Member Spotlight: Thulasi Mahendrarajah— Marketing Manager
Thulasi is in her 4A term of Science and Business and her 2nd term with 180 Degree Consulting! Thulasi decided to join 180 in early 2021 because she remembers talking to her friends about being a part of something that helps others, but she also wanted to learn something while she did that. Joining 180 has become one of the highlights this year because it’s allowed Thulasi to step outside of her comfort zone while learning a lot of new things. A fun fact about Thulasi is that she is a big reader and spends a lot of her time on Goodreads or searching the internet for new books to add to her “to be read” list. Thulasi hopes to have her home library one day!
1. As a Marketing Manager at 180 Degrees Consulting Waterloo, what are some of your responsibilities?
As the marketing manager, I help with our organizational outreach and branding. This includes helping maintain a strong social media presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, writing articles on topics related to consulting and non-profit organizations, working on marketing strategies, and as well as helping with any additional marketing projects for the term. Our team meets once a week to brainstorm new ideas as well as pre-plan the content that we want to work on for the upcoming weeks/months. Since we have various platforms for different audiences, we work on different ideas based on the audience we are hoping to reach. I’ve written two articles so far for the branch as well as worked on strategy projects behind the scenes to help determine the posts that go on our social media pages.
2. What are some notable highlights during your time with us?
A big part of why I chose to return to the branch is that our team is great. Being able to work with energetic and positive people makes my time memorable. With a lot of the content and projects our team puts out, there is a lot of planning that goes into it so being able to be a part of that process has been great. I remember the first article that I worked on for the team and the process of it coming to fruition. I hadn’t written in the past and with all the hard work I put into it, it was a great feeling seeing the article be published. During my time at 180, I continue to feel proud of the projects our team has taken on because it feels great to put out meaningful content that is meant for a large audience.
3. What do you think are the most important skills for success in your role?
Being able to adapt to critique, attention to fine details, and being creative. As a marketing manager, you have to be able to contribute and lead creative discussions and help brainstorm new and unique ideas for our content. A lot of the content we create needs to be well-refined and extremely polished, and I might not catch all the details right away. Working in a creative department requires you to be able to reach out to others for feedback and make sure that all ideas are heard and valued. It is always important to remember that the content and projects that we work on are representative of our organization, so making sure that it is its most polished version is important. As I also work on data and strategy projects behind the scenes, I must be able to look into the details of our posts and the data we collect so that we develop a concrete strategy for our future posts. Having an eye for detail as well as being able to think outside of the box helps me be a valuable member of the team.
4. What are some skills you were able to improve upon since joining?
I was able to strengthen my leadership and data evaluation skills. As I got more comfortable in my role at 180, I began taking more leads on specific projects that we worked on, so in turn, I needed to be able to build on my leadership as well as communication skills to make sure that we were all on the same page. Working with social media metrics and data has also helped me build on my data evaluation and research skills because I had to build my knowledge so that I can help build effective marketing strategies and campaigns for the branch.
5. What advice would you have for those who are looking to join 180 Degrees Consulting Waterloo in the future?
If you are interested in joining 180 Degrees Consulting, it is important to remember that case interviews are a crucial aspect of your interview process. With any interview, you must be able to convey your ideas concisely so that your interviewee is confident in your abilities to evaluate and communicate your thoughts. Also, feel free to be as explorative as possible! Our branch is always looking for people who share our common goals of wanting to make an impact and being a strong team player so you must show us your skills and feel comfortable sharing your ideas as well.
