and I felt I couldn’t keep
up both opportunities at once and feeling that there was no more room for
growth with LEAPS, I was going to let that one go. However, I’d done a lot for
the group, and as a result they clearly wanted to keep hold of me(!), so I was
elected in as Chair and kept that role for the following three years (2019 –
2022).
During my five years with LEAPS, I set up a Twitter
account for the group, developed a website, organised two fundraising events, and
made five successful grant applications that totalled a few thousand pounds (two
to a local company called R W Mann and three – amazingly, in my opinion! – to
the Lottery Community Fund!). I couldn’t believe the first funding grant I got for
£500 because it was the first I’d ever written, but it was with R W Mann who
had provided funding for the group before, so it wasn’t a huge achievement… The
Lottery grants though? They were huge – not just in terms of a much greater
amount, but also in terms of how many hoops you have to jump through to be
successful and how formal the whole process is – and rightly so; I mean it’s
important that they ensure their money is going to a genuinely good cause! But
still, it was a lot of ‘paperwork!’
In 2019 –
after finishing the Internship – I had learnt that I was able to manage two commitments
at once and without the Internship, my life felt a bit empty and boring! So, I
applied to be a Digital Volunteer for St Oswald’s Hospice and again, I was actually
told at my interview that I was successful at being able to officially join
their Communications and Marketing department and I was sent straight to the HR
department to get my photo taken for my ID badge! Almost one year later, for
Volunteers Week 2020, the charity collaborated with I’m NOT Disordered to
create this blog post: VOLUNTEER’S
WEEK | TIPS TO GET A VOLUNTARY JOB, WAYS TO THANK YOUR VOLUNTEERS, HOW ST
OSWALDS SUPPORT THEIR VOLUNTEERS, & MORE! | IN COLLABORATION WITH ST
OSWALD’S HOSPICE | AD | I'm NOT Disordered.
In the blog post, at the beginning, I mentioned
that before my interview, the staff said they’d noticed the reference to my blog
in my application form and asked if they could read it (despite it not exactly
being private – it was respectful that they checked!). I remember initially being
terrified because, by that point, I had spent seven years being brutally honest
about everything from my rape and abuse as a teenager to my suicide attempts
and being sectioned to a psychiatric hospital for over two years. It made me
think ‘who would give someone like that, a job with a Hospice?!’ But then I recognised
that I had so much more confidence than that and I had developed the mindset
which I still hold now that if someone has a problem with my trauma and my
mental health, that’s more a ‘them problem’ than it is a ‘me problem!’ It
speaks more about them than it does about me and my life.
After over two years with the Hospice, in 2021, I was
nominated to apply for a three-month contract, paid job as the Kickstart
Project Coordinator. I was told from the offset that it wouldn’t be related to
mental health nor was it that ‘big’ into the communications industry. But, a
few bits in the job description stood out to me – particularly around the fact it
was going to open up more doors in terms of one of the responsibilities being
that I’d basically be in charge of coordinating literally everyone that had anything
to do with it (if you don’t know, the Kickstart Project was a government funded
initiative where organisations where given funding to hire young people for short-term
contracts in various jobs/industries). This meant I got to meet lots more
people from different departments within the Hospice as well as still working
with the comms and marketing team to advertise the vacancies the Hospice were
funded to offer. I also worked with them to put together this blog post: MENTAL
HEALTH & APPLYING FOR A JOB: FROM HOURS TO INTERVIEW TIPS | MY NEW STAFF
ROLE WITH ST OSWALD’S HOSPICE | I'm NOT Disordered.
For around two or three months after the Kickstart
Project Coordinator contract, I returned to volunteering before staff leaving
meant the Communications and Marketing department were in need of an Assistant
for three months and with the hours being small, I accepted when I was offered
the role. This gave me more responsibility within the department too and for
three months I began monitoring and responding to the Hospice general enquiries
inbox, prepared statistical reports on social media content, created spreadsheets,
used Microsoft Publisher for the first time(!), curated personal stories from
both Hospice patients and staff, input vacancies on the Hospice website,
updated the staff intranet, wrote pieces for the staff and volunteer
newsletter, and conducted various forms of market research!
I did so well at this position, I was actually asked
to do it again a short time later! I left the charity in 2023 when another
opportunity came up but I’ve continued – if not more so now than ever – do numerous
online courses in the communications and marketing field because it’s certainly
where my passion and interest lay. So, I really hope this post has been helpful
to any of you who are considering working in this industry or who want to know more
about what it takes and how to go about getting involved in it..