Baruch College’s chapter of the American Marketing Association hosted industry professionals, including two alumni, to talk about their careers as part of its “Marketing Week” celebration from March 27 to March 31.

Marketing Week is a five-day event that aims to enrich members’ understanding of the industry by inviting professionals to talk about their lines of work. The celebration is promoted by the parent organization and observed by its collegiate chapters, including the one at Baruch.

This year’s celebration invited professionals who work for advertising firms, financial institutions, service providers and brands.

Karina Chiqui studied marketing management at Baruch and graduated in 2022. She was invited by AMA on March 30 to provide insight on her transition from college to her current role as a senior brand manager at Procter & Gamble Co.

Additionally, Valeria Garcia, an associate marketing planning manager at Toronto-Dominion Bank, shared tips and tricks from her career on March 28. Dupé Ajayi, the global marketing lead at Airbnb Inc., spoke about using her career to create meaningful change in communities on March 29. Nicole Godreau, a global creative strategist at Spotify Technology SA, discussed her experience working for the music streaming platform on March 31.

Katarina Stanarevic received a bachelor’s degree in marketing management from Baruch and has returned to the college to obtain her master’s degree. Currently working as a media manager at the Publicis Media-owned tool Performics, she was invited by AMA to discuss social media strategy on March 27.

Going over her prior experience at other companies, Stanarevic said she “was taking care of everything, from social media management to SEO to event planning, so it really allowed [her] to experience different areas of marketing and figure out what I’m interested in.”

She discussed how marketers must follow key performance indicators if they want to meet their goal of increasing website traffic, media views and brand awareness in addition to profit. She brought up LinkedIn and Reddit as good platforms that marketers can use for research, especially if they want to reach people in specific demographics.

“It’s very communicative work,” Stanarevic said. “I get to meet a lot of people. I get to learn a lot from them, so this is something that I really like working in Publicis.”

Each guest speaker engaged in a question-and-answer session with attendees. Questions asked by students focused on why each speaker chose to work in particular functions of marketing, what their experiences with applying for their current jobs were like, how they perform certain tasks and what their work environment is like.

“It’s always great to hear from and connect with someone who shares a similar education background,” AMA President Meilly Cen Mo said in a statement to The Ticker.

Stanarevic’s event recorded about 30 attendees, and AMA Vice President Keithlum Collins-Moss told The Ticker on March 28 that Garcia’s event recorded 35 attendees. At the time, he said he expected attendance to increase the following days since that’s when the club has the most student activity.

AMA Communications Director Kevin Bravo later told The Ticker the Chiqui’s event recorded 40 people while Godreau’s event recorded 32 people.

Collins-Moss added that “attendance is greater this year than last year due to [AMA’s] rise of club awareness through social media” in addition to this year’s celebration being held both in person and online, “allowing students to either be there in the moment or learn through the comforts of their home.”

Although this year’s “Marketing Week” occurred at the end of Women’s History Month, the fact that all of the guest speakers were women was a coincidence, according to Collins-Moss. Bravo later clarified that this was attentional for the month-long celebration.

At the end of the event’s first day, Stanarevic imparted advice regarding work ethic for students to take to heart.

“My goal is always to prioritize in the beginning,” Stanarevic said. “The question is what needs to be done today and what is something that can wait. It’s all about priorities, careers and temptation.”