Life After Mac: Real Stories of Alumni Finding Their Way — Samantha
Like all new graduates, as soon as I put down my pencil on the final exam of my undergrad, I was on the frantic hunt for a full-time position. I felt confident in my resume — I had worked every summer at fantastic companies and I had stellar references. Despite this, I struggled to secure a position and I found that I wasn’t even sure what type of job I was looking for. I graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Sociology, and a Human Resources Management diploma. If you had to guess my current role, you may be a bit surprised to learn that I am a digital marketer. Ending up here took me on a bit of a whirlwind tour from event planning to inside sales to entrepreneurship. My career path has been a crazy ride so far — and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
When trying to understand what I wanted out of a career, I originally thought that event planning fit the mold. I knew I was organized, meticulous, and reveled in seeing a plan come together. Since I had no official experience in event planning, I emailed local event planners and offered to work for free. I was offered an opportunity to work (paid!) for a fantastic wedding planner and I also volunteered as an event coordinator with Habitat for Humanity. While balancing this, I worked a part-time job to support my pursuits. While it was a lot of fun doing events, weddings, and trade shows from beginning “ideas” stages to actual day-of coordination, I found myself exhausted by the end of the year. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep this up and that I needed to expand my experience and explore other options.
I maintained my position as a wedding coordinator and took on a full-time job in Inside Sales. Without intending to, I ended up gravitating towards marketing duties. I wanted to redo the company’s website, but I had no idea where to begin. I signed up for the Introduction to HTML and CSS course through Canada Learning Code. That course at Canada Learning Code reshaped my career path. I loved it. I knew then that digital marketing was what resonated with me.
Shortly after this course, I was set to move downtown Toronto and had to job hunt all over again. Though I had built a website and was managing social media for the company I worked for (and for other businesses as a “side hustle”) my skills in digital marketing weren’t competitive against the Toronto workforce. With minimal job prospects, I realized I had to continue growing my skills and catch up to my peers who had studied marketing and communications at school (why didn’t I pursue that program at Mac!). I was faced with an option: turn the side hustle into a proper business and support myself or take a low-paying, mediocre job. I decided it was now or never and I dove right in, launching my own website development and digital marketing agency alongside my partner. Neither of us were prepared for the success of this agency and what it gave us in return. It was an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything.
After running the agency for nearly two years, I decided it was time to move on to something bigger. I missed being part of a large team and contributing in impactful ways to a company’s goals and bottomline. I began searching for roles in tech in Toronto and I don’t think I could have envisioned a better “corporate” role for myself than the one I have now. There is a huge start up feel to this company and my position. I handle content and SEO (my obsession!), as well as many other aspects of digital marketing. I also take on and lead additional branding projects and was able to start up our internal magazine, deployed to over 600 wonderful people globally. I work for a company that trusts me to start and handle new initiatives and provides me the freedom I need to excel.
When you’re applying to post-secondary out of high school, whether you are certain of what you want to do or not, it can seem daunting to choose the perfect program. As my brother, Erik Lloyd, also learned you can’t predict where you will end up, so don’t sweat it! Post-secondary is about more than what you learn in the classroom and you can apply this knowledge of who you are and who you become to help shape your career path. McMaster offers a wide variety of majors and the right assistance to help you move between programs and try new courses.
In my case, launching a company out of necessity ultimately drove success out of survival. It was certainly not the “right time” to be starting a company — I had debt, my partner and I had just moved downtown Toronto where our expenses increased, and I had to leave my job in order to move. This was a scary step to take but was one of the greatest decisions I made for my career as it pushed me years ahead of where I would have been. Running my own business also helped me recognize what I wanted and needed out of a company and a team. If you want to start a business, you will likely never feel as though you’re in the right position financially, timing-wise, or that you’re experienced enough, but if you want to achieve your goals then you have got to dive right in!
Samantha Lloyd, BA Sociology ‘14
The McMaster Alumni Association, over the course of the next year, will be featuring one grad’s career story each week. If you graduated in the last 10 years and are interested in sharing yours, please email Nada at elnaien@mcmaster.ca.
If you are looking to get started on your own journey check out resourcesavailable to recent graduates through the Student Success Centre.
