An English degree at
Ashland prepared me better for my job than any other degree I could have
pursued. I work with copywriters, proofread their work and offer strategy as
needed, and it's at this time that I am grateful to have spent hours in writing
and literature classes, since there is no room for grammar or structural errors
in an agency setting. On the other hand, I flex my analytical skills on a daily
basis while dissecting websites and performing research. I can credit a lot to
Ashland and the hours I spent studying and breaking down everything from
classic novels to international literature to film.
Creativity is not only
encouraged at Rosetta, but expected - we're constantly looking for ways to make
a difference in people's live with at the same time delivering business impact.
I can wholeheartedly say that the professors and English department at Ashland
offered me the creativity and skills I needed to dive into a career that I had
no idea I would end up in, let alone fall in love with.
Shortly after
graduation, I was lucky to land an internship with Ketchum, a PR agency in
Washington, DC. I lived there for about four months and enjoyed every second of
it - I got involved in their digital sector, which was the transition into my
full-time career. I worked for a little while at a small digital marketing
agency, and most recently grew into a Senior Digital Marketing Strategist role
at Rosetta, an interactive
marketing & customer engagement agency in downtown Cleveland.
I now work on a
handful of nationally recognized clients. Without getting too technical, I'll
say I work on my clients' websites to help achieve a few different
goals:
- Work with their
marketing teams to develop effective content strategies and content
marketing campaigns (aligning with several other facets of online
marketing as we develop them)
- Help build
websites in a way where they can be easily found across the web and in
search engines (since most people online are spending their time on them)
- Promote and
share content across the web
Finally, I can say
literature courses, and especially ones like the South African course that
Professor Lehman taught, were invaluable
because it opened me up to the most important experience of all outside of
work: the human experience. The values, philosophies, and musings that came out
of the readings in many courses are those that cannot be absorbed in a science
class (though science courses are insightful in their own right).
