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Women in Leadership Profiles
Women in Leadership Profiles
Next in the series of 'Women in Leadership' profiles is Georgina Holt.
Role: Digital Marketing Executive
Company: Brewin Dolphin
A bit about Georgina: I've been working professionally in this industry for about four years. When I was 23 I moved to Madrid for an experience abroad, teaching English and learning Spanish, originally for a year, but staying for two. I met my partner there and we moved to Italy for a further five years before heading back to the UK in 2019.
What is it like working in your company? BD believes in investing in its people. I feel supported and encouraged to build my own career path based on my interests, skill set and ambitions. Day to day I work on regular tasks that keep the business going but I am also always supporting a number of larger projects where I can learn and be more creative. I've also just been sponsored for a post-grad course, so I'll be studying towards a further qualification over the next 6 months.
Why did you decide to go into your chosen field? I think I was looking for a job that would allow me to support myself in terms of salary, whilst allowing me to be creative.
What qualifications and work experience did you need to reach your current position? Everyone in my team has come from a different background. I studied Fine Art, but I had a break before starting my career. Three years after graduating I went back to university in Italy to study Marketing Management.
A couple of managers I've had studied journalism, and the Head of Digital when I joined had studied Geography!
I think the older you get, the more you realise that your university qualifications do not necessarily dictate your future career path. You need to live a bit and learn what you are good at and what you want to do. You will not always realise your strengths until you notice that other people can't do what you can do.
What do you enjoy the most about your job? My area of marketing is generally where projects go live and results come in. So I love pushing a project out, like a new site, web page or social series which will be seen externally, then seeing the impact that it has and tracking the results.
I get to see what works, what doesn't work, experiment, improve and report back to the department.
What obstacles have you overcome in your career? Imposter syndrome has been my biggest obstacle, and being able to be openly gay is the second.
My first two jobs were in Italian, so I always felt like I was at a disadvantage on top of being inexperienced. I also always felt like I needed to keep my personal life a secret which I've learnt doesn’t have to be the case.
It took about 3 years for me to realise that I had lots of skills that none of my peers had because I had already worked in so many roles and in 3 countries at such a young age. If you can adapt easily you are already at an advantage.
Why do you think it is important to have a strong female representation in your industry? It is essential because half the population is female. If you can't picture yourself at the top, something isn't right.
My industry is traditionally male dominated, but this is very slowly changing.
Over the past year I've been focusing on building relationships with influential colleagues in HR as I personally want to hold us accountable for what we're doing to level the playing field.
We have a network called 'Woman at Brewin' which I work closely with. I was involved in the International Women's Day initiatives in March last year and again this year, and I've just launched our LinkedIn Life pages which, among other things, talk about diversity and equality in the talent we hire.
I think you need to really push for what you think is important because any progressive company will listen to its employees. If it doesn't - leave!
What advice would you give those wanting to take a similar career path? In marketing, trends change every year so once you've learnt the principles you still need to keep up to speed.
There's no 'right' career path. Some of the most interesting people I know still don't know what they want to do.
Do not feel like your education will tie you to a particular industry - every course will have transferable skills - hard skills can be learnt anytime, soft skills are the most important.
I think that an experience abroad is invaluable as it will teach you how it feels to be the minority, and if you can cope in another language, everything feels so much easier in English!
University prices were also so much cheaper in Italy. I saved for my Masters in one year working as an English teacher.
Success is a mix of luck and persistence, so as long as you are trying your hardest you are doing a really good job.
