This week, as part of our partnership with City University of London, we were delighted to welcome students from the two new MA courses in marketing and strategic communications to our London HQ.

This ‘field visit’ came halfway through the pitching campaigns course we are co-leading and gave the students a chance to put their creative thinking into practice as the team ran a series of brainstorms on the live client briefs they are responding to.

One of our great joys at Vested is knowing how to bring creative thinking to the world of finance that is both relevant and fun. It’s not an easy ask, so we were delighted with how everyone collaborated and joined in to come up with fresh ideas and thinking! Whether it was thinking about leading a FS category, reaching Gen Z or shifting perceptions, the ideas and questions flowed.

But the highlight of the day was for the students to hear from three of our incredible Senior Account Executives, Geri, Sarah and Caitlin about their pathways into the industry and what their day-to-day work looks like. With all three having grown up overseas, their routes to Vested have varied – whether its Caitlin’s prior experience as a journalist and broadcaster, Geri’s in international business and finance or Sarah’s in New Zealand agencies. Each showed that there is no ‘one way’ in.

They also provided the (not so many) warts and all of their working days and why they love their career choices. Variety of work and access to industry leaders came out on top of their list. 

We then opened the floor to the students. Their questions were incredibly thoughtful, ranging from ‘how much involvement do you have with the creative teams you work with?’ to ‘what do you see the financial services communications industry looking like in the next 10 years?’

We wrapped the day up with a networking session between the students and the Vested team. The students were able to ask more questions of Vesties, exchange LinkedIns and hear more about what it’s really like to work in an agency.

We loved our time together and are excited to keep working with City to help the next generation of industry leads make their mark!