Some lessons come from textbooks. The best ones come from people who have already made the mistakes, figured out what works, and are generous enough to share it.
This semester at George Brown Marketing Seminar Course – we had guest speakers and Alumni talking on things that matter for Career. Here is what I learned, who inspired me, and how I am building something real.
What I Learned: The Lessons That Actually Stuck
Every speaker who walked into our classroom came from a different company and a different background. But they all seemed to agree on the same few things. Work hard. Build real relationships. Show up for people. Give more than what is expected of you. I paid attention and took notes too. And a few of them said things I will not forget for a long time. I will now briefly take you through these learnings.
Kay Layne
Kay set the tone for the whole seminar series. Her message was simple but uncomfortable – showing up is not enough. You have to show up and give more than what is expected.
More effort, more initiative, more ownership. She also introduced a storytelling framework that I found genuinely useful: hook your audience, bring in the human element, and always lead with purpose.
On AI, she was refreshingly balanced, neither afraid of it nor blindly excited. But the idea that stuck most was this: make the people around you look good. That is how trust gets built at work.
Pranoy Kamra
Pranoy works as an Account Manager at Clearoute, a B2B company. What I appreciated most was his honesty about AI. He didn’t oversell it or dismiss it. His take was practical, AI handles speed and volume well.
Content, lead scoring, campaign analysis. But it breaks down when you need real industry nuance, the kind that comes from actually knowing your clients and the unspoken rules of a market.
His formula stuck with me: let AI handle execution, keep strategy human. Know what you bring that a machine cannot replicate. And be able to defend it in a room full of skeptical people.
Anjalin Islam
Anjalin is an SEM Specialist at KlickHealth. She opened my eyes to how data-intensive search marketing actually is, it is not just running ads, it is reading signals constantly.
She mentioned the ADAPT program for skills upgrading, which I am keeping on my radar. Her perspective on working in the medical industry was eye-opening too. Regulations shape everything, and AI tools for keyword research still need a human who understands the rules.
Rubaina Verma
Rubaina is a freelance consultant working with small businesses. What made her story relatable was how she got started, she leaned on her George Brown network to land her first interviews. No fancy connections.
Just people she already knew. She was also a strong advocate for coffee chat interviews, the kind of informal conversations that open doors before a job posting even exists.
Barry Ling
Barry works at RBC-X and was probably the most direct speaker of them all. Growth is uncomfortable, he said it plainly and meant it. He talked about networking, upskilling, and showing up for people consistently.
His idea of planning a content ecosystem for efficiency was something I am actively thinking about applying to my own personal brand.
Building My Network: Small Steps and Real Progress
Networking used to feel like a word people threw around all the time and it was a real bottleneck – given this is a new country and new people. But I realize now that it is the same with most of us.
The most valuable conversations I had were the ones I initiated. I reached out to two of our guest speakers directly,Rubaina Varma and Anjalin Islam, for coffee chats.
With Rubaina, I wanted to understand what freelance consulting actually looks like day to day, especially for someone working with small businesses. With Anjalin, the conversation went deeper.
I have previous experience in the pharma industry, and hearing about her work at KlickHealth opened a door I didn’t know was there. Health and pharma marketing is now firmly on my radar as a career direction.
Beyond the classroom, I have been building a LinkedIn presence. During my time at Loblaws, I connected with a few people from Loblaws Digital, professionals already working at the intersection of retail and digital marketing.
Those connections are sitting in my network right now, and I plan to use them when co-op conversations start getting serious.
I have also joined a few communities that are helping me stay current and visible. On LinkedIn, I joined Digital Marketing Professionals Worldwide ,one of the largest and most active marketing communities on the platform, along with Social Media Today and the Content Marketing Institute group, both of which have strong moderation and genuinely useful discussions.
On Reddit, I follow r/marketing and r/digital_marketing for real, unfiltered industry conversations. On Quora, I engage with questions around SEO and content strategy, which also helps build visibility around the topics I write about.
For job hunting, I have explored LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, and Freshgigs.ca. LinkedIn has been the most useful so far, not just for job postings but for understanding who is hiring and what they actually value.
I haven’t landed a co-op yet, but I am in active conversations and using every platform available to find the right opportunity.
As for keeping in touch with my network, I check in periodically, engage with their posts, and look for reasons to reach out with something useful rather than just asking for something. That is the shift in mindset this semester gave me.