What is your job about? 

I am a Marketing Coordinator at Parchem, who is part of the DuluxGroup.  Parchem is the leading manufacturer and supplier of construction materials, high-performance coatings, sealants, and decorative concrete, and has many brands in its portfolio. I mainly work on two of their brands Dulux Avista and Emer, coordinating the marketing activities and initiatives.  

Every day is busy and looks very different, as I am often working on a few different projects at once, as well as completing ‘everyday’ tasks such as invoicing, updating collateral, and helping to maintain the brand’s digital channels. One of the current projects I am working on is the rollout of over 200 POS boards across Australia. This involves liaising with multiple stakeholders, such as graphic design agencies to design the boards, the sales, and store teams to understand their requirements for the boards, and the manufacturers of the boards to understand printing requirements, and logistics and delivery of the boards. 

What is your background? 

I have been very fortunate to grow up in the Bayside area of Melbourne after moving from England when I was very young. I attended Mentone Girls’ Grammar and loved every second of the supportive and friendly community there.  I enjoyed my Business and Psychology VCE units, so I decided to undertake a double degree in Bachelor of Business (Marketing) and Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) at Monash University. These degrees let me explore a wide variety of topics and careers. I eventually chose a career in marketing as it combined the perfect amount of creativity, numbers, communication, and people skills that would make every day interesting and challenging! 

Whilst at university, I completed multiple internships to help me better understand what career path I wanted to pursue. I interned at an architecture firm, a qualitative market research company, and also at Swimming Australia.  Once I had finished my degree, I was offered a full-time role at Swimming Australia to work on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Campaign; however, with the Olympics unable to go ahead due to COVID, I explored other options and was lucky enough to secure a role at DuluxGroup. I have been at DuluxGroup for almost a year and loved every second of it! 

Could someone with a different background do your job? 

Yes! Whilst having a degree in Marketing would be beneficial, a lot of skills are learnt whilst you are working on the job. DuluxGroup values diversity in their teams and are always looking for ways to help upskill you, so I often meet people in Marketing who have come from diverse backgrounds like Sales or R&D. These people have usually expressed an interest after working with the Marketing team on a project, and DuluxGroup has then empowered them to develop the skills they need to get a role in a marketing team. As long as you are passionate about your product and have good communication and organization skills, then a role in marketing is for you!

What’s the coolest thing about your job? 

I love that I get real responsibility to work on projects that add value to the business. It’s always the best feeling when you see a project come to life! For example, as part of the graduate program this year we are currently working on rolling out a health and wellbeing initiative organizational-wide—solely organized and run by the 12 first-year grads! DuluxGroup also has a great culture, and there is always something exciting or different happening—be it an interstate conference, a morning tea with the Clayton site, or a learning workshop.

What are the limitations of your job? 

Due to the recent COVID constraints, I have mainly worked from home since starting my role. Whilst it was difficult to start a brand new job remotely, it has taught me how to utilize new communication channels and how to plan for uncertainty. 

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student... 

• It can sometimes be hard to know what career path you want to take while at University, but the more experience you can garner, the better. It will help you to realize what you love doing, what you don’t love doing, and what sort of workplace culture works for you. 
• University can be very daunting and different from High School, but universities have so many programs and facilities in place to help you. Reach out to your tutors for help with classwork, attend career seminars/workshops, and chat with friends in your cohort about how you are feeling—I am sure they are thinking the same thing! 
• Once you start working full-time, you don’t have as much time to travel. So, whilst you are at Uni take advantage of those long breaks and explore the world! Not only will you have some amazing experiences, but you will also learn a lot about yourself.