As this school year comes to a close, I’m taking this time to reflect on my experience and learnings from my Digital Media Marketing Seminar Series class. Throughout this course, I have had the opportunity to learn from several marketing professionals, offering their diverse expertise from different sectors of the marketing world. As my marketing job search continues, I have had the advantage of connecting with these speakers. The advice and resources they have shared have helped me navigate the job market and develop a stronger competitive edge.
Throughout this Seminar Series, we have had speakers share their insights on everything from personal branding and SEO, to product management, to digital analytics, and much more. Having the chance to hear about what it’s like to work in all these different positions helped to paint a clearer picture of the marketing landscape.
I’ve come away from this program with a much better understanding of what kind of marketing work would suit me, what kind of opportunities are available in the job market, and what different marketing positions entail.
Two speakers stood out to me in this series: Founder of Findable Digital Marketing, Daniela Furtado and Head of Product at Jouleia, Mat Krizmanich.
Daniela Furtado
Mat Krizmanich
Daniela FurtadO: Personal Branding and SEO
SEO and branding professional, Daniela Furtado, showed us how to market ourselves by increasing our perceived value. It’s not just about how you optimize your website, it’s how you optimize your online presence across the web. It is so important to develop a strategy that sets you apart from the rest. You need to find an angle, find a specialization and figure out where and how to position yourself. Working in marketing is one thing, but another is knowing how to market yourself to access the opportunities you want.
Daniela’s presentation reminded me to invest time and energy into my brand, developing my portfolio, and working on a cohesive image for myself. The biggest impact this had on me was it changed my priorities. I needed to focus on creating, on having something tangible to present to potential employers who are looking for evidence of the skills and qualifications I claim to offer.
My response to Daniela’s advice was to allocate a minimum of 30 minutes to 1 hour every day to work on building my personal brand. Whether that is following a tutorial to create something new on Illustrator or editing my website to showcase case studies from my past projects. Daniela made me realize how important it is to craft a personal brand that is tangible because I cannot optimize a website that does not contain substance.
Updated About Me Page
Updated Homepage
Updated Photography Page
- website updates -
MAT KRIZMANICH: A CAREER IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
The presentation from Product Manager, Mat Krizmanich, was helpful in the way that he showed me a career option that I am very drawn to. Mat walked us through the typical product management process: understanding complex user challenges and translating those challenges into effective solutions. I had always had a vague interest in user experience design, but I had never investigated it in detail. I wasn’t aware of product management as a career option in marketing before, and Mat’s review of what that entails was captivating to me.
Product management is a broader position with responsibilities spanning from market research and data analysis, to wireframe design and timeline development. Mat’s presentation exposed me to a whole other world within marketing. This kind of work sounds like the ideal mix of creative and technical, which I find very fulfilling.
This changed my perspective on my job search. It has helped guide me to narrow my focus in terms of what kind of positions I want to work toward. I am even considering enrolling in a UX program next year...I guess we'll see how this co-op term goes!
Networking: put yourself out there
The most important thing I learned through this series overall, is how important it is to network. I have always known that networking was important in a broader sense, but I did not understand why it was so important and how it could directly advance my career in significant ways. With the emphasis each speaker put on networking, I made more of a point in connecting with others.
Beyond connecting with each speaker on LinkedIn, I started to reach out to the networks I had. I joined the alumni job boards and career groups on socials. I even posted on socials about my job search and received a great response.
I was able to reconnect with my old colleagues from Toronto Metropolitan University and have accessed opportunities that I never would have achieved without putting myself out there. I now have a connection to intern at my old colleague’s media agency, Dream Forever, and work as a production assistant for a live music performance series, Ssessions.
Posted to Instagram
THE JOB SEARCH CONTINUES
Although I am still in search of paid work in marketing, interning is a good start. I will continue to connect with my existing network and work toward expanding it. The best advice I can share is to not let self-consciousness stop you from putting yourself out there. Don’t be so concerned with being seen as corny or trying too hard, because the payoff will likely be worth coming off as a tryhard! This is something I am even telling myself, it can be hard to shake that feeling but it is so important to getting ahead. In a sector like digital media marketing, you need to be online.
