Meet Natasha and find out about her life as an assistant media scheduler at the BBC. Part of our Bitesize world of work series.
Natasha Burgees - Assistant media scheduler
My job involves the planning and the scheduling of promotional content across the BBC, mainly for BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer.
I got a job at my university which was a social media internship and because of the work that I’d done at uni previously, they needed somebody in and they actually came to me and asked if I’d wanted to work for them and then I just applied for the job in Media Planning at the BBC, got it and I’ve been here since.
I think the skills needed for my job are definitely organisation, there are lots of different elements and in my role I work in quite a lot of different areas so for example paid social partner marketing which is promoting BBC content on other platforms outside of the BBC and definitely being organised is one of them because you’ve got to keep track of lots of different pieces of content. I think also having attention to detail is a great skill to have and a skill that you need for this job because you’ll be checking various different assets every day and checking content and you’ve got to make sure that everything is spelt correctly, everything is branded correctly and it looks right.
My main advice to anybody looking to get into this line of work would be definitely to get experience because I think education is very important but I think experience is the number one thing so even if it’s something that you might not know you’re interested in, whether that’s production or writing, I would just get experience in anything you can because at least then you’ll know whether you enjoy it or not and you might discover a field that you weren’t aware of so for example, I wasn’t really aware of Media Planning before I came into this job and I’d never had any experience in it but because of that I’ve obviously discovered a department that I love and a job that I love.
Education is very important but I think experience is the number one thing.
- Natasha plans and the schedules promotional content across the BBC, mainly for BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer
- She started her career with a social media internship while at university
- Natasha thinks that the main skills required for her job are organisation and the ability to give attention to detail. These help her to keep track of lots of pieces of content, and ensure that the content is spelled correctly, branded correctly, and looks right.
A similar role to Natasha's is an advertising media planner. Advertising media planners decide which media is best suited to advertising their client's products or services.
What to expect if you want to be an advertising media planner
- Advertising media planner average salary: £18,000 to £50,000 per year
- Advertising media planner typical working hours: 37 to 39 hours per week
What qualifications do you need to be an advertising media planner ?
You could get into this role via a university course, an apprenticeship, working towards the role or specialist courses run by professional bodies.
Sources: LMI for All, National Careers Service
This information is a guide and is constantly changing. Please check the National Careers Service website for the latest information and all the qualifications needed.
For careers advice in all parts of the UK visit: National Careers Service (England), nidirect (Northern Ireland), My World of Work (Scotland) and Careers Wales (Wales).
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