A Multicultural Journey
Hi! My name is Saskia, I’m 23 years old and I’m a marketer for Pionect. Where to start? I’m half Mexican and half Dutch but I was born in Mexico. That’s where I grew up and attended a British International School, which meant I followed a bilingual education (English and Spanish) for over ten years. I guess that’s where my love for internationalism began, I love learning new languages, visiting new countries, immersing myself in other cultures and of course trying all kinds of different dishes.
Choosing a Career Path
At 14, I moved to Rotterdam, where I continued studying except this time I also had to learn Dutch from scratch. I got very close to my classmates, who received me with open arms when I transferred and made friends for life. After school I liked to keep myself busy with extracurriculars, starting with volleyball but moving on to participating in musicals and working part-time as a waitress in a restaurant.
After finishing high school a few years later I decided I wanted to study International Business in Maastricht due to their international environment and problem-based learning system. For 3 years I delved into this very broad bachelor’s, having the opportunity to learn the basics of every aspect of business but finally specializing in marketing. I chose it because it was the topic that gave me the most energy due to the creativity and problem-solving that it required.
A Semester in Madrid
In the last year of my bachelor’s, I had to write my thesis and choose a destination to study abroad for six months. I wanted to go to the heart of Spain: Madrid, where I was able to let the Spanish culture sink into my lifestyle. To be honest, it felt like I had finally found a country that was a perfect mix of both of my homes: Mexico and the Netherlands. Adding to the fact that I love living in big cities because they are so lively and there is always something to do, even in the latest hours of the day. Even though it’s one of the largest cities in Europe, everything was well-connected with the metro, which made it surprisingly also a very walkable city. Throughout that half a year I also got to know more about myself and travel to other parts of Spain, which was amazing because travelling and visiting new places is one of my biggest passions.
Challenges of Starting a Marketing Career
After graduating, I started looking for a job in marketing but soon realized that it was a very crowded market and it was hard to get a job in this sector as a starter, especially nowadays when anyone can complete fast courses on the internet in digital marketing or online marketing. Companies want junior marketers to start working for them with at least a few years of experience. At this point, I thought it would be best to start with an internship to get the experience I needed even though what I wanted was a full-time job. So I reluctantly adjusted my expectations and went in search of an internship, hoping it would lead me to the full-time job I was aiming for. Little did I know it would turn out to be just as challenging, as many companies preferred interns still enrolled in a university, which I wasn’t anymore… oh, the irony.
Building a Marketing Department from Scratch
When I found Pionect and they offered me an internship, they had no active social media campaigns, very little social following, and most importantly: no marketers, so I would become their whole marketing department. I thought to myself this could be a great opportunity for me to gain experience setting up the whole marketing of a company from the start. Turns out that’s exactly what it was, so far I got to work on the skills I wanted to train and put my knowledge into practice. Within two months I got to turn my internship into my full-time job. I get to work on what I like doing and because the marketing is just starting up, I get to add a lot of input and ideas of my own as well. This is my first career-related job so I get to learn so much every day, both in hard and soft skills. We are still a small team, which makes the ambience very comfortable and takes the pressure away that formal corporations usually have. There are also some big projects coming up this year that I’m excited to dive into so this is only the beginning.
Embracing Creativity
I currently live with my boyfriend after having done long distance for half of our relationship so I do not take the time we are together for granted and we try to spend a lot of quality time together. In my free time, I love to keep myself busy with creative hobbies, I have gone through many hobbies throughout the years. I’ve done paint by diamonds, paint by numbers, creating different patterns with strings for bracelets and keychains, crocheting, etc. It all comes down to creating something that leads to an end product. It doesn’t have to be tangible though, I’ve also once created a website where I used to post blogs and a YouTube channel since I love to shoot and edit videos. Something I consistently love doing is puzzling, or any problem-solving game such as escape rooms. That includes playing board games, especially the long (yes, I like Monopoly as well) and strategic ones. I also love hosting cocktail nights with friends or with my brother, where we pick a theme and then create drinks based on that.
