Neha Rajesh

MSc Marketing and Strategy, 2012

Based in:

London

Formerly from:

India

Best piece of advice you’ve been given in relation to your career?

It's ok to say "No".

What was your first job?

I was a Mobile Energiser for Red Bull, promoting the energy drink in big cities in India.

Ambitions for the future:

To start my own business someday.

Marketing Lead, Google

Describe your current role and what attracted you to it.

I work at Google, and my goal is to help small and large businesses in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa work smarter, safer, and more sustainably. Knowing that technology has the power to create a better and more inclusive world for every human is what gets me out of bed every morning.

What’s your favourite part of the role?

We are in the midst of a technological movement led by AI that will completely change the way people live, work, and study in a few years. Being at the start of that journey is really exciting and motivating.

What are the key skills you learnt at Warwick that have helped you with your career to date?

Building a solid business foundation coupled with a problem-solving and curiosity-driven mindset. This is invaluable in the work I do today and was from the very beginning of my career. The best thing about Warwick was meeting and working with a group of smart, driven, and diverse people who completely changed the way I see the world.

Did you have a specific career path in mind when you chose to study at Warwick?

I knew I wanted to dive deeper into marketing. I loved the idea of using creativity and an understanding of human psychology to get products and services to people when and where they need it the most.

What top tips do you have for Warwick graduates who would like to work in your sector?

Marketing is equal parts art and science. It's important to have great ideas and imagination but be prepared to get comfortable with working with data to guide decision-making. Also, make AI your friend!

What has been your greatest career challenge to date and how did your experience and skills help overcome it?

Dealing with tons of ambiguity and dependencies on a number of people, teams, and processes to get the job done. Here's where problem-solving and sharp organisational skills come in handy. It's also really important to know how to influence upwards and sideways when working on complex projects.

What do you know now that you wish you had known when you were applying for jobs?

Instead of going far and wide and applying for every role I came across, it would've been far more productive to pick an industry or company I wanted to work for and then identify every angle to get an inroad there.