Career Path of a Senior Manager SMB Growth at TikTok
Kelly's career journey began with a summer camp counselor role, unexpectedly providing "a ton of leadership skills," followed by marketing internships and a market development strategy role at Deloitte. After an MBA and further internships at Nike and various startups, leading marketing teams, Kelly pivoted to TikTok's growth strategy, focusing on "monetizing all of our business products."
Career Pivoting, Marketing Strategy, Leadership Development, Growth Marketing, Tech Industry
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Kelly Mellenthin
Senior Manager, SMB Growth
TikTok
University of Southern California (USC), 2013
UCLA Anderson School of Management, Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Marketing
Technology
Sales and Client Management
Scholarship Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School, Greek Life Member
Video Highlights
1. Kelly's diverse internship experiences (BB stores and a tech startup) highlight the value of exploring different fields to discover your passions and strengths. This is exemplified by her realization that marketing in professional services wasn't her ideal career path, leading her to pursue an MBA and further refine her career goals.
2. Her career progression demonstrates the value of continuous learning and adaptation. After gaining experience in marketing roles at various companies, she successfully transitioned into a growth strategy position at TikTok, showcasing adaptability and a willingness to embrace new challenges.
3. Kelly's experience at several startups illustrates the fast-paced, dynamic nature of those environments and the wide-ranging skill set (including various marketing channels) needed to succeed. This provides insights into the kind of work experience a student might encounter in the tech industry and what skills are valuable
Transcript
Could you walk me through your career path, starting with your experiences in college? Do you have any internships or jobs you had before your current role?
My first job in college was a summer camp counselor. This was the summer after my freshman and sophomore years.
At the time, I didn't realize how much it would impact my career. But it really taught me a ton of leadership skills that have served me throughout my entire career, even to this day.
If internships are tough, I highly recommend this. I know they are linear, but during undergrad, I had two different internships, both during the school year and in the summer.
The first was with BB stores, which was really popular when I was in college. I don't know if it still is. I was a marketing intern there and was really interested in marketing, fashion, and their intersection. It was a great experience.
I did an unpaid internship, which I know not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to do. But the experience was definitely worth it.
My second internship was at a tech startup called deal-based.com. They no longer exist, but I was a marketing intern for them as well.
After college, I joined Deloitte in a market development strategy role. I was there for about five years, spending the majority of my time working with Deloitte's clients.
I helped the firm think through what markets they should be entering, if they had the resources to staff those markets, and where industries were trending to ensure our services still aligned with business needs. I also handled more traditional marketing tasks like sponsoring events and creating marketing campaigns.
I loved that work, but I didn't think marketing for professional services firms was the be-all and end-all for my career. So, I went back to business school at UCLA and spent two years full-time learning everything I could about every other job opportunity I could possibly think of.
I interned at Nike the summer between my MBA years and learned that I really did not want to do supply chain. So, I think internships are good for learning what you want and what you don't want.
When I graduated, I decided I still wanted to be in the marketing strategy space, but in-house for a company I was passionate about. I worked for two different startups over the next two years, leading the marketing teams at both.
One was an e-commerce startup, a direct-to-consumer women's subscription box. I led a team of seven there, and we handled all growth marketing. We ran ads on every social channel, and did email, SMS, and direct mail marketing. We tried everything.
Then, for the second half of that time, I worked for an edtech startup doing the exact same thing. After that, I joined TikTok, which is where I am now.
I'm in growth strategy here, which is a bit of a career pivot from where I was in marketing. My focus now is on thinking at a macro level about how we can monetize all of our business products. These are the products that consumers don't see.
I can get into that in the next question, but that is my whole career path up until this point.