At the networking event held in Seattle, I had the opportunity to take a tour of Copacino Fujikado. Not only that, but events were set up for us to review our resumes, ask questions about how to successfully network outside of a school setting, and how to conduct yourself in an interview, while networking, and within our first few weeks of hiring.

At this event, I had the opportunity to speak to several alumni who I have kept in contact with and continue to receive support from. This event gave me an inside look at a marketing agency and how hard everyone works to keep their careers moving forward. The advice that I received will be invaluable to me in my future career.

In this role, I got the opportunity to develop my skills in team management from an executive-level role. In my prior roles, I’ve had to manage a team, but I was always more of a middle manager or a manager of a subsect of the company. Having to organize and lead a team of teams and plan out the strategic plan for the quarter was a unique challenge.

Helping our product managers get the resources they needed to help lead their teams, planning weekly meetings for the entire management team and executive team, and preparing for bi-weekly meetings with the stakeholders was a difficult experience, but one that has given me the resources to be a better manager in the future. You can click this link to read an article on the lessons I learned here.

From retail store manager to operations manager to plant manager to brand manager, I’ve always found myself in roles where I get to foster the success of my team. I’ve been placed in many uncomfortable situations which I had to navigate (undocumented employees, meetings about performance, letting go employees), but through these experiences, I’ve found that I am better off for having to face these challenges.

My class on Organization Behavior really helped me look at these experience though a different lens and though I may not have always made the right choice, in retrospect, I believe I will make better choices in the future. Being a manager of people has a lot of challenges–interpersonal, legal, professional–but these experiences have shaped who I am today and how I will approach future issues when they arise.

In this speaker event, we heard from three DEI experts and how they apply it within their fields of work. From banking to Amazon, these speakers answered questions about how DEI is implemented within their fields and the challenges they face.

Many people forget about DEI and become comfortable within the status quo, but, from their experience, if DEI is not an active and ongoing pursuit, businesses usually fall behind, miss out on top talent, and harm diverse communities in ways that are often not obvious because people aren’t used to thinking outside their own perspectives.

In this class, we learned how institutions, throughout history, have oppressed, silenced, and taken advantage of marginalized peoples within our country. A lot of these systems are still in place today and affect millions of Americans, immigrants, and the places the United States takes a political interest in.

The systems that have perpetually disenfranchised POC and queer people were put into place in gradual succession and just as they were put into place, the fight to bring about equity and inclusion means peeling back those laws and systems one-by-one.

In this class, we discussed how gender identity is borne of both internal and external influences, how different cultures perceive gender, and how gender is an internalized construct through which we view the world. We discussed ideas around gender in the workplace, internalized misogyny, and how gender roles affect our lives even in ways that are overt and discreet.

The idea of gender is instilled into us as soon as we enter the world, but if we are to dismantle the limitations we place on men and women in the workplace, we must first know why and how they exist now.

After the prior Case Competition, I was armed with more knowledge and advice on how to succeed the second time. My team and I used agile techniques to structure our workflow, attacked all of the things on our to-do list, and put into practice all the different marketing strategies and techniques we’ve learned in the program to build a presentation we knew would take us to the finals.

Winning this event gave us credibility in our expertise, confidence in our our skills, the opportunity to network with New Engen leaders, and an experience I will never forget. If you want to read more about my experience winning the case comp, you can click this link to read my article about it.

Shortly after entering the Marketing major, I decided to enter the Case Competition as I figured I had a shot since I had experience in pitching to clients already from my last job, however the experience was more complicated and challenging than I expected. When working with clients before, they usually told me their goals and an idea of how they want to spend their money, so my job was to simply optimize their expenditure and pitch my execution.

Because the case with Callaway was more open-ended, I struggled with how precise to go with my recommendations. I received good advice from many professors and panelists that I used to take the win the following year.

When I was the Operations Director in the IMC program, I planned and hosted an event that brought together our client, marketing alumni, and people from the board to look at our current IMC students’ ideas for how to promote the Marketing Program. I had to coordinate with the students, the product managers, and various parties at Western to get the room, food, and equipment ready for them to present.

Planning an event is challenging and you have to think about a lot of factors to make sure it runs smoothly and that everyone has what they need to succeed during the event. If you like to know more, you can click this link to read about my process planning the event.

When I decided to return to Western, I was working for Hardware Sales as a brand manager. I cut my hours to 25 hrs/wk for the first two quarters back before I came to the conclusion that I was doing my clients a disservice by only being accessible so many times a week and on a variable schedule which was hard for them to understand.

This job gave me the passion for marketing that has driven me through the program and took me back to school. I realized in this role that this is what I want to do for the rest of my career. It’s the perfect blend of creativity, data, and seeing a strategy through. I will forever be grateful to Hardware Sales for hiring me since it has provided me this clarity that I no doubt would’ve lacked if I had chosen a major when I was only 20.

When I attended this event, I was not actively looking for a job, but I wanted to see what was out there and practice my elevator pitch. I find I am deeply uncomfortable at events like this where you need to approach people and start talking to them. I much prefer having a topic that I am already knowledgeable about or something of interest that is external to the interaction to talk about.

In interviews, I am more comfortable talking about myself because it is expected and because I am the expert on that subject matter. At networking events after the competition or with alumni, there is something external to focus the conversation on. I didn’t like these events and prefer networking events and interviews over job fairs to get my foot in the door.

When I first attended Western, I created a LinkedIn account that I have been using for several years. I have kept building connections, writing articles through it, and posting about my career since then. After I went through the IMC program, there was a strong focus on branding myself and the content I was creating. Since then, I have received more traction on my account and have been able to make connections with alumni and hiring managers with confidence.

My LinkedIn account have given my the opportunity to make connections with many people I would’ve otherwise never had access to and given others the opportunity to interact with the content I have created, furthering my expertise in marketing.