Twitter Interview with Rachel Blake, BBA '10, Regional Lead, Canada and LATAM Revenue Strategy and Operations

April 8, 2019

WORKING AT TWITTER  

What’s it like working for one of the biggest social media brands in the world?

Every day that we come in here is different than yesterday. Every day you’re challenged by something new, and you’re constantly learning something new. You never get bored in the role you have.

What types of things do you do day to day in your role?

We enhance revenue through processes, tools and strategy, not only for Canada but for the rest of the global sales organization.

Is what you’re doing now what you thought you were going to do in 4th year university?

It’s so funny, I now lead a team of strategy and operations professionals and operations was probably one of my worst subjects in my BBA. The operations I do is very different from the operations we studied in undergrad but it’s interesting that the courses I leaned the most toward during school are actually the reverse of what I’m really good at professionally.

What did the steps look like to go from new grad to where you are today? Especially from thinking you didn’t enjoy operations to realizing you actually love it?

If you are open to taking different career opportunities and jobs and just reflect on what you like or didn’t like about each one of them it helps you navigate your way into finding something that you absolutely love to do. In every role that I’ve had before this one there have been aspects that I’ve loved and hated and each piece made me put together this puzzle that led me to the job I have today where I literally love every aspect, even the challenging pieces. 

LIFE AT LAURIER 

What were the things that helped make your Laurier experience special and/or helped you know that the Lazaridis School was the right place for you to pursue your BBA?

Living in Kitchener now, I love seeing Shinerama. I make sure I have change ready to go in the car because when I see the young people out at the gas stop and they’re moving into the greater Waterloo area, I get a real sense of pride.

Do you have specific memories about your time at Laurier that you draw into your everyday work or that have contributed to helping you along the path to getting here?

Olivia’s point about not having to specialize until 4th year is really special about Laurier. You are exposed to a lot of people with very different strengths than your own throughout your undergrad and you get to connect with them. That’s very applicable to our office today – you’re sitting around a leadership table and you have people with different backgrounds and strengths and you have to get work done together and leverage each other’s interests and perspectives and strengths and the BBA really fosters that because there are group programs like the ICE competition and group projects where you won’t do well unless you have somebody on your team who’s really strong in finance, really strong in marketing, really strong in strategy. You won’t succeed in the program unless you create those relationships with other folks, and that is exactly what makes us special here at Twitter Canada is that we have people with different strengths around the table every day with every project.

Two skills that I’ve really taken from university are self-discipline and how to prioritize. There’s no one there holding your hand. You get out what you put into university. The same mindset travels with you when you’re working at a job.  Also, learning how to prioritize what’s urgent and what’s important and how to make time to ensure that you’re getting to those tasks before everything else.

Were you in the co-op program?

No, I always had jobs through university so that I could come out debt-free, so I was a waitress, I was a bartender I worked my summers, I worked during the year so that I could have financial freedom after my undergrad. Co-op would have obviously been really nice, but my job at that time was to set myself up for graduation.

ADVICE FOR STUDENTS AND NEW GRADS 

Is there any other advice you’d like to share with our students or new grads?

I just want to say - I’m hiring right now and I haven’t looked at a single GPA on any of the resumes that I’ve gone through. I know that if you’ve graduated from these programs, you will inherently have the skills, so I look at more aspects than just grades.