Lauren Rogers

Job:

Managing Partner - Paid Search

Company:

Dentsu

I lead a team of 160 people across the UK -one of the biggest paid search teams in the country. We create world beating paid search advertising strategies to help our clients appear in Google and Bing search results pages and encourage them to come to their sites. It is much more complicated (and interesting!) than it sounds. My role involves pitching to new clients, setting out the approach for our teams to follow, and trying to inspire everyone to do their best work.

I am...

Analytical

Creative

Positive

The skills I use most in my job...

Problem solving

Data analysis

Delivering presentations

Written communication

Generating ideas

The most interesting thing I've worked on in my career so far...

Working at an agency means you get to work with lots of different clients and get really immersed in their goals, their challenges and their culture. I've worked with fashion retailers, charities, banks, phone companies, international hotel chains, camping stores, personal injury claims companies, technology companies and more - my number 1 highlight is probably working on the launch of Beyonce's clothing line, Ivy Park.

What inspired me into digital and tech...

Like many people, I stumbled into this area by accident and was surprised to find how much I enjoyed it. My role is very data driven, and as someone who never really enjoyed maths at school, I was surprised how much more interesting I found it when applied to real life scenarios (like trying to figure out the answer to which of our ads has driven most sales, or how much budget we should plan to spend next year). I have always thought that digital roles are a brilliant mix of maths and science

My educational background is...

I did a degree in English and always thought I'd end up in a creative role. After 18 months of temping and call centre jobs after uni I was hired into a graduate media executive role and was surprised to find myself quickly gravitating towards digital, and especially paid search (and all of the excel spreadsheets that come with it). I learned more or less everything on the job, from advanced excel skills to presenting skills, to the technical ins and outs of my channel. My customer service experience came in really useful when it came to understanding how to behave in the office and how to talk to clients, and I love hiring people now who have done those jobs!

What advice I'd give to girls thinking about a career in digital and tech...

There are so many incredible opportunities out there to build a fantastic career in digital and tech, and there are lots of different types of roles for different types of people. An apprenticeship or graduate role in a digital company is a great starting point (and for the graduate roles, you don't necessarily need to have done a degree and once you are in the door you can try out different roles and find one that is right for you. Agencies such as denstu hire at entry level and provide full training so you can build your career from the ground up. As someone extremely shy and introverted at school, I would never have dreamed I'd get to where I am today (least of all the parts where I have presented to hundreds of people, spoken at conferences, or received award nominations from Google). You might be surprised by what you can achieve.