Let’s recognize the importance of science to our society today. Without science, there would be no human growth or technological advances, and the world as we know it simply would not be. Science is important because it encourages us to ask questions and provides a means for doing so. Science is also what led Sara Partite to the marketing world. Just like science encourages us to question, science encouraged Sara to question her career path at the Georgian Court University’s School of Science after she learned that chemistry was not for her. The recent college graduate was looking for the perfect balance between structure and creativity, not ionic and covalent bonds. Where Sara found true chemistry was in marketing – the perfect balance of structure and creativity that she was looking to achieve.

Starting off her career in marketing, Sara joined Marketsmith Inc. as an intern on the corporate marketing team, where she helped manage the agency’s social media accounts and assisted in other daily tasks. At Marketsmith, Sara saw more of what the marketing world has to offer, beyond what she learned in college. Being exposed to the many different sides of marketing, she found it to be a truly diverse foundation with a variety of departments from data analytics to media to operations. Today, Sara is Marketsmith’s operations manager, taking the lead on tasks that are the backbone of our agency’s day-to-day work life. Sara’s role in operations helps to piece the puzzle together as she is in contact with all departments of the agency and observes firsthand how all those marketing pieces work together. Standing as the liaison for several departments within the agency, Sara maintains the movement of projects between different teams and is like a muscle as she continues to strengthen her skills!

“It is limitless at Marketsmith based on how far you can go.”
– Sara Partite

Marketing lessons and challenges

Although she is now familiar with the operational aspects of marketing, Sara is always learning something new as she is soaking up the expertise around her and the lessons and challenges that come along with it. In July 2020, Sara became a full-time member of the Marketsmith team as a traffic associate. She was one of the first members onboarded remotely due to the pandemic, which brought out a lot of challenges. In the beginning of virtual trafficking, Sara felt there was no one to turn to, to ask questions about working remotely in the position she was in. Even in all the chaos, it was a great learning opportunity for those who were helping Sara join the team. Marketsmith Senior Project Manager Gina Geary took Sara under her wing and took her everywhere she went, inviting her to every meeting and introducing her to everyone. Through every meeting and introduction Sara learned a new language – the agency lingo. What they do not teach you in your marketing college courses are the common terms used in marketing that could seem like a new language to a newcomer. Today, Sara is fluent in the lingo and appreciates the continued challenges she faces because they bring her out of her comfort zone, allowing her to learn even more.

Learning new skills

While Sara is still in the early stages of her career, she is grateful for the experience she is gaining and the environment she is evolving in. A year into her tenure with Marketsmith, Sara has reflected on three key skills she’s learned in her role:

  1. Time management – Meeting deadlines and prioritizing what is important vs. what can wait is an essential skill Sara discovered she needed to implement in her weekly distribution.
  2. Relationship building – Learning how to grow close with coworkers beyond the workplace and personalizing calls that have an agenda is a skill that helped Sara become an applauded team member.
  3. General office skills in a remote world – Getting used to the environment and responding to emails, recapping meetings, and managing follow-ups were skills Sara quickly learned to stay on top of.

An important skill Sara brought into her daily work life is her organizational skills, used to create structures enabling the means to work as efficiently as possible, as well as to keep up with her mental health. But what really keeps her at ease during task-filled days are the great mentors all around her. Sara enthusiastically credits Marketsmith leaders for the position she is in and the path she is following today. Marketsmith COO Rachel Schulties and Gina Geary have been great mentors in pushing Sara to perform her best and ensuring she is happy with what she is doing.

With growth comes new challenges

While we know going remote has its challenges, it also has had great wins. The silver lining is the endless team effort to work together to make the hours sitting at your desktop as efficient as possible. Being virtual has inspired us to look for more efficient ways to work. With more focus time in the comfort of our homes, Marketsmith has experienced increasing performance growth after working virtually. Moving forward, we want to continue that growth and improve our day-to-day working situation at home. Over time the Marketsmith team is becoming more accustomed to work-from-home adjustments and in need of in-house improvements surrounding the organization of daily tasks. The agency grew out of manually inputting hours and assigning each other projects and jobs. With new clients such as the Department of Banking and Insurance and the state’s efforts to provide the COVID-19 vaccine to New Jersey residents, we needed to step our game up – it was time for an upgrade. After vetting several systems and weighing potential tools, Sara took the lead in implementing a new project management system and will guide the agency in the transition. Onboarding just took place last week, and Sara expertly introduced the agency to the ins and outs of Wrike. As Sara prepared to transition the agency to this new platform, she was inspired by how the little simplicities of a new tool will make a stark difference and hopefully take some weight off her fellow team members’ shoulders, allowing them to spend efficient time on the intricate details and focus on the end goal. She is confident that Wrike will bring us the satisfaction of expeditiously checking things off our to-do lists.

Away from her laptop

Sara goes from running tasks and projects back and forth between Marketsmith departments to running outside as an outlet after being on her laptop all day. She also looks forward to making a home-cooked meal every night after work. She views cooking as therapy – and what better therapy than Italian food! Sara loves to cook up a plate of pasta to remove herself from the day’s work. Well, almost…

“I dream about Marketsmith” – that’s what happens when you are passionate about what you do. Here at Marketsmith, we are grateful to have such dedicated team members as Sara.