Westminster Business School Blog Celebrating Success: An Interview With Marketing Managment MSc Student Audane Leger

Celebrating Success: An Interview With Marketing Managment MSc Student Audane Leger

March 18, 2016
Postgraduate Student Life
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Throughout March as we celebrate International Women’s Day #IWD2016 we will be showcasing the achievements of female business leaders and entrepreneurs from amongst our own Westminster community. Interviewing a mixture of students and alumni from a range of professional and academic backgrounds we will celebrate their accomplishments, obtain unique insights as they draw on their various fields of expertise, and hear their stories.

I had the opportunity to catch up with Audane Leger, an extremely bright and talented student on the Marketing Management MSc at Westminster Business School. In the interview below, Audane talks at length about her student experience at Westminster, how she hopes to grow both professionally and personally by studying her subject at Master’s level and about her extensive background as a digital marketing professional. Having begun her career at a law firm, Audane has since mainly worked within the fashion industry in London and New York – two of its global hubs along with Milan and Paris – and her experience straddles and encompasses nearly all the main aspects of digital marketing from social media and blogging, to copywriting PR, SEO and web analytics. Born in the United States she now finds herself in London as a postgraduate student at Westmisnter Business School.

Can you please introduce yourself in a few sentences? Where are you from and what made you choose Westminster Business School?

Hi! My name is Audane Leger, and I was born and raised in Boston Massachusetts in the U.S. I also lived in New York for about a year and a half prior to coming to London and I run a fashion blog on the side called The Curlista.

I decided to come to London for my postgraduate degree because I was inspired by a friend of mine who did her Master’s here so I finally felt like the time was right to take the plunge. I chose Westminster because out of all the schools I looked at, the location was unbeatable and the Marketing Management course had modules which would expand my knowledge in the subject to a high level.

How have you found postgraduate life at Westminster Business School so far? What have been your highlights?

Very, very busy! The people I have met and become friends with from all over the world has definitely been the biggest highlight for me. I have learnt so much and grown as a person while being here, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Making friendships that I know will last a lifetime is so incredible for me and all of my experiences so far have confirmed I made the right choice to come to London and study my Master’s degree.

Your career to date has included social media, digital marketing and web analytics. Could you expand on this and tell us which achievements you are most proud of?

As you mentioned, my career so far has spanned many facets of digital marketing and my first job was actually in the law industry as a copywriter for their online blog. I soon found that my passions laid elsewhere and decided to go into the fashion industry and worked for a company called Hearts On Fire, which produced in high end jewelry. I wore many hats in my job there and did everything from social media, to Google Adwords, to a bit of PR and search engine optimization (SEO). It was a great experience because I had a chance to see many aspects of digital marketing and decided that I really wanted to become an expert in analytics. That is when I decided to take a major leap of faith and move to New York City to work for a global retail company as a Reporting and Web Analyst.

Working in New York was an incredible experience and I learned so much about analytics and knew I had finally found what I loved most about digital marketing. I am currently working part time at a start-up company here in London as a Metrics and Analytics Consultant helping companies revamp their analytics programs.

My biggest achievement is definitely moving to New York to become a Web Analyst. From my very first position as a copywriter I knew I wanted to do analytics and was never given the opportunity to at the places I worked, so I took the steps that needed to occur to make my desires a reality. I even surprised myself really at the skills I was able to acquire and the impact I have been able to have in my career thus far. That I am extremely proud of.

The Marketing Management MSc seems like a natural choice given your interests and career trajectory. How do you see it enhancing your future career prospects?

Attaining a Master’s Degree gives me the edge against my peers and has given me a very high level perspective of the marketing realm that is essential when wanting to take a career to the next level. I know it will certainly set me apart and prepare me to take on a managerial role after graduation.

Which area of academia do you hope to specialise in while taking your Master’s degree?

Quantitative analysis goes perfectly with my career thus far, which is why I have decided to take the MSc route.

What piece of advice would you give to students interested in working in the digital marketing field?

The digital marketing field has a TON of competition, so I would say do your best to not be like everyone else who is fighting for the same positions as you are. Utilizing Linkedin worked wonders for my career, so I definitely recommend tapping into your contacts, including alumni from the school – you would be surprised the ways that people are happy to help out even if you did not know them well. Also asking for introductions is another way to make contacts through Linkedin that should be explored – you never know what will happen if you don’t put yourself out there and ask!

Many thanks to Audane Leger for this interview. You can follow Audane on Twitter, connect with her on Linkedin or become a regular reader of her fashion blog entitled The Curlista.

To find out more about the Marketing Management MSc you can visit our website course page or take a look through these blogs:

Marketing Management MA/MSc students enjoy a residential weekend at Latimer Place

Marketing Management MA/MSc students celebrate the new year in style!

Marketing Management MA/MSc students get hands on experience at the Tower of London