About me

Although I am currently working part time as a sales assistant my passion lies elsewhere. My love of books comes from a very early age when I read Beatrix Potter and was astounded by the world that she was able to create from nothing but words and imagination. I want to be a part of that process and to pass on my passion to something that I have loved my entire life. I have been a student at the University of Portsmouth since September 2013. I have achieved a 2:1 degree in English Literature and have been undertaking my Master’s degree in Literature Culture and Identity since September 2016, for which I was awarded a scholarship, which I am due to finish in September 2017 and will graduate with a Merit in this degree in July. This subject has bettered my written and verbal communication. While this role was not creative, the opportunities I was able to undertake while at University have allowed me to expand this horizon for myself, outside of an academic environment. Whilst undertaking my postgraduate studies I have been employed by Blackwell Bookshop and throughout the duration of this role I worked in the bookshop, providing advice to the customers who required it. At the beginning of the academic term most of the students at the University of Portsmouth required textbooks and it was my role to have a detailed knowledge of what was mandatory for each course. My role also included the participation with the book events held at the shop; I helped with the overall running of the event to ensure they ran as smoothly as possible. I was able to establish a good report with the people that attended the events and made sure they knew how the evening was going to progress. While in this role I also attended the Isle of Wight Literary Festival with the bookshop and during this I mediated the authors and the books that the bookshop had available. This involved the organisation of the books each day to ensure that the event could run smoothly. While this role has allowed me to increase my knowledge of the literary industry I am very keen in learning more about the academic publishing industry; I believe that the knowledge I already have is a very good basis on which I can develop my understanding of industry. Throughout my time at university my greatest achievements have been maintaining my role as Course Representative which allowed me to be the voice between the students and the lecturers, ensuring that there were no issues that went unnoticed between the two. This role enabled me to speak to a wide range of people, and even be able to breech topics that could be sensitive. Whilst studying for my degree I was on the committee of one of the University's societies, feminism. As Secretary of this society I am no stranger to the organisational skills that are required to maintain a well working structure. In this role it was my job to ensure that the meetings the society held were well organised and that our members were aware of such meetings. As a result of this I was in charge of the internet presence of the society and managed their social media accounts. Furthermore, I have embarked on many voluntary roles while I have been studying; my first was for the Shakespeare festival which celebrated 400 years since his death, where I worked in a journalistic role covering the drama performances of Streetspeare. While in this capacity I also managed their social media pages and worked closely with the teachers involved in this. This role allowed my creative skills to flourish and develop due to the environment in which I worked. The change from the journalistic side to the social media side allowed me to develop both in the best way I could due to the similarities between the roles. More recently I have been a front of house volunteer at the Portsmouth City Museum wherein I had to interact with members of the public and maintain an in depth knowledge of the exhibits they house. This role enabled me to work with items I would not have otherwise had contact with and consequently I have been able to expand my knowledge of this field. From this I have gone into a voluntary role at the Portsmouth Archives where I have been working to catalogue a number of the items that they have access to. This has given me a new skill and the ability to work with a vast amount of information and methodically document it. While studying for both my undergraduate degree, and my postgraduate, I have had to work to the deadlines of my assignments, most notably my dissertation for both. As the final project in each course, this major project takes both time and attention to ensure it is completed to an appropriate standard and in a timely manner. Working with such a wide range of materials, primary and secondary reading, archive materials and the periodicals of the time produces many strands of information that need to be juggled and presented in a concise and coherent way. I was able to ensure I did this at undergraduate level and was awarded a 2:1 for my dissertation, and I am currently doing the same for my postgraduate degree. I am a diligent and dedicated individual who is committed to every project that I undertake. From my experience in previous jobs I am adept to working with a wide variety of people and getting on with an equally wide range. I am a likable approachable individual who works equally well on my own and in a team where the inputs of many can make for the joys of working. Working with such a range of individuals who all require a dedicated attention can be difficult, but due to my experience obtained from my Course Representative role I feel I am able to listen to the demands of a range of people and work to find solutions to each individual issue. I am a very diplomatic person and am willing to look at a situation from a view point that I previously would not have considered; this adaptability to different scenarios is what makes me perfect for this role.

QuestionsProjectsExperienceTeam

Projects

• Isle of Wight Literary Festival" The 2016 Isle of Wight Literary Festival is Thursday 11th October to Sunday 14th October. The main venue for the Literary Festival is Northwood House, Cowes." It is an event where authors and book lovers alike come together to discuss the books they have written and the books they have loved by the authors throughout the year. My role at this evenst was to run the book stall, where everyone could find the books that the event centred around. This meant that the books for each individual event were displayed effectively, usually inspected by the authors before their big moment, and to make sure that the organisers of the event deemed the arrangement acceptable, all in all a lot of people to please. This meant that this role came with a degree of pressure which worked well for me as I excel under pressure.

Work history

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SalesFrench Connection
Sep 2017Dartford, Greenhithe DA9 9SX, UKFull Time
This is merely my part-time job while I find something that I am truly passionate about. This role has allowed me to increase my artistic abilities however, as the visual merchandising is a vital part of the role. This means that I am still expressing my creative side while in the job. Moreover, this job allows me to work with a wide range of people, and has shown me how to work in a well oiled team
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BooksellerBlackwells Bookshop
Sep 2016 - Jul 2017Portsmouth, United KingdomFull Time
My role in Blackwells was a mixed one; while I had an indepth knowledge of the books that we sold, and the students that needed each, my main role in this job was events co-ordinator. This meant that I had to make sure that the books that were needed for each event were there on time, and the authors had the books that they had requested. This was so much fun, and I loved being part of team that was so committed to the book industry. While in this role I was part of the team that organised the Isle of Wight literary festival, and although it was lots of hard work, it was worth it to see a large group of people all in the same space entirely for the love of the written word.

Skills

• Academic Writing
• Analytical Writing
• Microsoft Offic
• Event Planning
• Organisation
• Advanced Communication
• Diligent
• Museum Display
• Event Organisation
• Books

Education

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MasterUniversity for Portsmouth
Sep 2016Portsmouth, United Kingdom
After completing my undergraduate degree at Portsmouth, I decided that I wasn't quite done learning about his field that brings me so much joy. I earned a scholarship for my Masters and as such was able to continue my studies. While doing this I learnt a huge amount, from honing my written and verbal communications, so the way in which analysis of texts can be used and applied to other situations. During my time studying I was course representative and as such was the port of call to the students on the course of there was an issue. This means that I have the ability to communicate with groups of people and to deal with issues diplomatically to get them resolves throughly.