Promotions for Josh & Olly
Josh Donnell joined Purpose Media six years ago, and Olly Torrance the following year. Both have followed a structured career development plan gaining work experience in all areas of the business before settling into their preferred specialism. Josh found that his passion lay in front-end development where he is now a senior developer, and Olly has risen through the ranks to became a Senior SEO Strategist.
Purpose Media has always been committed to nurturing young talent by providing rewarding and long-term career opportunities. Many former apprentices have won local and national apprentice of the year awards and we have an extremely successful track record of apprentices working their way up into senior management positions. We believe this route enables young people to earn whilst they gain a qualification as well as helping them to gain softer skills that are invaluable in the workplace. Over the last 13 years, we have given 15 apprentices the opportunity to start a rewarding career.
We interviewed Olly & Josh to find out more about their experience and what they hope to do next in their career:
OLLY TORRANCE
What will your new role involve?
As an SEO Strategist, I will be responsible for the creation and delivery of SEO strategies that help clients achieve their business and marketing objectives.
How will this benefit PM clients?
Progressing into this new role will help our clients at PM as it will ensure we are delivering strategies that are fully focused on meeting their digital objectives. As well as this we will be delivering an even higher standard of work that returns as much ROI as possible.
How has your career progressed?
Having completed my A-Levels I was unsure what route to take next. I was keen to get involved in the digital sector as I saw this as a growing industry following the rise in demand for e-commerce websites and other digital marketing expertise such as pay per click, SEO, social media and email marketing specialists. I started my career as a digital marketing apprentice at Purpose Media and began a structured programme of learning. During my apprenticeship, I learned about all these channels but I quickly realised my passion lay in SEO so I began focusing on this skillset more and learned as much as possible which led me to become an SEO Consultant and I’ve now been promoted again and taking my next steps as an SEO Strategist.
What do you enjoy most about working at PM?
I’m very proud of receiving this promotion as I’ve worked hard to learn as much as possible over the last few years and it’s nice to see this paying off. I’m very eager and excited to get started in the new role and looking forward op delivering great results for our clients. Working at PM exposes you to a vast range of industries, meaning each approach needs to be unique. This challenging environment is always pushing the boundaries of your own ability whilst driving fast-paced growth.
Where do you want to develop to next?
My next steps are to take all this knowledge and expertise and refine them further to deliver a higher standard of work for our clients. As well as developing my technical knowledge I also want to grow my interpersonal skills to so that I can achieve my long-term objective of managing a team of SEO specialists here at Purpose Media.
Anything else you want to add?
Just want to thank the team at PM for giving me the opportunity and the foundations to grow and develop into this new role. It’s a very exciting time to be working at Purpose Media, we have a very talented team and I know we can achieve big things over the next few years.
And here is what Josh had to say………
JOSH DONNELL
What will your new role involve?
Whilst my new role will involve a lot of the same technical aspects of building web projects for clients, now I am in a senior role I will have more face-to-face contact with clients much earlier on in the project. By working alongside the account management team I will help deliver technical ideas and solutions that meet the functionality that clients desire from their website and translate this into a brief that the development team can interpret and build. This insight hopefully leads to a greater all-round understanding and a better end result for the client.
I will be working closely with a lot more people throughout Purpose Media to help educate on the development side and also to make sure as a development team we are maintaining high standards while always pushing to use the most up-to-date technology.
How has your career progressed?
Like all apprentices, I initially experienced all aspects of the business – creative design, video, SEO and digital marketing, but very quickly I knew my interest lay in development. By dedicating a lot of hard work both in my own time and in work time I have been able to grow my skill sets in the development world, whilst also learning more about the project management process and crucially how the business runs internally.
My skillsets have grown literally week on week by working on a range of projects. This has also enabled me to build great working relationships with the wider Purpose Media team as well as helping other developers grow and learn more. Consequently, I felt confident that the next step for me was to get involved more directly and have greater face-to-face input on client projects.
What do you enjoy most about working at PM?
I am very excited to start in the new role as it is definitely an area where I feel I can value and continue to develop further. I have always enjoyed the work environment at Purpose Media and the great people I work with.
Where do you want to develop to next?
I want to continue to push the boundaries in front-end development and where required help to refine our internal solutions so we continuously improve and are well placed to take advantage of technological advances.
Also, I want to improve my client-facing skills so I can take on more client-facing work and deliver the best solutions for their projects.
Finally, I want to help the new cohort of Purpose Media apprentices by nurturing them into the next generation of developers. I was very lucky to have great mentors so I would like the opportunity to return the favour by helping other apprentices grow in confidence and learn new skills.
Anything else you want to add?
I would like to thank everyone for always pushing me to be my best. I have always been encouraged and challenged to keep improving in my role. This constant nurturing has motivated me and given me the confidence to grow as a developer and as a person.
Purpose Media partners with James Stafford from EMA Training who manage the appointment of apprentices and arrange their ongoing learning and development.