If you had asked me five years ago where I saw myself in 2022, I would have had no idea. I would not have said that I’ll know how to buy ads on LinkedIn, or set up event tracking in Google Tag Manager, or even write social media posts on a daily basis. Today, I can do all of those things and more as a digital marketer at Invest in Canada.
I recently passed my three-year anniversary of working full-time at Invest in Canada (four years if you include my time as a co-op student). Throughout the years, I’ve worked on some amazing projects and met wonderful people. Most importantly though, I’ve learned personal and professional skills and lessons that will stay with me for years to come. I thought I’d share some of those lessons to remind myself and others – whether at the beginning or end of their career – that you learn something new every day!
They say that a dream job is the combination between doing something you love and something you’re good at, and getting paid to do it. For me, that’s digital marketing. I love this profession because it enables me to be both creative and analytical. I love brainstorming a big idea for a campaign, seeing it come to life across different online platforms and then being able to measure my results and apply what I’ve learned to my future work.
However, the early years of my career have taught me that it’s important to not only enjoy what you do, but to be passionate about what you are selling. At Invest in Canada, it’s simple – we’re selling Canada as a place for global companies to expand. As a proud Canadian, it has been very rewarding to share the greatest features of my country on the world stage. The same things that I love about Canada – stability, welcoming immigration policies, an excellent quality of life and a world-class education system – are the things that also make Canada a great place to do business. That makes it easy to sell Canada and it also makes me believe in what we are doing as a company.
Anyone who has worked in marketing of any kind knows that it encompasses many specialties and is constantly evolving. Digital marketing is no exception. Being early in my career, I often get asked what area of digital marketing I want to specialize in. The options are endless: SEO, email, web, social, content, SEM, and so on. My honest answer to that question is “I‘m not sure yet”.
Part of the reason for that is because marketing is ever-changing. I entered the professional world in 2019, just a year before we faced the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the ways we live, work and interact have changed more rapidly than ever before. Consumer habits are also changing and people are demanding more and more of their online experiences. This is especially true in social media, since it's an extremely powerful platform where trends emerge and communities form. The changes of the past two years have taught me that as marketers, it's our duty to use the power of social media responsibly. For this reason, my passion currently lies in social media and I've focused on honing my marketing skills for this channel.
So while digital marketing may be complicated and ever-changing, the need to learn and adapt is what makes it so interesting.
At Invest in Canada, I’m lucky to have found a group of people that make work so enjoyable. The reason for that is because we’re all passionate about what we do and about Canada. But let’s be honest – that doesn’t always mean that you’ll see eye to eye. I’ve learned that diversity of opinions and experiences can be one of the best assets of a team, because it means you can challenge the status quo and find innovative ways to do things. At Invest in Canada, we have a small but mighty team. Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do and ultimately, we’re all working towards the same thing – making Canada stronger.
Despite being early in my career, I’ve learned what it’s like to be part of an organization and part of a team. When you support and learn from each other, you can achieve some pretty amazing things.
Whether you’re one year into your career or one year away from retirement, learning should never stop. So, I challenge you to take a minute and ask yourself, “what are the greatest lessons I’ve learned in my career?”