Charlotte Curran

Philosophy, graduated 2021

MA Philosophy

Charlotte is CEO of a marketing agency. She graduated from Manchester in 2021 with a MA in Philosophy. She talks about what she does now and how she got there following her time at Manchester.

My current role and how I got there

While at university, I launched my first brand ARTEMIS accessories, and was selected as a finalist for Young Entrepreneur of the Year through the Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

This experience taught me what it takes to be a successful CEO and the significance of marketing and brand awareness.

Motivated to share my knowledge and help support the growth of other enterprises, I decided to sell my business at the age of 24 and transitioned into a freelance marketing career.

In June 2024, after freelancing for over 2 years, I launched my marketing agency based in Manchester, 0161 Creative, specialising in Pinterest and content marketing. My agency offers a 'take what you need' style of work, tailoring our support for our clients to enhance creativity and best achieve results.

This kind of supportive framework would have been extremely valuable to myself when starting out, and I am proud to be able to provide this to others.

My experience at Manchester

I joined the University during COVID-19 which meant my course was online and I had no in-person support, greatly changing what the university experience is usually like. Due to this my choice of masters was less so about the course and university but purely driven by my desire to live in Manchester, however the skills I gained by choosing University of Manchester and Philosophy have helped me vastly in my career.

In marketing, communication skills are essential, and the course drastically helped to improve my writing, even leading to having my own article published in PhilosophyNow magazine. It also developed my critical thinking skills which supported me when making decisions about the creation of my businesses and career path.

The biggest gain I had from my master’s is that it gave me the flexibility to build a business part-time during my course and the independence needed to complete the course during COVID-19 helped me when going into entrepreneurship.

My advice for future students

The most important advice I can give to future students is choose a course that interests you and that you are passionate about. While on your course get as much as you can from the experience and seek out opportunities to network both socially and academically.