26/04/2023
IE University graduates Ainoa Lander and Victoria (Vicky) Giustiniani gained more than just a degree; they created a friendship that also turned into a professional relationship. Both graduates of the Master in Digital Marketing, the two alums now work for SEO and content agency Graphite in distinct roles. We caught up with these two game-changers to hear their stories and get some advice on job opportunities post-graduation.
The Master in Digital Marketing is designed to train students to keep up with today’s fast-paced digital world. In times of disruption, students need to learn to be agile with their strategies and data transformation in order to provide lasting results. For Ainoa and Vicky, SEO growth and marketing wasn’t always the plan. Vicky explains that she “stumbled upon digital marketing by chance.” With a background in economics and management, she completed a course in art marketing and decided to focus her thesis on the impact digitalization was having on event marketing. Little by little, her interest grew toward digital marketing, leading her to an internship and then the decision to pursue a master’s at IE University.
Ainoa, on the other hand, majored in journalism. “But then I found out I was good at marketing as well,” she says, “So I double-majored.” She knew she wanted to study a master’s degree outside of her home country, Venezuela, and she was looking for the opportunity to take classes from industry leaders at a well-known institution.
IE University was an easy choice for her, especially as she has family and friends in Spain and friends who studied other programs at the school.
In 2020 she was given the opportunity to study 100% online, but she changed her intake to 2021 so she could study in-person and immerse herself fully in the IE University experience.
Opportunities within reach
After making the decision to delay her intake, Ainoa started working. She found a role working for Graphite, which at the time was a boutique SEO marketing agency based in San Francisco. She was one of 15 employees at the now almost 200-employee agency. The Master in Digital Marketing is a full-time program, so when she began studying, Ainoa told her boss that she needed to put her content strategy role on hold. But her boss had another idea, she explains:
At the time, I was doing content strategy for a lot of clients, so we figured out that if we reduced that scope, I could probably work and study at the same time—which is what actually happened.
Although it proved to be difficult, Ainoa was able to balance her studies, personal life and professional life throughout the 10 months. She even encouraged her CEO, Ethan Smith, to travel to Madrid to give a seminar on SEO. This led to new employee leads and opportunities, and several people from her program joined the company, including Vicky.
As the top of her class, Vicky got hired as a full-time content lead. Although she originally applied for a growth lead intern position, she was offered a role on the content team, which she’s thrilled about:
I’m super into content creation, but I’m also very much into data analytics and any kind of analytical activity. So, this is actually the perfect role for me because it’s a great combination of the two.
Vicky has since received a promotion and now works hand-in-hand with her team in ideation development and the monitoring of content strategies. She also has the opportunity to specifically tailor content initiatives for her clients.
We help our clients figure out and uncover topical opportunities and help them streamline the process of producing that new content. We also conduct performance analysis and identify key opportunities for improvement.
A program with results
After finishing the Master in Digital Marketing, Ainoa was promoted to director of editorial. She currently works on internal processes and workflows, ensuring that the team is happy and is delivering the best work. Ainoa says that the program gave her a truly holistic view of digital marketing, allowing her to open her eyes to a much broader view of the services she can provide to clients.
“The program offers something for everyone. You are given a holistic view of everything that’s going on in the world as of right now for digital marketing.”
Vicky agrees about the program’s holistic approach, explaining, “I’m seeing this in my day-to-day life at work. Being able to think about the full picture and different best practices allows you to find the best solution and the best strategies to optimize processes and innovate.”
The program’s holistic approach goes beyond the specifics of its curriculum content, with students able to study for important certifications that will open more doors in their professional futures. “That’s the amazing thing about IE University,” Vicky explained. “You not only get these amazing and super-renowned certifications like AWS and Google analytics, but you also get the chance to dig deeper into other things that are useful.” Both Vicky and Ainoa, for example, completed the Living with a Purpose certification offered by the IE Center for Health, Well-being and Happiness.
They clearly took something from that course; Ainoa advises future students to “always remember to breathe and try to enjoy yourself, because it’s going to end a lot faster than you think and it’s a privilege to have the opportunity to study at IE University.” And Vicky would like to remind students that they should enjoy student life and the moment they’re in, because “it gets difficult at times, but once you start working, student life doesn’t come back—so make the most of it.”
