Grow your network to build your future
Being a George Brown college student has given me this chance to meet many successful professionals in the marketing field which is my field of study. Professionals with various backgrounds who taught me that it is not important what is your background or where are you from, there are many opportunities for everyone. You just need to recognize them and get advantage of them. And Marketing Seminars Series was a big moment for me to learn tones of points and connect with junior and senior professionals in my field. Thanks to Michelle Kanfer the Marketing Seminars series professor who provided this magnificent chance to us by brought each session a well-known presenter to share with us his/her experiences. On the first day of class when Michelle told us her career story, I have just wondered how changes may happen in our career path, as Michelle showed interest in Google Adwords and digital marketing after 10 years working in the Coca-Cola company as a Brand Manager and a Customer Marketing Manager. Thus, we need to be flexible enough to notice changes in our careers and accept them and get the most out of them.
As I have mentioned we had many professional presenters, here I present some of them briefly. In our meeting with three GBC alumni, Jordan Veenstra, Natasha Burtenshaw-deVrie, and Asta Schouten I realized to be successful in your career you need to always be updated, so learning should be your habit. Moreover, being flexible and adaptable is an essential skill in any career, especially after happening this pandemic we all learned every happening can not be forecasted and, in some cases, we need to adapt to some unexpected situations. Besides, our presenters mentioned how it is hard to keep work-life balance in work remotely situation, while Natasha pointed out that she dedicated a specific separate space for her work which helps her to be organized and keep track of her career easily. To speak professionally Jordan advised us to keep yourself up-date about Facebook and Google tools and platforms, Natasha said do not forget to work on content marketing and Google Ads features. And Asta mentioned that we need both hard and soft skills in our career, soft as being able to communicate and hard likes being able to work with our career technologies.
Cindy Tran is another successful presenter, now she is the GBC Marketing Manager. She started her marketing journey from George Brown College, after passing Advanced diploma in Marketing field in GBC, she took Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing from Ryerson University. Cindy is an expert data-driven marketer. She described how her team is using Salesforce as a customer relationship marketing tool.
Social media and its posting schedule were another point of her speech, that she explained weekly posting is the most effective schedule for GBC marketing plan in social media. However, personally I found an interesting point in this meeting that how much Cindy is committed to her job since she was presenting for us during her vacation, and this can be a good reason for her success. Her confidence and her keeping continue learning attitude make her an expert in her major. Moreover, it is noticeable that how new software and applications are crucial in marketing these days, and marketer needs to be always updated about technologies.
“ … nothing came easy and nothing is guaranteed.”
Richard Nathans another GBC alumni, shared with us his career story which started with having a part in Coop. Richard mentioned how coop became an opportunity to change himself to an active job seeker, as he found his way into a job at Corus Entertainment by reaching out directly to one of an employee and requesting guide from him to find a position there. He also provided a brief explanation about six Canadian companies to inform us how we can find our way to these companies through Coop.
In this meeting, Richard emphasized the importance of networking and never stop getting to know new people and build a valuable connection.
To conclude, I have learned being informed and updated is crucial to achieving success in your career, while communicating and having a big circle of connections is vital to improve your career and achieve bigger goals. Now I am glad to announce I found a Coop position through one of my friends, my friend connected me to his other friend who has a management consulting company and I am going to take a marketing intern position there. My friend also mentioned it is an amazing opportunity to prove yourself to take a better position in the close future. After all, I appreciate Michelle for providing all these amazing sessions, that each of them was a chance to experience the presenter’s story and learned from it. I hope one day I can pass my experiences to younger ones, like what I have received from others.
Sepideh Asadollahi