After featuring Kate Sojda as our most recent expert in our "Ask the Expert" series, we could not wait to learn more about her career journey and what brought her to Simplicity!
MJ
Tell me a little bit about your career path – how did you end up here at Simplicity?
Kate
I started consulting about five years ago and joined Simplicity a little over a year ago after my previous agency was acquired. I'll never forget my first conversation with Carrie Morris; immediately after that call, I thought, “this is my new home”. The fit and the culture of Simplicity, it goes beyond the culture of the client. I felt Simplicity wanted me for me, not me for my contract or the client I was bringing with me. I felt valued. So, I decided to move my contract to Simplicity and have been in my current role for almost three years.
MJ
I love that! Tell me more.
Kate
I think it says a lot about Simplicity that, yes, they can find you a role, and they've got a lot of really great job openings, but when you have all of that, and you're looking for more than that, Simplicity has the more. It's not just about staffing, it's not just about the contract. That's obviously a huge part, but there are a lot of other non-tangible things that go into it too.
MJ
So true. You just created an “Ask the Expert Video” for us, and you clearly have a great understanding of paid media. I'm just curious, what did you study in school?
Kate
I was a Business and Computer Science Major and when I declared my major, my advisor asked me why I had chosen computer science. I replied, “so that I can better talk to tech people”. When he asked if I had any interest in being a developer or engineer, I responded with a resounding no. My main goal was to understand how to speak this language in the business and tech worlds, and that's why I did both business and computer science; I really wanted to combine the two. And I know this combo has really helped me throughout my career.
MJ
Can you tell us a little bit about your current role?
Kate
I’m a Senior Marketing Manager for Microsoft 365 Paid Direct as part of the Consumer Go-To-Market (GTM) Team. We’re doing outbound marketing for Microsoft 365, and my role specifically is to own the creative strategy and execution program for paid media. I manage a creative agency, work with all the internal stakeholders on understanding our messaging and brand, and then implementing that in a creative and engaging way for our customers. I live and breathe our brand and work with our creative agency to shape our digital story, execute all of that creative, gather insights based on the testing and learning that we’re doing, and report back across the business to help inform other channels and decision-making.
MJ
Is the work you’re doing now similar to what you were doing before?
Kate
It's not; it has evolved significantly over time. When I first started in my current role, I was the creative project manager, and over time, I have stepped into leading the creative strategy – I own it from top to bottom. Before paid media, I was doing internal comms, still managing creative and project managing, but internal comms versus external paid media are two completely different beasts with different objectives and audiences. I have always wanted to stay in the creative project/program management world because the creative side of things is what excites me and is my biggest area of passion.
MJ
Is there anything else you want to share about your career journey? Any advice you have? Or anything about what it's been like to work with Simplicity? What keeps you coming back?
Kate
I think it's really important that as consultants – or maybe it's the exciting part of consulting – you have the ability to continue to learn and grow and explore new areas, and you can apply your skills in many ways. As a corp. employee, you might not have this same level of opportunity to learn something brand new. You might be expected to have more background in a specific channel or a specific audience, whereas I think in consulting, you can have one or two of the three things that they're looking for, and then learn the third on the job. So, if you don't have paid media experience but want to get into paid media, you can find the right audience, client, or role that helps you lean into the experience or expertise you have. One of the best parts of consulting is the opportunity to explore and grow new skills with each project!
Interested in a consulting career with Simplicity?