Aliya Ladha, Marketing Executive at TCC Global, shares her experience of this year’s IPM 30 Under 30 programme.
To anyone thinking about applying for the IPM 30 Under 30 programme, I highly recommend it. To say that the programme has been a fantastic experience is an understatement. It has given me the opportunities to stretch myself and offered me learning experiences that will be vital not only in my career but also in the personal decision-making process.
I was totally over the moon when I found out that I was chosen as one of the 30 candidates to participate this year. There were hundreds of applications from candidates with some of the best credentials and from all walks of life. Hence, you can’t help but feel a little lucky even though candidates are picked on merit. Only 30 special unique candidates progressed through to the programme for 2018 making us the 30 Under 30 young future leaders of the promotional marketing world.
The application process: I submitted my application in time for the October 2017 deadline and by mid November I was notified of my successful offer of a place on to the programme. It almost felt like a validation of my future ambitions because the programme recognises you as a young future leader of the promotional marketing world. Your employer could nominate you or you could nominate yourself for the application process. The wait for the results felt long but was well worth the wait once the 30 names were announced online! To celebrate we had a special awards evening where for the first time the 30 Under 30 cohort met, mingled and celebrated our first step into the programme with receiving award certificates which took place in December.
Before joining the programme I attended the webinar where the team answered valuable questions like if moving employer/ cannot make a session etc. What happens if you are unable to make a session and so on? This really got me excited about being part of the programme and showed how much the IPM 30 Under 30 cared for us on such a strong programme.
The IPM 30 under 30 programme has opened myself to so many opportunities and I have met some of the brightest people in the industry. I am sure I will be able to establish professional relationships with most of these people and collaborate in exciting projects in the future. Any person to be on the programme or thinking to be on the programme would learn lifelong skills to put into practice at any time in their careers. So on a cold evening I travelled to central London to attend my first session just to receive an warm welcome by the participants and the IPM hosts. It really makes you feel included from the word go.
The sessions: The programme involved 4 sessions throughout the year led by industry experts, which added real value to every session we attended. These covered: Career and Personal Development; Client Development and Negotiation; Smarter Working and Managing Stress and IP Mythbusters.
The sessions were very informative and gave us the chance to ask the experts about their experiences, challenges and solutions to problems they have faced within the sector. I could not believe that I would have the opportunity to share the same platform with the best and brightest in the industry without IPM 30 and 30. The whole programme is designed to take your imagination, thoughts and capability to the next level.
Networking drinks after each session were another great additional aspect organised by the IPM team after each session. This gave us another opportunity to interact with the industry leading experts. It also allowed our group of peers to mingle and share experiences, journeys and grow our network. In a nutshell, the programme really does instil the belief in you that the sky is the limit.
