I’m a chemical engineer that ended up working in music after a tour through news.
I’m a news junkie that always loved music. Although I played instruments (clarinet and oboe), I really loved finding artists that had an afro-caribbean beat, jazz influence, or just good dance music. Along the way, I got my MBA in strategy and finance.
How did you land your current role? Was it planned?
No it was not planned. I was previously at CNN and my former manager at CNN approached me with an opportunity at SoundCloud. We had worked together many years previously and he knew what I was capable of and what type of work I liked to do. I joined Soundcloud to review and revitalize the marketing tech stack. That transitioned to working closely with the Performance Marketing, Marketing Analytics, and Lifecycle teams. I recently added someone to my team who specializes in SEO.
What are the key roles in your field of work, and why did you choose your current expertise?
To be honest, I sort of fell into it. I’m a very analytical person and I always loved operations. When I was at CNN, I was officially part of the Digital Research team, but I was embedded in Audience Development. It was a perfect fit for me as our team was building out CNN’s newsletter program and I’m an email fanatic. I had previous experience running RFPs and I loved it. At CNN, I was able to build out our marketing tech stack and I’m doing similar work at SoundCloud.
I wear many hats at SoundCloud, all in the audience development space. Key roles include lifecycle management; performance marketing expertise in programmatic, social, and search; tracking via marketing analytics; and SEO.
Did you (or do you) have a role model in tech or business in general?
No. Growing up (middle school) I used to love IBM, but that was when it was still making hardware.
What does an average work day look like for you?
Everyday is different because I work with teams from many different areas. Typically, I have many meetings with both SoundClouders and external partners. We discuss how our martech stack is working for us, tracking items and what we want to see, how different areas of SoundCloud can come together to eliminate tech debt, and team building.
Has anyone ever tried to stop you from learning and developing in your professional life, or have you found the tech sector supportive?
I’ve always been a very curious person and a life long learner. For example, I got my MBA because I worked for a company that was willing to pay for it with no obligation. I’ve taken classes afterwards at my former business school because they seemed interesting and again I was able to get my company to pay for it. In general, if I’m interested in something, I am driven to learn more. I’ve never let outsiders influence this search for knowledge.
Have you ever faced insecurities and anxieties during your career, and how did you overcome them?
Yes as I’ve changed “careers” numerous times and each time I did so, I had to figure out how to tackle the new challenge. I couldn’t necessarily rely on industry knowledge or what I did before. During my career I did process improvement for commercial insurance, process optimization for industrial distribution, scaling for a news startup, Analytics, SEO, and pitches at a small digital agency, audience information at CNN, and now growth marketing at SoundCloud. All my roles involved some sort of problem solving and data. I overcame the insecurities by being very well prepared and modeling how my previous experience was applicable to my new role even if it wasn’t obvious.
What advice would you give other women wanting to reach their career goals in technology?
Explore your passions. As I said, I grew up a news junkie. I had a paper route in elementary school and I would read the afternoon paper as I delivered it. My job at the news startup was probably the first time work didn’t feel like a job to me because I was that passionate about the mission – looking for sustainable models for local news. I love being at SoundCloud because not only am I able to discover new music while legitimately working, through my teams’ efforts I can help artists get discovered and help fans discover their next favorite artist.
