To celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8th, we’re sharing eCommerce career tips from the women of Fresh Relevance, our customers, and thought leaders.
Read on to discover career tips from 8 of our female workforce, customers and eCommerce thought leaders.
Chloe Thomas, Author & Podcast Host, eCommerce MasterPlan
- In your 20s take every opportunity to widen your experience.
In your 30s start zeroing in on what you’re good at and love, and care far less about your “weaknesses”. - If you think you’re ever going to have to update your CV again – keep a doc that you update each week with key achievements and results, and all that stuff that makes for great “I achieved this” in your CV bullet points. Doesn’t need to be tidy, it’s just for you to look back on when you next need to update your CV.
- Ask for advice and help from those ahead of you (I’m awful at this! And I wish I’d used such opportunities more in the early stages of my career especially).
- Pick a personality profile tool to really get to grips with – take it yourself, make sure all your team take it, and get an expert in it to help you all work out how that will make you a better team, and better people.
- Finally, it’s not all about the money – find a way to be happy too.
Louisa Brooks, Email Marketing Manager, Chessable
Having a successful career comes down to awareness of our culture, how we tend to show up, and identifying which parts of that don’t actually serve us.
Women in most cases, even today, are conditioned to be extremely modest and apologetic which really holds us back in not only day-to-day projects but also our own long-term career goals.
Being confident in your work and decisions is key to embodying strong leadership. Being firm, but also being able to take criticism where needed, is an important skill to learn. This is how you find resolutions that actually work.
Shruti Baliga, Digital Designer, Fresh Relevance
Say “yes” more!
Embrace challenges and opportunities you are presented with, even if they’re not directly linked to your goals. The experiences you gain by trying will add to your skill set or even allow you to better recognize what you are good at. Worst case, you know your limitations and can say “no” without regrets.
Alice Clark, Digital Analyst, Molton Brown
- Immerse yourself in the industry, don’t limit your ideas to your channel and always think of the bigger picture. Look beyond immediate competitors, share brand examples, attend events, webinars and most importantly ask questions.
- System integrations create a seamless experience for both backend and frontend users. User journeys should be streamlined yet inspiring, sparking intrigue and emotion.
- Collaboration is key. Lean on stakeholders’ expertise to accelerate an idea, be strategic about your pitch or proposal and be clear on what you are trying to achieve and how this will help you meet key business objectives. Finally, think about the support you will need to reach this goal – do you have the right tools?
- Trust the data. Don’t assume a certain user group will engage more with a certain piece of content. Test different experiences with varying customer segments to truly understand your customers and what makes them tick.
Laura Ko, Senior Graphic Designer, Fresh Relevance
My tip for women in design is not to compare yourself to others. There will always be designers you think are better than you and comparing yourself to them will set you up for disappointment. Instead take inspiration from designs you think are successful, discover which aspects you like / dislike, and learn from your observations. The only fair comparison you can make is with yourself and as long as your work is getting better and fulfilling briefs, you are winning! It’s always a big confidence boost to look back on old work and see how much it has improved over the years.
Camilla Bass, Senior Content Marketing Manager, Fresh Relevance
My number one tip would be to put yourself forward and make the effort to step outside of your comfort zone. Don’t like public speaking, for example? Volunteer to give a presentation to your team or speak at a company event. Personally, I used to dread the thought of speaking in public and would only do so reluctantly. But over the years I’ve pushed myself and now I present lots of Fresh Relevance webinars, have taken part in panel discussions and more! I still give myself a little internal pep talk before each event, but believe me, it gets easier each time.
It’s worth remembering to set boundaries for yourself, though. Sometimes saying yes to everything isn’t feasible (or healthy!) so make sure you have a balance.
Kath Pay, CEO, Founder & Author, Holistic Email Marketing
Read as many books and articles on your topic as you can. Always hunger for more information and to incrementally improve your knowledge. Accept as many opportunities as possible to speak in public (in-person or online) and write articles. These provide evidence to your existing and future employers of a woman who is focused on her niche, role or sector. Ensure you have evidence (links and screenshots) of these and collate them in a playbook of your contribution to the industry or role that you specialize in. Also, add to this playbook mini-case studies of your successes with as many factual numbers as possible i.e. we increased YoY revenue by 24% by…
Ellie Emerson, Head of Sales Development, Fresh Relevance
- Never let success go to your head and never let failure go to your heart.
- Get comfortable with the idea of being uncomfortable. If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.
About International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day takes place annually on March 8th and is a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.
This year’s theme is #EmbraceEquity, with the aim of sparking a discussion about why equal opportunities aren’t enough. Learn more about the campaign.
