Networking blog!

George Brown College, Waterfront Campus

My time at George Brown College has been full of ups and down, from getting rejected by the badminton team to making amazing friends, I always managed to make some reliable connections!      This was not always the case for me as being an international student, I was not really a confident person, but with the right mentors and peers, it is not really that difficult!

I had a course called Digital Media Marketing, taught by, professor Wendy Greenwood. First of all, one of the best faculties that George Brown has. I say this because this subject could have been taught in so many ways, but she chose not to go with the textbook way and instead held Marketing Seminars throughout the semester. 

The seminars were held by marketing experts in the domain of Influencer Marketing, Account-Based Marketing, Paid Media, UX design, B2B marketing, and so on. This really helped students a lot as we got insights from people that are masters of the topic and not just jacks of all trades.

Out of all the seminars, the topic that I cared about most was Paid Media, the guest was Sam Leung, he is the VP of the Aber Group, and specializes in SEO/SEM and Advertising Technology. 

Sam Leung

Sam spoke in detail about Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, and their integration into today's marketing scenario. I had an idea that ML and AI are used in marketing but had no idea about how in-depth the process is, and how Neural Networking works. 

Sam said that he made the switch to Marketing from coding because marketing was blooming then, and it was the right time to make the move. Similarly, ML. and AI have recently gotten marketers' attention and I think it is the right move for me to study them more and land a job in Paid Media domain.

Sam's work ethic inspired me and I got inspired by the fact that it is never too late to make a shift in life. I started following him on LinkedIn, to learn about the Aber Group as well, each day I wish that they have an opening for which I can apply ;)

Toward the end of our course, George Brown held a Carrier fair for 2 days. For me, it was something that I needed to up my Co-op game!

Roughly 20-30 companies had come to engage with students, like Diabetes Canada, Tweebaa, Salt, and more! I had so many questions regarding working as an International student. The process of application is different compared to India where I am from. I connected with Sabreen Khoja, the hiring manager, of the SALT group. I connected with Chris Mejia, from Mediabrands as well. Both of them were kind enough to explain the positions they had and what they expected out of us as co-op interns.

Tweebaa, one of the companies that came to the carrier fair, is now in touch with me for a possible marketing position (please do not jinx it! hehe). It is a Chinese company that is yet to launch. I first had a brief interaction with the ambassador in college who asked me to apply via GBCareer. I made a customized cover letter just for the position and attached a resume that GBC help me build.

Whatever I learned in the Digital Media Marketing seminars and from prof. Wendy has helped me a lot in real-world applications.

I am still keeping in touch with other people I made connections with on and off campus. I am posting articles and blogs for my college assignment on LinkedIn so that my newly made connection can see the knowledge I possess on particular topics and the langue I use to address them. 

The tip that has helped me more than anything is to find jobs that interest you on LinkedIn and then find the hiring manager for that company and particular job on LinkedIn itself, and then further connect with them. This helps is skipping the line as there are so many applicants for the same position. This is the reason I love the job posting that GBC has because it provides the email id of the concerned person and does not redirect me to some website.