Earlier this month, MMS hosted an online event for students interested in learning more about marketing and advertising. We were joined by the following MMS alumni, faculty and professionals in marketing:
Samantha Schafrank is a 2015 MMS alumna. After graduation, Samantha worked at Ogilvy and Mather for four years. She is currently in progress towards an MBA at The Wharton School of Business and is a Marketing Intern with Amazon.
Walt Barron is the Chief Strategy Officer at McKinney. Walt graduated from Davidson College in 1997 and worked in DC as a journalist before switching to brand management. He has been with McKinney since 2005.
George Grody is a Duke alumnus and MMS instructor in marketing and business. He worked for Procter and Gamble for 26 years in sales, marketing, and general management before moving on to work in global business overseas for 11 years. After retiring, he returned to Duke where he has been teaching for 13 years.
Jose Carbonell is a 1996 MMS alumnus and the Chief Marketing Officer for the National Audubon Society and adjunct professor for branding communications and strategic management at NYU. He has an MBA from Kellogg and has worked in the past with brands and companies including Maxwell House, Welch’s juices, Toys R Us, Nickelodeon, and UNICEF.
"I think the most important skill, regardless of what role you take or what path you get on, is storytelling, " Walt shared with students. “It's an ability to tell stories to your co-workers, to your clients, to other partners. And really, that's the way we approach all of our communications is as stories. That's how we learn as human beings. It's how we are able to listen and empathize and how we're able to persuade people to things we really believe in."
Representing a variety of experiences in marketing careers, our guests talked to students about finding internships, the differences between marketing in house versus working at ad agencies, the role of marketing for nonprofits, and many other topics. One question we asked our guests was how first and second year students could prepare now for a career in marketing and advertising.
"Work for free,” George Grody advised students. “You're not going to get maybe an internship till after your junior year, not a lot of companies do anything before then so find roles where you can go out there and get experience work for free."
Building on this, Samantha suggested students volunteer their skills to friends or family venturing into entrepreneurship as a good way to get started and build experience that can help in interviewing.
Jose also recommended working with local nonprofits saying, "A lot of times they're looking for extra digital support, particularly social media, email, whatever it is. That's a way to get real, tangible experience. You're not going to get paid more than likely. So that can be an obstacle a lot of times, but it is another group that would definitely benefit from your help."
To hear more of their advice and experiences, you can watch the entire video here.
Markets Management Studies