Jesse Basset on working in digital consultancy during the internet's infancy
Politics alumnus Jesse Basset discusses finding success in an everchanging digital landscape and offers advice to students looking for their first job.
Finding my way
I did A-levels twice, which made me realise the sorts of things I wanted to do and helped me find the right direction. The first time I did more science-based subjects: physics, maths, geography and I didn't do as well as I thought. At this point, I was thinking of going into environmental science. I then did A-levels again at Brighton Met, studying politics, business studies and maths. I really enjoyed politics, which was part of my childhood as my family’s politically active.
By the time I applied for uni, some of my friends had already started in London, so I was choosing largely based on location. For me it was just about London. I applied to London universities and was most interested in LSBU’s Politics course. My friends who had gone to study in London had found a house in Elephant and Castle, so I didn’t go to halls but straight into a shared house that was a 5 minute walk from lectures.
Why choose LSBU?
For me the main reason to go is the quality of teaching, the depth of learning, the support you get, the people you meet, and the location in central London.
There's lots of reasons to study politics – it's relevant to pretty much everything you do in your life. It’s a dynamic course in terms of how you can use it because you’re also learning about constructing arguments, analysis, communications – all those core transferable skills are really good in business, and in lots of jobs and avenues. I would recommend it as a course for people who love thinking, analysing, constructing arguments, and want to broaden and deepen their knowledge about political ideas and systems.
Politics at LSBU
I found that the spark for learning came when I found the subject that mattered to me. The teaching was very good quality on my course, which motivated me to learn. The range of subjects was excellent – the course was Politics but it felt more like PPE, covering politics, philosophy and economics. It was during John Major’s government and an end to a Conservative era, so it was an interesting time to study.
There were a lot of students who were really engaged in the issues and discussing them, so tutorials and lectures were stimulating and the lecturers were passionate about subjects. Róbinson Rojas gave excellent lectures on Latin America and the influence of colonialism on the developing world. If you enjoy the subject matter, it doesn’t feel like a chore to study because you’re enjoying the reading, research and analysis.
I enjoyed doing my dissertation, which was around global trade relations and trading blocs, which is still relevant.
Moving out from home was good for me, and Brighton was only an hour by train so I felt connected to friends and family. I got a job in the Student Union bar near the end of my first year and did it all the way through, which was fun. I now live in Brighton again after living in London for over a decade.
After LSBU
I did some travelling after university and had to think about what was next. Party politics wasn’t quite right for me, and a friend was working as an account planner – now usually called a strategist – in an advertising agency. I was fascinated by this work: crafting a brief to understand the audience, which gives the creative team direction for campaign ideas. I got a bit of work experience with an agency and then got a graduate job with J. Walter Thompson, a big agency, in the research department.
I then worked for digital@JWT, which was the digital specialist part of the agency, doing lots of online marketing and the beginning of what you’d now call content marketing. I worked on big campaigns for Mercedes-Benz, and then moved on to work for an agency called Profero in Camden, where I worked on a lot of different brands including Johnson & Johnson and Mini. I was lucky to work on lots of government campaigns: cyberbullying, Change4Life, Talk to Frank drugs information and child protection on the internet. It was fulfilling work that had a high social value where we could push the boundaries and get the attention of young people. We also won creative awards for our work.
I then worked for an agency who did more integrated, cross-channel marketing, focused on the point of sale with retail promotions, which added to my skill set and helped me to go freelance. My freelance work is built on all those early experiences. It’s scary being a freelancer early-on, but I got my first little project which was a creative pitch for a small agency called Toaster and we won going up against Saatchi and Saatchi – beating them felt great. That got me on a bit of a roll and I worked my network and went through recruiters to get more contacts. You’ve got to be bold and don’t be shy to get in touch with your network.
Successes within academia
I ended up working with an agency called KHWS. They wanted to create a strategic approach for understanding how people make decisions at the point of purchase, using behavioural science and nudge theory and their expertise in retail shopper marketing. I created a research methodology for defining which nudges would influence people most effectively, developed in a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) via Innovate UK with Durham University Business School. This was a great success in using an academic partner to deepen thinking, and then using that evidence for a product that’s still used and sold now as a business offering to big brands. It was a way of bridging between academia and the commercial world.
Advice for students
When you’re going for your first job, don’t just look for what’s advertised but do a lot of your own research and contact companies you want to work for and capture their attention. You’ve got to cast a wide net and stretch yourself and try new things – the good thing about marketing is that you can often work across different markets and categories. And if you do a good job at some work experience or internships, you might get a permanent job just from that very short amount of work. Don’t get too focused on just going down the formal route – try everything.