Sophie Powell
PIPS Host Organisation: Promega UK
Project Title: Promega UK Intern and Student Ambassador

Sophie Powell undertook her PIPS placement at Promega UK, a life sciences instrument and consumables company based in Southampton Science Park. During her internship, she contributed to over 10 distinct projects and activities across the Marketing, Sales, Technical Services, Finance, Logistics, and Facilities departments, gaining insight into almost every aspect of the business.

Projects included liaising with multiple departments to produce a new method for Finance to efficiently and accurately determine deferred revenue on service agreements for a given financial year; working with Facilities to identify Promega UK’s environmental impacts and make recommendations on improving reporting and reducing impact long-term; updating and refining the Sales tenders and contracts database and informing the design of its new internal SharePoint site; analysing external marketing options and identifying new trends in reasons for won and lost opportunities for Strategic Marketing, as well as aiding Marketing Services with the identification of new platforms for social media deep listening and preparations for their Christmas 2023 promotional campaign.

Activities included shadowing and assisting Technical Services during instrument maintenance and demonstrations and supporting the Logistics team during peak times by picking orders for 2-5 hours each week. Additionally, throughout her placement, Sophie participated in Promega UK’s Student Ambassador programme. This involved raising awareness of the Promega brand at the University of Southampton through event delivery, student engagement, and social media marketing. Working at Promega UK was a great introduction to non-academic career paths in the life sciences sector and made Sophie strongly consider a future outside of academia. She feels her communication skills and confidence have been significantly improved by this experience. Sophie was pleased to receive positive feedback for her performance, particularly in business areas she did not previously expect to be well suited for, like marketing and sales.