Blog » Chris Stanford

Chris Stanford

13th October 2014

Role: Placement Student

Company: Translink

Track Record:

TRACK RECORD

Student Chris Stanford has been working with Translink for almost four months in an undergraduate student placement role. Chris, who is currently studying Transportation at the University of Ulster and is undertaking a Diploma in Professional Practice with Translink, underwent a rigorous interview process to be selected for the position at Translink. Chris will return to the final year of his studies in September 2015.

6.30am My alarm sounds and I jump out of bed (most days…) have a quick shower and shave make time for breakfast and iron a shirt before rushing out the door. With Translink’s Journey Planner App, it is so easy to access next departure information and door to door journey planning to get to and from work.

I drive my car to Ballyclare Bus Station, where I avail of the park and ride — I hop on the 7.30am Ulsterbus 253 service to Belfast city centre. On the bus I just kick back, relax and listen to some Ed Sheeran on my iPod — it’s such a comfortable way to travel that sometimes I have a snooze or check what people are up to on Twitter.

8.25am After the five minute stroll though Belfast I’m always ready for a caffeine fix and grab a coffee in the station cafe before collecting the mail and heading up to the marketing office. I like to have my day well planned to maximise my time, therefore I check my meetings and activities and write up my actions and desired outcomes for the day.

We are currently working on our yLink student campaign and I’ll be heading out to freshers’ events at further education colleges and universities to sign them up for the yLink card — this is our travel card that is available to all aged 16 to 23 years and offers a third off travel on bus, coach and rail journeys plus exclusive discounts in retail and leisure outlets — including Little Wing and DV8 and this year one of our new partners is the Ulster Folk and Transport museum. 

This job really is a fantastic way to learn about all aspects of marketing from branding, communications, PR and design — it offers me the opportunity to apply what I’ve learned about business at university in a day to day working environment. It’s unlikely I’d get to work with such a wide range of disciplines in another company, so I’m really looking forward to making the most of my time with Translink.

10am I really enjoy all aspects of social media and am a bit of a twitter geek. I am lucky to be involved in this marketing function within Translink, who really embrace communication across a number of social media platforms. I help manage the news section of the Translink website, which is a great way to keep up to date on what is happening. There is a constant flow of stories being issued on a daily basis — some of which I’ve recently been involved with include Love Metro Saturdays, Belfast Culture Night and Ulster in Bloom. I was actually in the launch photos for Tennent’s Vital holding up a David Guetta sign. That was a bit embarrassing but all good fun, especially as I am a huge music fan.

12.30pm After a quick half hour lunch I’m out at a yLink photo call to launch the latest partnership with Little Wing Pizzeria.

I’ve been arranging models, liaising with the photographer, sourcing Translink merchandise to include in the shots and liaising with the management at Central Station to ensure that they can facilitate the photo shoot. While I have day to day responsibilities, I’m also learning new skills every day as I get involved in new tasks. I am also responsible for collating and recording Assembly questions so I now have greater insight into how Translink operates in a political context.

3pm I am preparing all of the Translink yLink student travel information for the University of Ulster Freshers’ Fair.

It will be strange going back to university in a work capacity but I’m looking forward to letting the students know they can save on their travel and avail of many great discounts from some of our partners. It is one of many freshers’ fairs we will be attending across Northern Ireland — I will be travelling quite a bit this month and meeting lots of new people, something which I really enjoy.

5pm I have one final check of my emails before walking to catch the 5.20pm service back to Ballyclare. I give a few of my friends a quick call on the bus to arrange a time for them to call round and play Xbox at my house and then I sit back, relax and update my Facebook and Twitter.

After a few games on the Xbox we will head into Belfast for a bite to eat. I hop on the bus at the Templepatrick Park and Ride, the airport bus runs on the hour every hour so there’s no curfew on the fun we can have and I don’t need to worry about where I’ve parked my car or expensive taxi journeys home.

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