Making the leap into a successful marketing career is exciting, but not without its challenges. We spoke to Cameron Robert, Marketing Automation Manager, about his journey from customer service to marketing, and how he grew his career at Flight Centre.
In my previous role in membership services at a casino, I took the initiative in creating a complex spreadsheet to help assist in building a staff roster that was able to support high-traffic periods at our service desk. It just so happened that the marketing team needed some data and analytics talent, and after finding out I had implemented this data solution to solve this business problem, they realised I could be a valuable asset to the team.
I spent the first three months of my marketing career doing tasks no-one wanted to do – proof-reading promotions, data entry, reporting and more. It wasn’t until my third month that I was invited to help build an eDM in the email marketing platform. Until that moment, I had never really thought about how promotion and business emails got into my inbox. I didn’t know it was a job anyone had – let alone specialised in.
Emails are mainly built by HTML and data is selected in SQL – luckily two computer languages that I had already had some good experience in. I also remember working overtime and coming in on weekends and public holidays to self-learn everything there was to do with CRM and eDM marketing.
By the end of my first year, I was the Divisional Expert in marketing systems and was promoted to Specialist. Shortly after, I was seconded into the Loyalty team and continued to push my knowledge and the limits of marketing platforms. For anyone looking to learn and develop new skills, I would recommend putting in the extra effort to build your skill set – no matter what industry or role you’re in.
In my move to Flight Centre, I repeated my earlier career journey:
I’m still not sure how to quantify what makes me any different from everyone else - I don't consider myself to be particularly gifted or special - I just have a passion and pride for what I do. Passion for you work is a powerful thing. I joke with my colleagues that “you can just smell it on someone when you talk to them”, which translates to “they either have it, or they don't.''
Every person I’ve hired into my team over the last three years has that “smell”, that passion for what they do - and interestingly, most of them have gone on to win the highest award Flight Centre has to offer - the FCTG Global Gathering Award.
Looking to level up your Marketing career in a growing company? Check out our current career opportunities.
