Career Path of a VP Marketing in Financial Services
Philip's career path began with summer sales roles during college, where being an athlete limited internship opportunities, then moved into a challenging cold calling role where "being a little too tight" highlighted the gap between academic and real-world communication. This led to digital marketing, including paid search, social media, and CRM, before a pivotal move to a financial services company, progressing into marketing operations, data analysis, and machine learning, demonstrating continuous learning and adaptation.
Digital Marketing, Financial Services, Paid Advertising, Leadership, Data Analytics
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Philip Cozens
VP Marketing
Financial Services
UC Berkeley
History, Art History
Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Communication and Marketing
Student Athlete
Video Highlights
1. Early sales experience was not a good fit, highlighting the importance of self-awareness and finding roles that align with one's strengths and communication style.
2. Transitioned into digital marketing, mastering paid search, paid social, affiliate marketing, and CRM remarketing, demonstrating the value of adaptability and acquiring in-demand skills.
3. Embraced continuous learning, particularly in analytics, SQL, Python, and machine learning, underscoring the need to upskill and stay relevant in a rapidly evolving field, even with a non-technical background.
Transcript
Could you walk me through your career path, starting with your experiences in college? Please include any internships or jobs you had before your current role.
I spent most of my college summers working in sales roles. As an NCAA athlete, I didn't have much time for internships during the school year.
After college, I took a sales position in Los Angeles. It involved cold calling about 200 businesses a day for independent consulting.
I didn't enjoy cold calling. I felt too stiff on the phone and caught off guard when speaking with high-level executives. As a recent graduate, I expected communication to be a certain way. While being articulate is important, I think I used too much jargon. Many people fresh out of college make this mistake, projecting their expectations onto business interactions.
After that role, I moved into digital marketing, specifically paid search. I improved the cost per lead in that space. Then I took on paid social, mainly Facebook, affiliate advertising, and CRM remarketing, which included internal emailing.
Next, I joined a digital agency in Los Angeles, working with large brands. We spent $6 million a month solely on paid search. This was a valuable experience for understanding corporate strategies and best practices in paid search and business communication.
After the agency, my former boss from my first digital marketing role approached me about a financial services company. He offered me a position three times before I left the agency.
In financial services, I focused again on acquisition, similar to my agency work in paid search. I also handled paid social, affiliate marketing, and P&L responsibilities, which was a significant jump. I had done it before, but not at that level.
My director role in financial services also involved marketing operations, including lead routing and dialer cadences. I also delved into analytics. Although I had taken calculus in college, I knew very little about SQL or statistics.
I was learning a lot on the fly. This led me to learn Python and dabble in machine learning modeling, picking up skills on my own and from colleagues. Things have taken off since then, shaping my career up to this point.