Welcome to Mosaic‘s Marketing Science Careers guide with specialist contributions from assessment experts Rob Williams Assessment and STEM career experts School Entrance Tests.
Inspiring answers by Verity Gill, one of the Women in STEM careers Ambassadors on her life and working as Marketing Science Director for Agencies,
1. Name and Job role:
Verity Gill, Marketing Science Director for Agencies.
2. What is something about you people might not know?
My first job was in government intelligence and I LOVE karaoke
3. What are your hobbies?
Well… being a full-time working Mum, my hobbies are rowing classes, running, walking & Pilates WHEN I get the time!
4. What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I wanted to be a vet and/or a model!
5. Who was your biggest influence growing up?… who were your role models?
Gosh – singers like Madonna and Paula Abdul influenced me. However, I guess I wanted to be just like Selina Scott who presented The Clothes Show. I just always wanted to be terribly glam but couldn’t be bothered to put the work in! AS you can see it was pretty shallow but my role models are very different now… Mary Beard, Helena Morrisey (but also Joanna Lumley darling)
6. What were your favourite subjects at school?
I always loved Maths, English, Drama & Chemistry.
7. What were your least favourite subjects at school?
I hated Geography and Religious Education
8. How did you come to choose your current career path or were you led to it?
I studied econometrics at Uni and really loved it and was luckily pretty good at it. Then I went into banking and gravitated toward technical analysis (looking at stock movements and trying to identify patterns to predict future moves). However, finance didn’t float my boat at all. I got chatting to a friend who was in media. She said they were always looking for smart people in effectiveness. Subsequently, I interviewed for Mindshare and got the job. I loved that job then had kids, built a social network site, gravitated to digital effectiveness and here I am!
9. What are the biggest changes in the world of work (for women) that you are excited about?
I cannot wait for the work environment to be more actively designed around us. If you look around at the modern office, they are really great, but I doubt we would have designed them like this. More natural influence, more tactile furniture, different temperatures, places to meditate, places to talk to your kids on facetime etc…
Women in data
10. Would you say having a degree is the only path to a successful career?
Definitely not. If you love something you can learn about it in your own way. Sometimes the best way to learn is not to be taught.
11. Would you say there are opportunities for women entrepreneurs in your career?
Yes, thank goodness. We are the only thing holding ourselves back in the world of entrepreneurship.
12. What advice would you give your younger self and school leavers today?
Try everything, don’t be afraid and stop worrying about failure… the worst that can happen is that you learn something!
Make sure to follow our Women in Data series on STEM Careers Guide.