Kaitlyn Perry: Navigating My Career Through the Past Four Years
One of the best decisions I made in college was pushing myself to join organizations and step outside my comfort zone to meet other students. I was initially nervous about making friends while navigating the world of business, but getting involved in campus organizations helped me do both. During the fall quarter of my freshman year, I joined Delta Sigma Pi, the on-campus professional business fraternity. Through this organization, I quickly developed professional skills and connected with many driven individuals in the business school, including older students who became invaluable mentors in navigating internships and shaping my career path. Delta Sigma Pi laid the foundation for my professionalism and played a key role in getting me to where I am today. I also joined the Undergraduate Marketing Association to connect with other marketing majors and engage more deeply with my field. Attending alumni panels allowed me to explore different marketing roles in the tech industry and gain a clearer understanding of potential career paths.
Marketing is an incredibly broad field with many different career paths, and my goal throughout college was to explore various options through internships to find the best fit for me. I’m grateful to have had my first internship experience during my senior year of high school through an internship class, where I worked on social media marketing. I continued down that path with two more social media-focused internships during my freshman year of college. However, I soon realized that while social media is often the first thing people associate with marketing, I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I had expected. I knew I needed to pivot with my next internship. Through coffee chats – and probably a bit of luck – I landed an internship at Salesforce on the Global External Communications team. Before that, I had never considered communications as a career path, but I became fascinated by the level of effort and detail involved in crafting stories for the Salesforce Newsroom. While I found the experience exciting, I still wanted to explore other areas within marketing.
For my junior year internship, I received an offer from Workday to join the product marketing team for Workday Student, the same platform we use at Santa Clara! This role was my favorite so far because it was the most technical within marketing, focusing on backend critical thinking and strategic decision-making rather than content creation. It combined everything I enjoyed about marketing into a role that felt like the right fit for me. Now, I’m excited to return to the same role and team full-time after graduation, knowing that I’ve found a path that aligns with my interests and strengths.
After four years of college, the biggest lesson I’ve learned about career growth is to always say yes to new opportunities. Every experience helps shape your future. Growth comes from stepping outside your comfort zone, and each opportunity provides valuable insight. Be curious, ask questions, and take advantage of coffee chats and networking. You’ll hear stories and perspectives you never expected, and those conversations can open doors to paths you might not have considered before.