Tomas Badger, International Reputation Marketing Officer at the University of Birmingham talk to us about his career in the higher education sector.
I: Hi, Tomas, thank you so much for taking part in our campaign today. I’m just wondering if you could tell me about your name, your role and your university?
T: Hi there, so my name is Tomas Badger, I work at the University of Birmingham as an International Reputation Marketing Officer.
I: Perfect. So, please could you tell me about your role and remit at the university?
T: So, primarily, my role is to advance the international academic reputation of the University of Birmingham. So, we do this through a tailored approach to marketing communications, to priority geographies and particular institutions as well, showcasing the work of our academics to non-UK audiences who operate in the same research area. So, I work with academics, with different colleges and their teams, I work with our internal creative agency, external media buying agency, to develop engaging content and targeting plans to be able to position our content in front of academics who we really want to be talking to.
I: That’s wonderful, thank you. So, how did you come to work in Higher Education? If you could tell me a little bit about your career background.
T: So, this is a bit of a long story. So, after finishing my undergraduate degree at the University of Leeds, I wanted to focus on a career which had an international remit. So, I found myself working with the British Council on two different programmes, one saw me in Thailand for a couple of months, and the other saw me in China teaching for a whole academic year. So, whilst I knew I didn’t want to pursue a teaching career, I did really enjoy that international aspect, developing cross-cultural communication skills or language skills. So, this sort of spurred me on to study an MSc in International Marketing at the University of Birmingham where I was able to develop my soft skills working with a lot of international students and it really allowed me to develop my marketing experience as well because my undergraduate wasn’t in marketing.
Following on from this, I had a job at an investment promotion agency, so my job was to, in a marketing capacity, promote the West Midlands region and the cities within the West Midlands. And I can see that there’s definitely challenges in terms of awareness and perception of the region and this was for international businesses and some domestic businesses as well, to try and get businesses to relocate to the West Midlands. So, I definitely saw that there were parallels with that position and also the work of the future job of International Reputation Marketing at the University of Birmingham. There’s definitely a few challenges, but a lot of opportunities that both the region and the university has. It’s an exciting time for both the region and the university and to work in a capacity which helps to influence and shape the university’s international presence is really quite interesting.
I: That’s a great answer, thank you so much for the detail. So, some people working in HE might feel that they have a sense of purpose because of the impact in the role their sector has on education, like you’ve mentioned. So, would you say your job is rewarding or meaningful and, if so, why?
T: I’m really interested in the research that’s being done here at the University of Birmingham. There’s such a breadth to the research, so I enjoy working on campaigns which have different audiences, so different academics that would be interested in our work. So, whether it’s the effects of microplastics in the environment and what they do to human health, or whether it’s cyber security academics and their role in offensive cyber security, there’s definitely a really strong breadth of the research and that’s what makes it really exciting as well that I’m working on different projects. All of the work that is done here is to help better the environment, our daily lives, so to really help push the research here and to help drive impact, I think that’s really quite unique and really valuable. So, I really like doing that sort of work.
I: And I suppose if you’re making a difference to the environment and impacting our daily lives, that’s going to be so rewarding for you in a role not many people in marketing get to explore all these different areas and work on different projects, so that’s really interesting, thank you. So, any standout development opportunities that you’ve had or standout bits in your career, what kind of it means to you?
T: We have twice yearly team away days, so it’s quite nice to be able to get out of the office, go offsite and to really engage with one another and really understand what everyone else in the team is doing, especially because we work on such diverse projects and sometimes we don’t have sight of those. So, one of the experiences I had was that I presented at one of our away days and whilst it’s to colleagues that I see every day, there’s not often a chance that you are able to really showcase what you’ve done, the impact that you’ve made, and get feedback from that. So, that’s the sort of key takeaways from working there.
I: That’s great. Have you had any opportunities to be creative or any experiences you want to talk about or any sport, you can talk about what you’d like, so anything really that’s been notable for you as an opportunity in your role?
T: So, I work in a team of just three of us, so it means that I’m able to make a significant impact on the work that we actually do and I am able to take ownership of certain workstreams as well. And because we work in a small team, a small team that was… because I’m working in a small team, there’s such an agility to it, so we’re able to really… so, here at the university, there’s a really strong emphasis on personal and professional development, so I’ve taken the opportunity of a lot of the people and organisational development courses here at the university. So, presenting with impact, resilience, managing projects, so I’m able to develop my sort of professional capacity on those courses. In addition to more…
I: I suppose a lot of people who work for universities, there’s so many opportunities to do those professional development courses, to do those courses for time management and things like that is one of the benefits of working in Higher Education.
T: Yes, exactly. There’s also more informal training and opportunities as well. So, one of my colleagues puts on a content creators meet up where colleagues from across the university will meet up every other month and we’ll discuss recent developments in social media or the digital landscape and we can learn from what other teams have done. So, there’s that aspect of cross departmental communication that helps to inform our work and just make sure that we get better results as a result.
I: Thank you, that’s great. So, how do you think Higher Education compares to working in, say, a commercial environment?
T: I think there’s definitely a lot more time really to sort of nurture your ideas, to plan, to think ahead, formulate a strategy and there’s time invested in you as well, as a person, as a colleague. I’ve had more training days here in the past year than I have probably at any other job that I’ve ever had. So, you definitely feel valued as a person and it’s not just, even though some people could come and it’s just a job to them, but other people it’s definitely a career.
I: Thank you, that’s great. So, have you had any experience of any facilities on campus, anything to do with university life or wellbeing or any social opportunities that you’ve had working at the University of Birmingham?
T: I think this was the question that I didn’t think I could really answer that well.
I: That’s absolutely fine, we can move onto the next one. So, what has been your career highlight whilst working in Higher Education and why?
T: So, because there’s such an opportunity to continually learn and develop, a strong emphasis on personal and professional development, so within the first couple of months starting my job, I was told that I would be going on a two-day conference to Edinburgh, called Content Ed, and it’s a two-day conference for content creators in the education sector. And being fairly new to the sector, I was able to really understand more, just more generally about Higher Education, go to different talks from professionals in different institutions across the UK and further afield, and it really opened my eyes to what Higher Education has to offer in terms of a career and in terms of… that’s it.
I: That’s perfect, thank you. So, to finalise, what are your tips or advice for those considering a career in marketing at a university?
T: There are numerous divisions across a university that needs marketing support, so whether this is business engagement, estates, certain research projects, if you have a particular interest in a certain area, such as social media or digital marketing or print, content creation, there’s possibly something out there for you at a university. A university is a microcosm and therefore there’s lots of jobs, lots of opportunities… if you have a particular interest, you can focus your attention on that, so whether it’s social media, CMS, internet marketing, email marketing, there’s something out there for you. Also, there are the broader roles and that’s worked well for me. So, don’t just assume that if it’s a marketing role that it has something to do with student recruitment, there are many student recruitment roles out there, but there’s a real…
I: Variation.
T: Yes.
I: Perfect, that’s great, thank you so much.
This interview was conducted before the Coronavirus Pandemic. Working arrangements on university campuses may have changed due to social distancing measures.
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