How did your classes and college experience prepare you for your job now?
Other than some hard design skills, my college experience gave me the opportunity to explore different avenues of art and design as well as creative problem solving that I wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed to. In my world now, it’s important to be able to take a step back and look at the bigger picture, end-to-end, which means being able to think outside the box.
Tell me a bit about the company you work for: What’s their mission? What drew you to the company?
Comcast creates incredible technology and entertainment that connects millions of people to the moments and experiences that matter most. Our culture is built on integrity and respect – with the goal of working together to drive ourselves and our businesses to always be creative, innovative and competitive. As a designer to have a collaborative seat at the table with stakeholders and to be able to drive changes in the company is what really drew me here.
What’s a typical day like for you?
As a Creative Director at Comcast, I am creating and driving the strategic vision, perspective, and design execution of a full product suite end-to-end, that spans customer and employee facing products. And I am also mentoring, developing and delivering feedback to various levels of designers on our team. Since our focus is on the customer experience and design thinking across all customer touch points this end-to-end thinking sometimes includes crossing over some of our organizational silos that deliver those touch points. So, my role is also sometimes about educating our executive leaders about the importance and role of design and results that it delivers through teamwork and focus. As well as being the glue that pulls different organizations together. Which makes being a creative more multi-directional for me than just designing.
What excites you most about your job?
The thing about Comcast that has really kept me here and gets me excited about my job is the opportunity — there’s always a new technology or product to design for, or different teams to work with or on… And the customers we’re creating for aren’t just faceless personas in a presentation, they’re our neighbors, friends, and our family. Which makes it that much more important to design the best experience possible.
Where did you intern while in college, and how does your internship experience help you in your current role?
I actually didn’t intern in college. I wish I had. I may have made slightly different career choices post-graduation.
What about Philly made you want to stay and work in the area?
I love Philly. It has a lot of culture and history, amazing food, it’s super affordable and it’s totally walkable. The creative scene has really grown in the past few years and it’s really easy to grab the train to NY or DC.
What is your favorite part of having a career in Philly?
I love being in the city every day, there’s an energy that’s unique to Philly.
If you could go back in time and tell yourself one thing before graduating college, what would it be?
I was a huge procrastinator in college, so I would tell myself to develop better study skills. This way in the future, I’d have the skills needed to be a lifelong learner. I have them now, but it was harder to get the right rhythm post-graduation that it would have been to have good habits from the start.
If you could offer one piece of advice to a college freshman, what would it be?
Get off campus and explore the city.
If you could offer one piece of advice to a college senior who is soon to graduate, what would you tell them?
Stay curious. It’s a powerful thing.
Do you have any interviewing tips to offer students as they apply for internships or jobs?
Breathe. It’s a good skill to have for when you’re presenting. Pause, breathe, continue. It gives you a chance to collect your thoughts, helps control your tempo and can be used as an engagement technique with your audience. Also, we’ve all been there, it’s stressful, we get it.
When and how did you start networking? Do you have any networking tips to offer students as they enter their post-grad lives?
I’m not sure I really realized that my social behavior was networking until much later in my career… But, get out there, talk to people in our creative community, you never know when someone you met can collaborate with you on the next big thing.
