How the women in our team got their start in the digital industry
Despite being one of the biggest and fastest growing industries in the world, only 30% of those working in the digital sector are female. As a company pushing for change and diversity in our field, we wanted to share how some of the women in the AD team got their start in the industry and show some of the different paths that exist.
“I studied Business at uni and knew I wanted to do something along the lines of IT/Digital when I graduated as that had been the most interesting aspect of my degree. I got a job on a graduate programme at HP straight after graduating. Initially this was to go down a more business analyst-type career path but the Project Management roles were much more interesting and so I’ve been project managing ever since—firstly with IT infrastructure projects and then moving to digital in 2018 when I got a new job!”
“I studied Service design at art school and knew I’d enjoy working in a creative environment, so I had started out pursuing work in a creative design studio. When I moved to Glasgow, having just started working on digital/web projects whilst in London, I could see that it was a real focus for many of the agencies here. I also thought it would be a good next career challenge – and learning curve – to take and build my existing skills in a digital environment.”
“I started off with a focus in journalism, having always loved writing, but I ended up taking a graduate copywriting role which evolved over a few years – combining digital marketing, mainly social media, and magazine editing. At that point I realised I loved digital marketing; I loved the creativity and the data analysis but I wanted to learn more and get more variety with types of accounts I was working on. That’s how I ended up working on the agency side, growing my skills and knowledge, and then progressing through the ranks here at AD!”
“I was working for a Financial Company and my boss had started up a digital agency. I started to do little tasks here and there and ended up attending a seminar they were hosting. I loved watching the presentations and everything about it excited me so much more than what I was doing at the time. A few weeks after that I spoke to my boss about the potential for me moving over to the agency and he said yes and that was it. As a startup company, I was involved in every aspect from Account Management to Project Management plus a bit of Operations too.”
“I fell in to PR after university (that was not my field at uni or my particular desire to get into) and spent 6 years at Discovery Channel working up from no experience to Publicist. I was made redundant from there, a former Discovery colleague on the digital side who’d been made redundant before me said ‘come and work with me at Disney for a few months’ and I then spent 6 years there, working up from no experience to Lead Producer for Movies and Franchises, dealing with everything from Tinkerbell and her fairy friends, through to sites for the Muppets, Maleficent and Marvel.”
“I knew at uni that I wanted to do something both digital and creative, and through a variety of freelance-type work got experience in graphic design, animation and some basic web design. After uni I did an internship, part of which involved rotating through different agencies and disciplines, and UX design turned out to be the perfect fit!”
“I started thinking about marketing as a career during my 5th year at High School. I always had an aptitude for analysing data, an interest in human psychology and liked that marketing combined all of this with creativity. I had always wanted to work in an agency environment after many years as an in-house Marketing Manager so when the job at AD came up I just had to apply. I love variety and problem solving so working across a wide range of industries was a major attraction.”
“I studied Politics and French at uni with the thinking that I’d like to go into journalism, but when I graduated I started working events for a drinks marketing company and really liked the marketing side of things too. My first full time job combined my love for writing with digital marketing, which I saw as the perfect mix!”
“I’ve always been fascinated by data and theatre! They’re not really a traditional combination, but I was fortunate enough to study both at University. I then found a role in the digital marketing team of Scottish Ballet where I found a love of ticketing systems and databases. As I learnt more about digital agencies, websites and the wider world of tech I realised that’s where my passion lay, and I’m fortunate enough to be here now!”
“I went to University for a business degree where I was given the opportunity to do a variety of modules, but I quickly grew to love Marketing. From there, we had talks in uni from agencies and I knew from the wide range of clients and work that you do, that it was for me. And I was lucky to have part time agency work experience whilst studying to confirm this—before apply for a full time job at AD after graduating!”
“I completed a Marketing HND at college for 2 years before studying Business and Marketing at uni in my final 2 years. Luckily, a lot of the course content was digital focussed, which gave me experience in copywriting, analytics, and social media management. I was fortunate enough to join the AD team a couple of months after graduating which was my first full time job!”
As you can see, there are so many ways to get started in the digital and tech industry and countless online communities waiting to share their expertise. Do you want to work for a digital industry? We’re hiring .