Katie: My year in industry placement experience

Posted on: 17 June 2026 by Richard Finch in Student experiences

Katie Sammon, a Communication & Media with a Year in Industry student, has recently completed her placement year with Monster Creative. Over the past 12 months, she has gained hands-on experience contributing to real-world projects and developing key professional skills.

We spoke with Katie to learn more about her placement journey and what she gained from the experience:

“I'm proud to share I have completed my placement year at Monster Creative, where I had the opportunity to contribute to the development and launch of a brand-new business, I Love Local, a hyper-local digital platform to help local businesses advertise affordably within their community.

Over the past year, I have worked across website development, branding, content creation, research, business strategy, email marketing, social media, event preparation and client communications. From building business listings and creating brand guidelines, to developing billboard campaigns and representing the business at VentureFest, every project challenged me to learn something new.

One of the most valuable lessons I have taken away is the importance of adaptability. Moving from a university environment into a professional workplace pushed me outside my comfort zone and helped me develop:

  • My communication skills
  • Organisational Skills in a workplace environment
  • Strategic and critical thinking
  • Hands-on experience within a fast-paced marketing agency.

I’m so grateful to have played a role in helping bring I Love Local from an idea into a live platform. A huge thank you to the team at Monster Creative for their support, guidance and encouragement throughout the year. I’m excited to take everything I’ve learnt into my final year at the University of Liverpool, and to explore future opportunities within the marketing industry.”

If you’d like to find out more about year in industry placements and opportunities for students to drop-in to speak to the team in the Career Studio and they’ll be happy to help.