Major Insights: Marketing

Business School

Major Insights Interview with Lisa Vu

Written by Shuhan Tan

18/7/2020

Marketing is a fundamental skill within the business industry and is crucial to creating successful enterprises. The marketing major incorporates elements of communication between businesses and consumers to develop effective campaigns. Marketing involves understanding consumer behaviour and decision making to help brands innovate.

Former UNSW Business Society Marketing director, Lisa Vu dives into her experiences in university and career. She recently graduated in 2019 with a double degree in Commerce and Media, majoring in Marketing. She developed a diverse experience in a range of industries including technology, finance and fashion, following her internships at Westpac, Showpo and Spicy Broccoli Media, just to name a few. She is currently employed at Microsoft where she works on projects that span across content marketing, events and strategy.

Marketing is a more creatively oriented business major which oversees the strategies businesses utilise to maintain relationships with their customers. Lisa discusses what encouraged her to pursue marketing as a career:

“I guess I was somewhat lucky in that I knew what my personal brand was from early on - I have always been a creative kid, and I knew I wanted to get into Business because it just all clicked for me in high school,” she says.

Lisa shares her insights into what working in the marketing industry is like. She said, “It provided me with opportunities to express my skills creatively. There's so many opportunities and industries you can explore within the marketing field - my early career started in fashion but I'm now in tech,” she shared. Marketing requires both critical and analytical thinking and can be quite challenging. “Because the industry is continually evolving and innovating, it keeps me on my toes. Especially working in tech, it was the perfect intersection of mixing creativity, problem solving and innovation all into one.”

Lisa reflected on some personal difficulties she encountered working in the marketing career. Additionally, she emphasises the importance of reaching out for guidance and connecting with others.

“I think a key challenge, especially for someone early in their career, is jumping into an industry where you're working with people who have had 10-20+ years of experience and you question what value you can bring to their team. There's always going to be a struggle when you adjust to any industry as you feel overwhelmed - but what I've valued and learnt was my connection with people and mentors - remember, we are all human!”, she reveals.

Currently working as a Marketing Manager at Microsoft, she offers some advice she has learnt through her experiences. “I proactively reached out to people to mentor me and in turn those conversations allowed me to discover my superhero strengths, and my personal brand in the team. I found people are more than happy to share their experiences, and just generally have a nice chat!”

Here are some tips that Lisa has offered to students who are looking to pursue a marketing major!

  1. SUMMER INTERNSHIPS AT BIG COMPANIES AREN’T EVERYTHING! - Explore different start-ups and don't be afraid to work for small companies. You can learn so much in start-ups because you get an opportunity to get a holistic view of the business, and to view its operations from left to right. When Lisa worked for a fashion start-up company, she juggled various responsibilities due to a small team - but the learnings were invaluable.
  2. DISCOVER AND EXPERIENCE NEW THINGS - Dabble into different co-curriculars, projects and jobs at a variety of industries. Your time at university is the safe space for you to seek and participate in new activities.
  3. LEVERAGE UNI CAREER EVENTS - Use those events (eg. BSOC’s Careers Fair) to just chat to people, ask them questions, and explore what options are available to you!

Marketing Core Courses

MARK1012 Marketing Fundamentals

MARK2051 Consumer Behaviour

MARK2052 Marketing Research

MARK3054 Marketing Analytics

MARK3082 Strategic Marketing

Professional Accreditation

The Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) is Australia's largest professional body for marketers. The AMI's core purpose is to support progress in the careers of their members and advance the marketing profession. It includes the acquisition of the Certified Practising Master(CPM) qualification which recognises your career prospects by reflecting your high levels of competency, expertise, ethical standards and integrity.

For more information, take a look at our Careers Guide to learn more about Marketing as a major!

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