My Job: Explained (Marketing Assistant)

Name: Misha Pabari

Age: 23

Job Title: Marketing Assistant

Describe your role:

I work as part of the marketing team for a global ecommerce consultancy firm. My role mainly focuses on raising awareness, and engaging our target C-level audience through thought leadership, research and content marketing. It's a B2B (Business to Business) marketing role which includes: 

• Managing and producing the majority of the firm's social media content

• Supporting with a variety of targeted in-house events and webinars

• Writing and editing content for our blog ensuring they fit with the company tone of voice

• Supporting business development to build on a global target list

How long have you worked in the industry?

Just under a year - 10 months to be precise. 

How did you get into this role/industry?

I took a year out after my A-levels and applied to university a year later, about a week before the deadline while still not being 100% sure that I'd picked the right course.

In my year off, I did work experience at a small family-run company which then turned into a full-time job where I dabbled in marketing as part of the role and thought of it as an option for the future. I then went on to study Politics and International Business at university. I began looking for marketing roles shortly after graduating, and found myself drawn to job applications that talked about client-facing projects and event marketing. 

What's the best part of your job?

I love that compared to other big management consultancy firms, we're quite a small office of around 35-40 people in total. You're not one of a million other young people on a grad scheme which I hated the idea of when applying for jobs. It's meant I've been able to learn from everyone in our team in some way and worked on projects I perhaps wouldn't have at a larger firm. 

What's the hardest part of your job?

Juggling a million things at once! Sometimes you just can't get your words out when it comes to writing, especially when the writing has to be SEO (search engine optimised). One thing uni taught me though was that I'm capable of writing a piece of work fairly quickly when given a terrible brief on a certain topic.

What skills would you say are necessary for this role?

Be confident and friendly. Being shy will get you nowhere! I used to be weary of reaching out to invite unknown senior contacts to events thinking they'd dismiss me, but you're doing your job and it's not personal if they're not interested. 

What advice would you give to someone thinking of entering this industry?

I'd say if you're interested, make sure you go into your interviews and show that you're interested through a piece of work you did at uni or through work experience rather than saying you have "a passion for consultancy". 

What surprised you most when taking on this role?

I never thought the business side of my degree would come into use until I started this job, but it's so interesting to see how actually the recommendations we give our clients turn into real life actions.

Are there any things that you didn't expect to be doing that has been asked of you?

I didn't expect to be managing my own thought-leadership research project within my first year or to spend one afternoon every week stalking managing directors on linkedin and guessing their email addresses lol. 

If you weren't in this job, what else would you want to be doing?

My dream job would be Don Draper's from Mad Men. Or a radio presenter. 

The My Job series was created to help those unsure on the industry they want to go in, so this is an insight on the day to day life of different people in different industries. If you would like more details on working in this industry please drop me a message and I'll direct you to the interviewee! If you would like to get involved, please let me know.