Interview: Josephine Karenina

Josephine Karenina is the Brand, Communication & Digital Manager at PT. Hilti Nusantara in Indonesia. She is in charge of the online aspect of Hilti, especially the Hilti Online app. Earlier last year, I was working at Hilti as a digital marketing intern, and therefore I know a little bit of how and what Hilti is working on, especially from the digital aspect. I specifically picked Ms. Karenina as one of my interviewees because I want to share and show how different 'Digital Marketing' is in a global corporate company like Hilti and other advertising agencies. I was lucky enough that Ms. Karenina agreed to do a Skype interview. I asked her several questions regarding her job as a Digital Marketer, specifically in a very corporate company. Since I know that working in a corporate company is very different compared to an advertising agency, I want her thoughts and opinions on this.

Here are the questions and clips of the interview.

1. What is your name, what do you do and what does your company do?

2. How did you get started as a Digital Marketer?

3. How is digital marketing different in a corporate company such as Hilti compared to digital marketing such as in an ad agency?

4. What is your biggest challenge so far, working as a digital marketer?

5. What do you do to persuade your coworkers who are against the idea of converting to digital?

6. As the world progresses, new trends are always emerging. What measures do you take for keeping yourself with the news and the latest updates? And how do you incorporate it into your field of work?

7. What is the number one piece of advice who are interested in your field of work?

8. What do you look for in someone's portfolio? What makes it stand out?

9. What are your takes on the traditional portfolio (printed) and web folio? Which one do you prefer?

10. Do you have any tips on how to create a stand out portfolio?

A short conclusion to my interview with Ms. Karenina, I can confirm my speculation that working as a digital marketer in a corporate world might not be the easiest thing to do, as we can't really create digital campaigns, etc., freely as we need to follow the company's rules. She mentions that when making a portfolio, we have to tailor our portfolio according to the likings of the company we're planning to apply to and to just leave out the unnecessary 'skills' that are unrelated to the field of work you are applying to. That way, the company can know whether we fit for the job description or not.

Reflection Corner:
Agree:

• Since I personally had interned in the field, I can agree with what Ms. Karenina said. The digital industry in the construction field is very slow compared to a company like a creative ad agency.
• Ms. Karenina mentioned her struggle to convince even her coworkers to try and start using Hilti online (application) so they don't need to do manual labor (typing out pricelist and quotations for customers). This is because the coworkers (she mentioned the sales team) are comfortable doing the same thing, which is in fact very time consuming and less efficient than converting. Her measures towards this issue are she has to join field ride with the sales team and meet the customers directly to introduce this app and explain the benefits both parties can get when using the app, hoping that the customers are interested, and making her coworkers start using the app as well.
• Regarding ongoing trends, Ms. Karenina explained that working as a digital marketer in a corporate company like Hilti might not be as easy. She said that she cannot just create ads or campaigns about the product towards her likings. There are rules and guidelines that need to be followed, and the aesthetic look of her campaigns have to match the standards as other Hilti around the world. Even so, she keeps in mind that not all campaigns from other parts of the country could suit Indonesian culture, and therefore she always tailor them into something that is appropriate.

Disagree:

• This might not necessarily a disagreement, but from all the interviews I conducted, Ms. Karenina is the only person who said that when creating a portfolio, we should always remember which company are we applying to. Creating a portfolio that is tailored according to what the company needs and look for. Most interviewees when answering this question would always say create something that is true to you, that shows your personality, so the company can understand you better. But if creating a portfolio that is 'tailored' to the company, my interpretation of it is that the company is only showed things that they would want to see, and not necessarily who we are as a person. But on the other hand, I understand her point. Because creating a portfolio that is tailored to the company would give you a better chance of getting hired, as the portfolio can show your capabilities to fill the blanks needed by the company.