How has the MSc Marketing at Vrije Universiteit contributed to your professional growth?
During our masters, we were often tasked with solving practical business cases. These translate well into the real world, I’ve experienced.
Can you share any specific skills or knowledge acquired during the program that have proven beneficial in your career?
Following the pre-masters program, we were still in the Covid period and this meant that making contact with fellow students was difficult. I was asked to help enhance the social aspect of the program. Throughout the year, I've learned to organize small-scale events that people actually wanted to attend. I got lots of feedback but mostly enthusiasm back from the other students and from staff. These are skills that got me interested in my current career and got me a nice head start.
What kind of work do you do now? Can you explain what your current position entails?
For almost two years now, I'm a Marketing and Events contractor for Salesforce, which is a large international CRM platform. I'm responsible for some of their online and real-life events from A-Z. This involves identifying and inviting potential guests for these events, as well as solving very practical issues for these events, and managing timelines and budgets. Salesforce's podcast is another favourite project of mine. I make sure episodes get released on time and I work on increasing their online reach, both through organic and paid growth.
When did you know you wanted to pursue this career?
Both the curriculum and of the MSc Marketing and my role there as morale officer got me interested in Events and Marketing. When I read the job description for my current position, I noticed the similarities and decided to apply.
Why do you enjoy this line of work? What energizes you about it?
I enjoy being very autonomous, and seeing a clear end result of my efforts. In my work there’s often a definite deadline (the event date) and I get to be very creative, which gets noticed by the client. At times my deadlines are stressful, but this is also what makes it rewarding when everything works out.
Recently, I organized the internal year kick-off for Salesforce. The European Salesforce country leaders came to introduce the upcoming fiscal year for a live audience and online broadcast. At one point we had 3 camera’s and over 25 staff running around. Working with a multi-disciplinary team that depends on each other this much and seeing a successful end-result of our combined efforts incredibly rewarding.
What truly accelerated my career growth was learning to be eager to take on tasks, even in situations where I lacked experience or a full understanding of the context. Learning as you do is a great way to gain this experience. I would advise any student to be pro-active and dare to do what they haven’t before.
