What was your first marketing job?

Assistant Marketing Manager, Everyday Banking at NatWest.

At university I worked part-time as a brand rep for Corona! I was a shocking ambassador as I didn’t drink it myself, but very popular with my housemates given the endless supply of free beer. An invaluable introduction to marketing not being as glamorous as I might have believed!

I fell into it through an editorial job at Ten Lifestyle Group. I was writing for the website, then became the website editor, then picked up more and more marketing: CRM, Google Ads, SEO. All the things that used to be called digital marketing and are now a world of channel specialists. There were about 200 employees at the time, so I got to try a bit of everything, and copywriting and messaging have been at the centre of my work ever since.

My first proper marketing job was at the Financial Times. I was a marketing manager for FT Business magazines, long enough ago for direct mail to be the biggest channel.

Digital Marketing at A’Lime Media doing strategy and managing campaigns for brands.

I worked in PR at Grayling in Leeds during my studies there, as well as doing placements with retailer Next (great fun at the press office in London).

My first ‘real’ marketing related job was doing social media for Emma - we are hiring!.

The firm had no local marketing (all run from the US) so I saw a gap and jumped in running events and supporting sales for their European division.

I became a guerrilla marketer before I even knew what that meant. At 16, I set up a brand activation at a festival for a family member’s personal injury law firm. The centrepiece was a photo booth where members of the public made their best car crash face. It sounds absurd, but it worked and it was a light-hearted way to connect people with the firm and open up real conversations about how we’d helped accident victims navigate insurance claims. I’ve always liked playing around with absurdity and shock-factor.

I joined Kindred Agency Limited as an intern fresh out of university, loved it immediately, and never really looked back. I worked across everything from government campaigns and STEM initiatives to, gloriously, the Potato Council. I also spent one boiling July day dressed as Paddington Bear for an Action for Children campaign, which felt like a pretty strong introduction to agency life.

I was a research analyst for Nielsen, focusing on consumer goods for Unilever. Interesting, but far from my dream job: impossible deadlines, difficult clients. Guess my lack of experience took its toll.

Selling old toys and Mickey Mouse comics at the market as a primary schooler. Best lessons ever in pricing, positioning, and direct selling.

I joined the graduate scheme at American Express, where I led the expansion of the Platinum Cashback card to grow penetration among mass affluent audiences, alongside the Costco Wholesale cashback proposition.

Working for a B2C fintech in Barcelona! I used to have my own personal blog on finance and when they found it they hired me a few weeks later. I was in charge of managing and growing their blog in three different languages (English, Spanish, and Catalan). Little did I know that this experience would later shape how we now help companies turn blogs into a key revenue channel!

E-marketing executive for a small business = badly designing physical brochures, strangely enough. The title didn’t match the to-do list.

I had a PR internship at Consolidated PR after I graduated from university, and fell in love with the pitch. I’m still in touch with two former bosses and a client from those early days, so I’m always grateful for the network it helped me build.

Probably me. I ran for student council as soon as I arrived at uni. I hit up the polling station just outside the union by busking for votes in the pouring rain. Right there was a lesson in the magic of grabbing attention with the highest volume audience in the right mind state (inebriated sports) with the right emotional connection (self-hazing fun).

After a couple of internships in agencies, my first permanent job was for a French mobile phone network. Starting my career in a large business was such a blessing, as I learned a ton of best practices, methodologies, and processes that have been so useful when moving to less structured environments. And starting in CRM, which was a rare area of marketing where you had data on performance and targeting at the time, opened so many doors when everything became data-driven!

Marketing Executive at ON YOUR BIKE HOLDINGS LIMITED, London Bridge, right when Brompton Bicycle bikes were exploding. Turns out folding bikes were very in demand.

Straight out of uni, I joined Zenith Media as a TV media buyer. It was fast-paced, vibrant, and full of legendary Friday lunches. A classic work-hard, play-hard environment that I loved.

On the social media team at BlackBerry (remember them?) supporting their Live & Lost campaign, delivering boy bands to fans’ bedrooms through the power of BBM…

Marketing my car wash and baby sitting services, delivering flyers door to door! My first paid marketing gig was at Sony BMG, doing direct and digital marketing for an impressive roster of boy bands. I was working in an industry where marketing measurement is there to see in the charts each and every week, sharing an office with none other than Simon Cowell.

Content marketing at Adfero. Writing advertorials for businesses to improve SEO, basically. Pure churnalism.

I’ve been “doing marketing” since I was a kid. My mum invented a holiday game for me and my five siblings called “the advert game” where she would hand us an inanimate object, and we’d each have five minutes to go away and prepare a brand name and advert for said object. I remember one time marketing a remote control as a “skin smoother with multiple functions”. I think I won that round.

First marketing job might have been distributing Chocapic dressed as a giant Pico (the mascot - it was big in the 90s) during a burning-hot Lisbon summer when I was 14. My first proper marketing job was running the social media department at Sky in London. Both involved trying to predict human behaviour in loco, but one was slightly less sweaty.

I joined the Hula Hoops brand team. I still remember working on those TV ads where everyone puts the round crisps on their fingers. That’s when it hit me that even a product shape can be part of your branding. Who knew circular snacks would be so educational?

I ended up in marketing by accident. I went to music school (thought I wanted to be a jazz musician!) and then worked for the Clinton Foundation HIV / AIDS Initiative in Latin America (thought I wanted to be a politician!). I randomly ended up at Forbes as a Social Media Intern, and now, somehow, 15 years later I guess I’m in marketing, ha. But I always say - I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up ;).

Running marketing for a fashion and lifestyle online magazine I launched with a uni friend. As we ran out of funding my job expanded to website coding and writing the weekly horoscopes... the original startup crash course!

I was a social media manager for a company that dispensed airtime online.

Persuading my parents we needed a dog when they both don’t really like dogs, age 9.

My first marketing job was to “dial for dollars” as a call center representative for my university. “Hi, it’s Jeremiah calling regarding the campus safety and lighting program.” [Deafening silence] “Hello? Are you there?”

Running B2B Marketing for an app development company. It taught me how to build momentum with few resources and a lot of creativity.

Various undergrad internships: an ad agency in Soho, Green Flag, and a janitorial supplier in Liverpool called Willy Wiper.

Internships at national newspapers in South Africa as a student, then my first full-time role was a graphic designer at a sports magazine publishing house. From print layouts to being a generalist fintech marketing leader - how far I’ve come!

Graduate position at the Melbourne office for a big Aussie creative agency, called BMF Australia. Met multiple, talented legends there.

One of the most fun marketing jobs ever. Brand Manager of Pepsi Max and I got to see it through a rebrand! (Side note: I think all aspiring marketers could benefit from a stint in CPG.)

I handled sponsorships within the marketing team of a commercial bank. It was fun but stressful balancing company objectives with multiple initiatives proposed by different departments.

Community Marketing Intern at ClearScore. I was the 20th employee.

L’Oréal grad scheme. Because I’m worth it.

Working as a marketing assistant at Imperial College London’s startup incubator, doing all the marketing admin the rest of the team didn’t want to do.

I was a ‘wingman for adventurers’ for an agency in Shoreditch. They’d signed up a bunch of famous outdoors folk to represent and needed someone to tend to their needs, and their egos. I had a background in adventure travel, so got the gig.

Events and comms at a private healthcare clinic. Less Mad Men, more “are these flu jabs still in date?”.

Marketing mortgages at Nationwide Building Society after their grad scheme. Big ATL campaigns, merch, and DM. Steep learning curve but brilliant fun.

As a Content Executive at Red Letter Days, where I was lucky enough to get to try out lots of different experience days that we sold.

Mascot (a fox) for the New England Revolution (a Major League Soccer team in Boston).

Selling imported perfume bottles from the Czech Republic on eBay when I was 14. Tough gig before AI-generated descriptions.

I joined Spread Co Ltd, an online trading platform, as Head of Sales. I soon realised that there was no marketing department and we needed leads. Before I knew it, I was running a marketing team with a 7-figure budget.

I had a part-time job at my hometown’s local magazine where I interviewed and wrote pieces for local independent businesses. First exposure to brand storytelling, I just didn’t know it at the time!

Telemarketing. Outbound cold calling. A tough but valuable experience.

Birmingham City Council as a Marketing and Events Officer. It was as dry as you’d imagine, so I soon jumped ship to adland and stayed there for eight years before making the move client-side.

Selling plumbing parts at Leroy Merlin in France during a summer - a pipe dream 🛠️.

Selling Yellow Pages® ads door-to-door to small businesses.

Slinging second-hand records on eBay aged 15. I didn’t know it at the time but it was the best possible introduction to understanding scarcity, driving attention, and converting it.

I was lucky enough to cut my teeth in marketing at Manchester United in the global sponsorships team. I took part in a host of marketing activations with some incredible brands and players.

Marketing for the Financial Times when I was 18.

It was at the Bradford & Bingley plc group many moons ago. The highlight? Lunch every Friday at one of London’s best Italian spots - Ciao Bella on Lamb’s Conduit Street.

Growth at a startup called WhipCar. It was the world’s first P2P car sharing service and was sadly probably ahead of its time.

I was a Marketing Assistant at Ted Baker. I’ve gone from fashion to fintech, and it’s been quite the ride.

Launching Monzo Business as a Customer Operations person at Monzo. I just didn’t know I was doing marketing at the time.

Retail PR intern running around London getting Waitrose and Superdrug product samples into the hands of magazine journalists.

Pulling pints in a pub. I learned the art of upselling crisps and that happy hour is just rebranding for slow Tuesday afternoons.

PR for a major global bank - I was so green and my boss was an ex military helicopter pilot. The advice he gave stays with me still.

I optimised a website for a beauty salon in Amsterdam when I had my own marketing agency. I know everything about microdermabrasion, soft laser and IPL therapy!

A Junior Account Exec at Lansons (now Lansons | Team Farner) – an agency based in Farringdon. It was a great place to start my career, and several of my closest friends and mentors are people I met whilst there.

My career started in Customer Service at Spotify. We’d do fun things like sending people a customised playlist when we’d solved their problem. I didn’t realise until later that technically I was learning key marketing skills that I still rely on today.

I began my career in media agencies and ad agencies. My first marketing job was at Habito in 2017.

I hand delivered newspaper subscription pamphlets for my family’s newspaper store to every house in my hometown. I guess my career started in direct mail.