Overall, I feel that my week-long work experience placement with NME has been a success in a number of different ways.

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Firstly, I feel that I have gained new writing new skills and techniques which I will take with me into my future writing. On the placement, one of the key techniques I learned was to make the opening paragraphs of my written articles grab the reader's attention from the offset - otherwise they would not want to continue to read on for the remainder of the article. I received this feedback on the first few draft articles that I had emailed over to staff writers on my placement which allowed me to positively improve my article as a whole and create more concise pieces later in the week of my placement. Also, I learned during my placement that I should keep in mind the target demographic that I am aiming to reach out to with my article. This piece of feedback was given to me from a staff writer after noting that perhaps some of the language used was a little too high brow in relation to the article's context and could perhaps be simplified to better fit in with the story line and to also be more concise and clear on the whole. Although I know that this does not mean I should simplify everything in my writing, I now feel that it is important to bare in mind the intended audience I am reaching out to with my writing and to try to lay out the best way for them to consume my article as a whole. 

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As well as learning new writing skills during my placement, I also feel that I improved upon some of my weaknesses that I had pin-pointed in my skills-set before approaching my placement. In particular, I feel that my confidence in myself and as a writer has rose considerably after undertaking my placement. This is down to a number of different factors such as seeing people's positive reactions to my work over social media along with the positive and constructive feedback on my work that the staff at NME gave me throughout my placement. However, I feel that my confidence in my writing abilities has also rose considerably as during my time on my placement, building on my own progress day by day and being able to manage the tasks in front of me to the best of my ability, helped me to realise that a potential career in the field of music journalism is something that I could now realistically see myself doing professionally in a few years time. Before my placement, I did not have enough confidence in myself to realise my full potential as a music writer so to have gained such a boost in self-belief and confidence during my placement is a huge achievement for me that I am very happy with. Furthermore, other weaknesses that I had pin-pointed in my skills-set such as communication skills and creativity, I felt, were also improved upon during my placement as I ensured that I actively asked staff for jobs and bounds of advice each day along with pitching my own ideas to the senior staff writers which resulted in two of my very own original ideas being published under NME - a result I could not be happier with. In hindsight, I would have liked to perhaps have pitched even more ideas during my placement whilst I was down in London however I feel that to have achieved two published articles for such as reputable name in the UK music industry is a huge achievement which I am very proud of.

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In addition, looking back on the placement, there are perhaps one or two areas which I could have improved upon. For example, on the first day I was assigned a task of researching social media reactions to a music festival documentary which had recently aired on Netflix which I happened to not know a lot about. In hindsight, I could have improved upon my communication skills at that moment to ask more about what I was specifically researching to better ascertain what could be the best content to look for to be included in the article. However, as this happened to be the very first task that was given to me on my placement and perhaps nerves slightly got the better of me to find out a little more on the task, I built upon this mistake by noting my minor error on the day and ensured that my understanding of every task from then on throughout the course of the week was completely clear so that I could undertake tasks to the best of my ability. Also, another area which I could have perhaps improved upon slightly in my skills-set is my initiative. On the first day, I was asked by senior staff writer, Dan Stubbs, to pitch him potential ideas for written articles to feature on the NME website. In hindsight, I could have used my initiative to prepare some potential ideas to write about before starting my placement and perhaps have had more ideas to pitch to Dan at that moment in time. However, again as this was on the first day, I am perhaps asking a little too much of myself to have had pre-prepared ideas before starting my placement but importantly, this is something I will learn from and take on board in a potential future writing role as I will ensure that I use my initiative to be prepared with fresh, potentially viable ideas in mind that could be of use before day one.

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To sum up the experience as a whole, I feel that my work experience placement with NME has been beneficial to me in my pursuits of achieving a career in the field of music journalism. Whilst the placement has significantly boosted my confidence as well as allowed me to pick valuable writing techniques, I strongly believe that my time with NME will potentially help to open doors to future employment not just in music journalism but throughout the music industries as a whole. I also believe that having experience with NME on my CV will help me to stand out from potential competitors within many fields of the music industries - which I feel is invaluable in today's current job climate. Finally, on a personal level, I am very happy with what I achieved during my placement. I feel that I used my key strengths going into my placement to the best of my ability whilst also managing to improve on some of my weaknesses that I had pin-pointed in my skills-set which has helped me to close gaps in my skills-set thus allowing me to become an improved, well-rounded and more suitable candidate for future employment opportunities within the music industries.