Significant Career Lesson From A Marketing Leader At Amazon Web Services

I would say that there are a million ways to get somewhere. A lot of times, whether in school or throughout your career, you may think it's just a linear ladder to the top. Instead, it's often from left to right, down to up, side to side.

You might go to M before X, and then to A. This really speaks to being flexible and agile, knowing you can reach your destination via various pathways. I'm now in marketing, but I spent the first eight years of my career in PR.

Those PR years laid an amazing groundwork for me, especially in marketing, which involves so much content writing and strategy. What I found, and what people sometimes told me, is that it's amazing to have both perspectives because most people don't.

It's interesting if you're looking to do that, to explore both. You gain knowledge of both. So, even though I'm not in the PR function at AWS, I still have those eight years of experience.

I understand that world and can advise accordingly. I can also think through what a multi-pronged approach would look like when involving PR through a marketing lens. It also makes collaboration between marketing and PR easier when you can speak the same language.

A lot of times, that's not the case in many companies. Most people haven't worked in both industries to know how they function. It's actually quite critical for anyone looking to do that.

Especially now, marketing and communications are becoming an overarching umbrella seen more in the c-suite. They're now running marketing and communications, not just a CMO or a CCO.

So, if you think you're not on the right path, there's always something to extract from every opportunity. You can learn and grow from it. Even if you don't want to take something with you, you'll know what not to do.

I always leverage every opportunity as a learning experience, understanding that we can all get where we want to go in a million different ways.