Final Report: Digital Media Marketing Networking Blog
No doubt, networking plays an important role to enhance your knowledge, career, visibility, and even in the growth of your business. Especially when you move to a foreign land as an immigrant, searching for a field job is not an easy task. It can take you even more than a couple of months to find your dream job. As an international student at George Brown College, Toronto (Canada) I got a chance not only to enhance my professional knowledge but also got an opportunity to have industries leading experts as our guest speakers every week.
This two-hour of session with guest speakers not only enhanced our knowledge but also gave us an overview of the current market scenario in Canada. Before attending these sessions I was familiar with very few career positions in digital marketing but listening to experts actually broaden my career perspective not only in the private sector but also in the public sector. Talking about the guest speakers the one which I liked the most is Cathy McKnight. She is currently Chief Problem Solver at The Content Advisory. Because of her more than a decade of experience in the marketing Industry from smaller scale companies to world-leading multinational companies. She explained to us the work culture difference between both companies and also shared the ups and downs in her career. That was very inspirational for someone who is seeking forward to start a career in the industry. This also cleared my thoughts about the type of company I would like to work for in the future.
The concept of these lectures is to give students an overall view of the industry. Prepare us for our careers, motivate us to build effective connections, and also level up our networking game. Before attending every lecture I tried to search for the speaker on social media platforms, especially on LinkedIn, and tried to connect with them. This semester, I also go an opportunity to meet Mr. Neal from Start GBC. He is our mentor very humble and always ready to help. In my co-op, he guided me in detail to build a strong startup company and I hope he will also guide me in the future if needed.
As I am working for my company in this coop I tried to join Facebook and LinkedIn groups in search of freelancers for my clients but fortunately, I ended up making amiable relations with him and we frequently share our thoughts and ideas to do better as a new entrepreneurs. He helped me to understand and upgrade my social media marketing skills. We often attend webinars and got a chance to be a part of a Whatsapp group for social media influencers.
Finding a job is also not that easy especially if you are new to Canada, most companies prefer to have candidates with previous experience. If you have the right resources it can be a little less challenging for you. In my case, I used a couple of resources like the online job portal “Indeed” which is one of the best among them, LinkedIn is also a very useful platform for job search but for that one should have a strong portfolio and connections regarding your field. LinkedIn is also perfect to be in touch with the connections that could help you find a permanent job in marketing. Whereas, for a fresher, I would say GBCareer is the best, which also helped me to get a couple of offer letters from different companies.
This Digital Media Marketing course really helped me to upgrade my networking and also to get offer letters from different companies but unfortunately, the offer I got for the internship was unpaid so I decided to work on my project at StartGBC rather than working for someone else for free of cost. I believe this is a nice decision of mine because in this co-op semester I got time to work on my project under the supervision of our mentor Mr. Neal Lilliott. I learned many things from him that I think would not be possible for me if I was working for someone else.
In my experience, if you also want to work to enhance your networking skill the number one advice I would like to give you is to participate in as many events as possible and don’t be shy to speak up in the public. Be authentic, always do your research before attending any event or webinar, and also have questions to ask the speaker. Join groups and communities on social media platforms, especially on LinkedIn, and exchange knowledge. This Digital Media Marketing (B413) program pushed me to step out of my comfort zone and become a better marketer. I am really thankful to George Brown College and Professor Wendy for such a wonderful opportunity.
