Name: Ivana Taylor-Ross
Age: 27
Job title: Marketing executive
Company & location: The Gym Kitchen, UK (remote)
Education: Photography and music at Aberdeen College, as well as fitness instructor, personal training and nutritional qualifications.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Anything from a Formula 1 racing driver, to a drummer in a band touring the world – I was pretty ambitious!
Why did you decide to go for a career in food & drink? I’ve always worked on and off in the food, drink and hospitality industry since I started working.
It was a no-brainer for me to jump into the opportunity of working with The Gym Kitchen when I got the chance – along with my background being in the health and fitness industry, I also have a passion for cooking and all things food.
Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): I work in marketing for The Gym Kitchen concentrating heavily on building our community presence and influencer/brand partnerships.
What does a typical day look like for you? When you work in marketing, every day is different! Currently I am spending a lot of time communicating with consumers on social media, working on projects to better the consumer experience and community environment, along with building relationships with influencers and content creators for future campaigns and collaborations, to increase the brand exposure.
Tell us about how you went about applying for your job: After applying through LinkedIn, our founder Segun got in touch to arrange an initial interview. From the start it was clear that passion, ambition, and drive for sharing the reason why, were all key players in how the brand was continuing to grow and what the team highly prioritised.
The interview process was genuine and personalised to the brand, with no generic corporate questions that put you on the spot to produce an answer out of character. Shortly after my third interview, which involved presenting a campaign proposal, I was offered the role… now here we are!
What’s the best part about working for a food & drink company? The community, whether that be our product consumers or other brands, there is a real sense of support and want for others to win within the industry.
And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? That it is easy! Working in food and drink can be so challenging at times, but extremely rewarding when you see that product land on shelf and hear positive consumer feedback.
A lot of it is providing people with enough reason to give your product a chance, or try it for the first time – then it is all about keeping them around!
What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? Apply for the job and send that LinkedIn message!
I have found that within the industry it’s your personality, willingness to learn, passion for the category and the want to grow with a brand is a lot more important than what is down on paper.
What’s your ultimate career dream? That is a tough one… I don’t think I have even scratched the surface in what can be achieved. Watch this space, maybe I will end up at the Grand Prix!
Interested in finding out more about food & drink careers? Check out GrocerJobs for the latest vacancies
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