Driven by a love of writing and business, Ashley Eusanio began her career in marketing. She started on the strategy side, crunching numbers and researching audiences. However, she was still searching for the sector that fueled her passion. “I wanted something where I could bring my inherent writing skills back into my daily work,” she says.
When Ashley learned about the field of content marketing, she knew she’d found her career path. After accumulating as much experience as she could working for assorted brands in various verticals, Ashley was ready to hone her skills further.
“I wanted to be sure there wasn't anything I was missing. Or if there was something else in this newly emerging field that I hadn’t learned yet,” Ashley says. She notes that she’s always looking for opportunities to gain experience in her career, whether through a company class or a more extensive program.
Ashley’s desire to always be learning led her to the UW Certificate in Storytelling & Content Strategy . And that spirit carried her through the nine-month program.
A Well-Connected Network
As Ashley began the certificate, she quickly found the value in the direct access to instructors working full-time jobs in their respective fields, enabling them to stay on the pulse of today's tactics and strategies.
“The beauty of having these professors working every day in the field is they brought in recent learnings,” explains Ashley. “They also were well-connected and brought in their friends and peers from other companies as guest speakers.”
As a result, Ashley was able to experience how major organizations were approaching each of the different disciplines covered in class. “Whether it was storytelling at some of the top ad agencies or data visualization and content strategy at Uber and Salesforce, we heard real-life examples from these top tier companies,” she says.
Ashley also appreciated the diversity of backgrounds and perspectives in her cohort. “It was wonderful because everyone was virtual, and we had a global student body. There were folks from Canada, South America, East Coast and West Coast,” says Ashley. “My classmates ran the gamut from professionals embedded in corporate roles; some worked at companies like Amazon to others looking for a completely different career path.”
The best part? A few of the relationships she built during the certificate have transformed into lasting friendships.
“There are a couple of folks I stay in touch with that now work at Amazon and Microsoft and it's been wonderful to continue to network with them,” Ashley says. “There are opportunities at my company that pop up, and I'll reach out to see if they're interested and vice versa. It's paying dividends; I took this course five years ago and the relationships continue to sustain themselves.”
In Her Own Words
Alum Ashley Eusanio explains how the UW Certificate in Storytelling & Content Strategy gave her the skills she was looking for to advance in her career.
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Growing Her Career
Another of the real wins for Ashley was that the certificate program gave her a direct path to her current role as director of content strategy at Salesforce.
The program’s capstone project focused on content strategy and required a content audit to pull together recommendations for an organization. “My company was relocating, so I knew I needed to find a new job in the next few years, and I had my eye on Salesforce. I thought, ‘This is a perfect opportunity for me to get more familiar with the company,’” says Ashley.
She reviewed, analyzed and scored all of Salesforce’s publicly available content. Then, Ashley researched the company, digging into who the right audience was and optimizations Salesforce could make to their content. Lastly, she produced a story to help present her content plan.
A few months later, Ashley found herself interviewing at Salesforce. “I felt like all that research I’d done and the feedback from my professor who used to work there directly attributed to me having a leg up in the interview process,” she says. “It gave me an opportunity that other folks might not have had.”
Ashley made it through the interview process and now works at Salesforce, leading the content strategy for the organization. “I didn't have a dream of finding a new career; I just wanted to hone my skills, and the fact that I ended up at my dream company is icing on the cake,” she explains.
For Ashley, taking her content marketing skills from zero to a hundred and learning how to apply core concepts in today’s world has been incredibly valuable for her career.
“All three components of this program are directly relevant to the work I'm doing now. Pieces I've learned from the data visualization course, I use when I'm presenting to executives today,” says Ashley. “The content strategy I put together really helped me prepare for my interview and eventually my current career at Salesforce.”
“It's never too late to start learning and this program is flexible for those working full time and are trying to advance their skills. It pays dividends for years and years to come.”