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Content Marketing Executive: Inspire Me

By UCL Careers, on 7 February 2015

As part of our #UCLInspireMe series, Kavita Shankar, Content Marketing Executive at BSkyB talks to us about how she got his role and shares some tips for UCL students who want to get into the Marketing sector.

How did you get into your role?BSkyB Kavita Shankar

My name is Kavita and I work in Content Marketing at Sky. How did I get this role? Well actually I applied for the marketing graduate programme at Sky and I got to the final assessment centre stage but wasn’t offered the role. A few weeks later I got a call from the HR team at Sky asking if I was interested in another role within Talent Attraction in HR. I really loved the company after experiencing it at the assessment centre and jumped at this opportunity. A year and a half into the role an opportunity came up in Content Marketing, exactly what I was looking for. I always had a passion for marketing and even structured the modules in my Psychology degree at UCL to suit this career.

What are the best things about working in your role?

There are several great things about this role. In a nutshell, I manage the marketing relationships between Sky and our partner channels, working on joint marketing campaigns. This gives me the opportunity to work with many different people/channels that vary from Discovery Channel to Disney Channel. No day is the same, working on different routes to market from radio features on Heart FM, digital ads you see in the tube stations to billboards on the roadsides.

With invites to channel launches and show press conferences some of the highlights of the role have been meeting Karl Pilkington and Dynamo, walking the red carpet with Bruce Willis, the premiere of Captain Phillips with my favourite Tom Hanks himself and bumping into some of the Kardashian family on my way to a meeting!

Oh and nothing can beat the standard benefit for all Sky staff – the full Sky package in all its HD glory for free!

What are the biggest challenges you face in your work?

It’s not all watching TV! Sky is a fast paced environment, which is challenging and what I love about it. Specifically in my role with so many channels and points of contact one of the biggest challenges is managing the workload, this is where organisation is key. Meeting deadlines is important as many of these timelines are dictated by media delivery dates. Marketing is a creative industry but also very process led with many stakeholders – managing key stakeholders is a challenging aspect of the sector.

What top tips would you pass on to a student interested in this type of work?

1)     Do as much research as possible, read articles, marketing sites and keep track of the innovations in the sector through blogs etc.

2)    Try and gain experience in the field, ideally both in agency and client side to be able to see how it all works together. Some companies may offer unpaid experience but this can be priceless on your CV.

3)     Go to career fairs and company presentations, this is a great opportunity to meet people in the field and ask them any questions you might have.

4)    A genuine interest in the field you are marketing will be what gets you up in the mornings.

5)    Don’t be afraid to try areas you are not familiar with, you never know what you mind end up having a passion for or being good at.

6)     All experience is relevant as it will help build skills required in any sector or role, take as many opportunities available to you and make the effort to seek them out.

7)    Try do something that will make you stand out in an application or an interview – for example I did a film internship in Bollywood in Mumbai and worked in the carnival Samba Schools is Rio, things like – this will help differentiate you from other candidates.

If you’re interested in a career in Marketing, visit Careers Tagged and find over 550 resources to get you started.

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