P IG 2005 - 2012
Sheryll Goddard kindly visited Wycliffe in January 2020 to give a talk on multimedia careers to our Sixth Form pupils studying BTEC Media (Digital Content Production) and A-Level Film Studies. Sheryll was inspiring and focussed in her talk and we caught up with her afterwards to write a Reflection piece for our website.
I am officially a ‘Group Marketing Executive’ for the FTSE 250 company Renishaw plc, but a better way of describing my role would be to say I’m the corporate videographer and drone pilot for the company. My role is varied….as Renishaw is a very large engineering company with products that span the automotive, aerospace, and healthcare industries…one day I could be shooting a video on the concept of automation in manufacturing and ‘Industry 4.0’, the next a case study on how metal 3D printing is helping build fully electric car prototypes, to filming in open brain surgery because Renishaw software has helped a top neuro surgeon plan his DBS procedure. As Renishaw is a global company and has over 81 locations in 37 countries, I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity to travel with my job, helping put together content marketing campaigns in Europe and North America (US, Canada and Mexico).
In addition to my role at Renishaw I also run my own marketing consultancy business, working independently with start ups in Bristol, to larger telecommunications companies in London, to help further their content creation and improve the search engine optimisation of their websites.
English, Politics, History and Drama A-Level. I chose these subjects as I enjoyed them the most! I am a strong advocate of doing the things you enjoy…because in the real world that translates into landing a job doing something you love.
I went on to study Journalism at the Centre for Journalism at the University of Kent, along with an NCTJ Diploma. As English was one of my strong subjects at school, and I loved doing extra curricular activities like House Speaking and Debating…I felt Journalism was a good fit for me after talking to one of the Career Advisors at school. In my 2nd and 3rd years I specialised in broadcast journalism (TV and radio) which is where my love for video journalism started. Throughout my time at university I understood that to make any graduate CV stand out, I needed experience under my belt. Mr Peter Woolley was kind enough to put me in touch with Jonty Messer (who works for ITV) and got me a few weeks worth of work experience in the ITV West Country studios. The following summers I went on to do work experience with a local radio station in Kent on their radio news desk…and in my final summer I went to volunteer at a TV station in Ghana.
After university and after I had done research into the types of jobs I wanted to apply for…I realised I was missing core skills in certain creative programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, After Effects etc…so I enrolled onto a few Certitec courses in London. They were fantastic, because I had all the skills and knowledge I needed within a couple of weeks to be able to do most entry-level marketing executive jobs. It was the addition of these skills and my experience that landed me my first proper job with Renishaw, and it also meant that I could come in and hit the ground running with content creation that is now shown in our offices all over the world, up on YouTube, the Renishaw website, the Renishaw social media channel(s) as well as in sales presentations.
Difficult! I have a lot of wonderful memories from school. Wycliffe’s safe, inclusive and nurturing environment helped me grow into the person I am today. The Head of Wycliffe College at the time, Ms Burnet Ward gave me a lot of support and confidence, and taught me a lot about leadership, especially during my last year, so she would be my ‘particularly inspirational teacher’, along with Mr Woolley who was my Politics teacher during my time in Sixth form.
One of the best pieces of advice I was given was ‘Find what you love and become the best you can be at it’. I’ve also learnt you can learn the basics of just about anything from watching a 5 minute video on YouTube!
The only other advice I would give to students is make sure you tailor your CV to each company you apply for. The more personal, the better.
Think I may have kind of answered that one above! (But here’s some info about how my business started)
One day I was filming an exciting metal 3D printing case study video with one of Renishaw’s customers, and they turned around and asked ‘We could do with some video – could you do one for us?’. I’ve now been working independently with that company on and off for nearly 2 years. The rest of the jobs I’ve also done have largely been through word of mouth recommendations, which I’m really grateful for.
Every day I’m working on something interesting, working with different people and learning something new – I think that’s the most enjoyable thing about my job. Whenever I learn something new I try and share what I’ve learnt with the rest of the marketing team(s) at Renishaw. Every day is a school day! The most challenging thing is probably the way I handle my work-life balance – I need to learn to switch off more often.
Would you be willing to offer advice, mentoring support to a recent leaver, could you offer work experience? Renishaw does offer work experience, including paid summer placements through the official placement, apprentice and graduate schemes…I’m afraid Renishaw HR have tightened up a little on the word-of-mouth or ‘favour’ work experience places. More info at https://www.renishaw.com/en/summer-placements–40485
When I went to film a case study in Wales on metal 3D printed bicycle frames for the Red Bull sponsored world champion Atherton Siblings, I filmed Piers Linney (former Dragon on Dragons Den) who is co-founder of the Atherton Bikes brand. During our lunch break from filming at the Atherton’s home he taught me how to fire a shotgun. I hit the bullseye (red bull can on a post) first time. That was a very interesting/strange/fun day!
