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Beedie School of Business › Marketing
SFU Co-op Student

Christy at the balcony looking over the city at the TELUS location
I am confident that my enhanced skillset will further prepare me for careers in marketing, design, and perhaps even product management.

Going back a few months to May 2017, I found myself browsing through all the different positions on SFU’s myExperience portal. Being a Business and SIAT Joint Major with concentrations in Marketing and Design, I am often able to find many career opportunities.

After applying for a few positions and going through several interviews, I was excited to receive an offer from TELUS, the largest telecommunications company in Canada. At first, I wasn’t sure if I should pursue marketing at TELUS because while it is very well-known for its marketing strategies, I was quite unfamiliar with the telecommunications industry. However, I was sure TELUS and I shared the same core values of wanting to create positive customer experiences through our work; and TELUS already does this very well. So, my decision was made – I decided to take on a marketing position at TELUS.

TELUS office

Before my co-op began in September, I remember studying up on TELUS and the position as much as I possibly could, wanting to be absolutely ready for my first corporate job. I had worked as the Communications and Marketing Assistant for SFU International Co-op in the past, so a Marketing Coordinator position on the Home Solutions (PureFibre) Marketing Strategy and Execution team seemed relevant. When I started working, I met a lot of great people who also happened to be my co-workers and arranged coffee chats to get to know them. I went through a lot of introduction workshops, onboarding documents, and also had to learn all the jargons and acronyms!

My main responsibility was to help my team of senior market managers with customer acquisition campaigns and more. This involved participating in discussions and taking on some tasks such as creating briefs for the Creative Design team to develop promotional materials. After I got the hang of my main duties, I got involved in much more. At first, from the job description, I was under the impression that all my responsibilities would be marketing-related. During my interview, I had expressed interest and experience with branding, copywriting, and design -- little did I know that I would actually get to work in all of those areas at TELUS!

Branding and Copywriting

I had a chance to learn about TELUS’s branding and tone of voice that I then reflected in some of the work I did. In order to do so, I -

  • went through a few branding workshops to learn about TELUS’ tone of voice, colours, typography, and more

  • drafted copy for ads, postcards, social media posts and more, leveraging product claims and ensuring that the content was appealing.

As I have interest in doing branding work, I had an exciting time learning about TELUS’ brand and applying it to promotional materials that I helped design. I learned that branding involves many elements such as copy, imagery, colour scheme, and even music, all of which need balancing.

Design

To help the team be more efficient when it came to developing promotional materials, I got a chance to create initial drafts for the Creative Design team. I also got to work on several other design-related projects, such as:

  • with the internal Creative Design team by providing briefs, copy, and drafts for ads, postcards, and more

  • initiating a TELUS Digital Product Design project with a Product Manager which utilized user experience and user interface skills (research interviews, personas, journey frameworks, mock-ups and testing)

Having a passion for design, the chance to work on design-related projects enriched my overall experience at TELUS. I was very glad to see that marketing teams work very closely with design teams and I could pursue both the paths that I wanted to.

Web Analytics

My managers were also receptive to my keen interest in expanding my knowledge in web analytics so I got the chance to take on some analytics projects as well. This is just some of the work I did:

  • shadowed a Web Analytics Manager and learned to use programs such as Adobe Analytics

  • utilized heatmaps and click rates to analyse the performance of TELUS’s web pages

  • presented insights and recommendations to the digital team to enhance the web experience, aiming to drive more conversions for TELUS

From my work, I learned that data can be very helpful in understanding consumer behaviour, and the insights gained from analysing the data can then be applied to marketing strategies.

Aside from the vast marketing work that I handled, I also got to further expand my personal skill set in the time period of just four months. From my branding and copywriting involvements, I learned the importance of consistency and having a friendly personality that appeals to customers.

Christy and her teammates dressing up

TELUS’s tone of voice is very friendly and approachable and the critters that they use are very appealing, making technology seem warm and friendly. I am glad I was able to contribute to the development of a prospective digital product that can provide value to TELUS and their customers. This was such an amazing addition to my portfolio of experience design projects! 

Last but not the least, my learnings in analytics confirmed the importance that data can play in helping shape user experiences.

I am confident that my enhanced skillset will further prepare me for careers in marketing, design, and perhaps even product management. In either of those fields, I will aim to balance the values and practices of both business and design. I am thankful for all my amazing co-workers at TELUS who helped me grow into a more well-rounded individual. My co-op experience could not have been any better than what I had at TELUS!

Beyond the Blog

SFU Co-op Student
Be sure to connect with Christy on LinkedIn by visiting her profile here.
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Mar 10, 2018

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