Meet Claudia Rowe. After an almost blind date level of chance encounter with the world of digital, Claudia now lives in London and works as a Performance Media Manager at Google. Intrigued as to how Claudia made that jump from meandering grad to working for a tech giant? Here’s her rather brilliant #wheredidyoustart story. Enjoy!
I studied English and French at Leeds University because they were the subjects I enjoyed at school. By the time I graduated though, I didn’t really have an idea of what I wanted to do next, except that I was bored of being skint and wanted to earn rather than study some more. With no idea what to pursue, I went to a grad fair at the uni to explore my options. I was basically only interested in anything with a job opening there and then, and it was here that I saw Arianne, representing Stickyeyes. One glance at what the company did and I immediately thought the work would be too technical for me, but I tentatively asked Arianne if I needed to know a lot about IT for the job, and she reassured me Stickyeyes would teach me the skills I needed while I worked.
So this is how I fell into the world of PPC, and later more general digital advertising. My friends thought it was hilarious that I got a job in digital, being barely able to turn on a computer through school and uni (I haven’t actually advanced very far on that front). Arianne and Stickyeyes gave me the technical skills I needed for a career in biddable. Having chanced on a whole industry I never knew existed, I decided I wanted to learn more and more about marketing, and particularly digital channels. This desire, combined with a whimsical move to London, brought me to where I am today.
don’t assume digital is too technical (or too ‘anything else’ for that matter)... if I had then I wouldn’t be where I am now
Today I work in Google’s internal marketing team. Google is a massive place, so my specific team exists to provide other marketers at Google with advice and expertise on paid media. I work with marketing managers across the business to ensure they are running the most effective biddable media programs and getting the best ROI.
I suppose the biggest thing I would say to people in the same position as I was, is don’t assume digital is too technical (or too ‘anything else’ for that matter). I almost walked right by the Stickyeyes stand at that grad fair, and if I had then I wouldn’t be where I am now.
Digital marketing covers such a large range of skills, interests, working styles, that there is something for everyone. It offers such wide ranging opportunities - though my current focus is on biddable, in my career to date I have worked on other forms of paid media, on social and earned media projects, and I’ve dabbled in SEO. My goal now is to broaden my remit and move into communications strategy - and my grounding in digital means that this is a very achievable objective.
Have a story to tell that will inspire others to get into digital? Get in touch at [email protected]
