Francesca's career journey from Digital Marketing Apprentice to Marketing Manager at the FT
- My English Sister
- 25 juil.
- 6 min de lecture
When the pandemic put many graduates’ plans on pause, Francesca saw it as a chance to pivot and explore something new. With no formal marketing background but a deep desire to learn, she joined the My English Sister Apprenticeship Programme, a decision that ignited an exciting career in digital marketing.
From her early days in Lyon to roles at The Telegraph and now the Financial Times, her story is a testament to the power of on-the-job learning, adaptability, and the confidence that comes from gaining real-world business experience.
In this interview, Francesca shares how her time with MES helped shape her career and why she’d recommend the programme to anyone ready to jump-start theirs.
Q1. Looking back to when you first joined MES, what was your situation at the time, and what motivated you to take the apprenticeship route into digital marketing?
When I first joined MES, I was fresh out of university, mid global pandemic, and unsure what I wanted to do with my degree! I studied French and Spanish at the University of Edinburgh, and I always loved languages and visiting other countries. When the job role came up in Lyon, I jumped at the chance to do it, and I never looked back.
Prior to working with MES, I had very limited knowledge of marketing, so it was truly a fantastic playground to get stuck into building my skills as a marketer. Joining the company as an intern really built my foundation and knowledge of marketing, and then this encouraged me to do an apprenticeship the following year to really dive into marketing and data analysis.
The apprenticeship was a great opportunity to pack learning lots of skills into one very intensive year!
Q2. What have you gone on to do since completing the MES apprenticeship programme?
Once I completed the apprenticeship and my Digital Marketing Master's degree was signed, sealed and delivered (a few months later, if you know what the French postal system is like!), I secured a role with a boutique digital marketing agency called Beyond, based in the UK. The position was remote and allowed me to travel around the world at the same time.
I worked on website design, copywriting for blogs, graphic design and social media management. This was a great place for me to apply the skills I learned with MES to a different business, with a variety of clients across numerous sectors.
After a couple of years working in smaller businesses, it felt like the right time to transition into a bigger company and take the leap and move to London. I then spent almost two years working at the Telegraph, on their subscription marketing graduate programme. My role involved lots of email marketing campaigns, podcast marketing launches, upselling products to existing subscribers and working to ensure that we retain subscribers for as long as possible by keeping them engaged with their subscription.
Many people say that if you end up in news publishing, you’ll never leave. I was adamant I wouldn’t be one of those people; however, I now work at the Financial Times as a Marketing Manager! My current role involves similar projects to my role at the Telegraph, focusing on keeping subscribers engaged with the core products, but instead working at a more strategic level than I was previously.
Q3. What specific skills or experience did you gain during your time at MES that helped you prepare for your later roles, from a marketing agency to The Telegraph, and now the Financial Times?
Where do I begin!
I think the top skill that comes up time and again for me that I can trace back to the earlier days with MES is communication.
If you’re able to work:
with a French company
speak to French parents about the progress their child is making
speak to French children
perhaps speak to French or other housemates from around the world,
or even figure out how to get a French health insurance card, then...
You are a fantastic communicator! This skill will take you far in the corporate world, where wires can get crossed and meaning can get lost behind a screen.
Secondly, understanding the inner workings of a small business is extremely valuable, as no matter the size of a company, there is usually always a shared goal of providing a quality service to a person or another business. Getting to grips with how this works with MES was invaluable, and it meant that many concepts I had to learn when joining the Telegraph made more sense at a core level.
Another skill that comes up for me is time management. Working with the MES team, collecting children from school, planning helpful sessions for them and studying for a master's degree requires organisation. So much of a corporate job involves managing people’s time, ensuring you’re adding value in the time that you do have, and prioritising your own workload against business priorities. So if you can get any opportunity to hone those skills, that’s great!
I’m very much still working on this one too, and learning a lot along the way.
Also, a minor but extremely important skill - every company I’ve worked at since being with MES uses Google Workspace, so this was a super helpful skill to have when it came to joining somewhere and setting up meetings, using Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, etc!
Q4. How did the MES apprenticeship help you stand out when applying for jobs or going through interviews?
If I had a €1 for every time someone looked intrigued when I told them what I did before joining the Telegraph I would be a wealthy woman! I think the apprenticeship programme really helped me in securing the role at the Telegraph - not only for the marketing experience, but also for the variety and interest it added to my overall background and CV.
People remember you in an interview if you’ve had interesting jobs, if you’ve lived in other countries or speak other languages - there are many people who haven’t done this.
The confidence that the apprenticeship programme gave me meant that I felt I was ready to apply for these roles, and it helped me back myself in a room full of other graduates at an assessment centre. I could offer a different angle on a problem, or perhaps a more creative solution to an email design, due to working in a very different company previously.
Q5. What’s your current role, and what are three key skills that are vital to performing your job?
I currently work as a Marketing Manager in the customer engagement marketing team at the Financial Times.
My main focus is improving the engagement rate of Financial Times subscribers beyond their first 30 days. This involves setting up email campaigns to inform subscribers about the key benefits of their subscription, and monitoring subscriber behaviour to ensure we don’t see too much drop off in their engagement with the FT - this could be through newsletters, podcasts, app, or onsite behaviours.
I would say the top skills I use daily are data analysis, creativity and organisation:
Data
Every day I’m looking at data dashboards that show subscriber behaviours - from whether they use the app more than the website to what news topics they’ve engaged with most. Learning how to interpret data and tell a story during my master's programme really helped me with this skill.
Creativity
I have to be creative and think of new solutions to different emails, considering the layout, imagery used and the branding of the email. Also, considering how the email will render for users across the globe, as the FT has a global audience.
Being organised
And finally, organisation goes without saying - when you’re juggling lots of meetings in different rooms around the building, while working on presentation decks and writing campaign briefs, there’s little time left to think!
Q6. You've worked with two of the most prestigious media companies in the industry. What advice would you give to someone just starting out in digital marketing, especially those considering an apprenticeship as their first step?"
My advice? Go for it.
Taking part in the programme was one of the best decisions I’ve made. It gave me a solid foundation and skills I still rely on in my career today. If you're thinking about building a future in France, it's also a great way to earn a qualification that's recognised by French companies and universities, all while boosting your language skills.
It’s also worth taking the time to explore which areas of marketing genuinely interest you. Whether that’s creative work like graphic design and copywriting, data analysis, project management, branding, social media, or email campaigns. Use your apprenticeship experience and the support of the MES team to get hands-on exposure to these different areas.
It’s the perfect opportunity to build a solid understanding before deciding where you’d like to specialise.
The apprenticeship programme and working with MES was the perfect place for me to kickstart my career in marketing, and I would strongly recommend it to anyone who’s considering the same thing. Not to mention the fantastic French lifestyle that I truly miss!
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