Amanda Brown, KLN ‘19, knows how to make her dreams come true. After graduating in the spring, the advertising major with a concentration in account management applied to nearly 70 jobs. Through her perseverance, she stuck out the job search and earned a position with The Walt Disney Company as an advertising operations associate. Along the way, she was guided by the principles of hard work and dedication that she honed at Klein College of Media and Communication.
Brown grew up in New Jersey and always wanted a career in New York City, where she was born and where much of her family still lives. The city is also a hub for many of her interests including entertainment and sports. With her goal in mind, she entered Temple University as a marketing major, but later decided to switch to Klein College and major in advertising. As she worked her way through the requisite advertising courses, she appreciated that the small class sizes did not shrink her enjoyment of going to a relatively large, urban university. She felt as though the campus and Philadelphia as a whole were great starting points to ease her into the lifestyle she was hoping to experience in New York City.
Rayce Rollins, assistant professor of instruction in the Advertising Department, serves as one of Brown’s mentors. He recognized her tenacity and laser focus on her goals early on and encouraged her to challenge herself in skills that were not as finely tuned as her communication, writing and presentation abilities. He says that Brown took his guidance and applied it where she saw fit, leading to outstanding growth in her analytical and number-crunching aptitude.
“With certain students, you might be willing to mentor them, but if they’re not willing to be a mentee, then the whole framework of the relationship falls apart,” says Rollins. “[Brown] sought that out from professors and she took their advice, which is the reason why she’s successful.”
While at Klein College, Brown also involved herself in activities such as Temple’s Phillippine American Council and tutoring student athletes in advertising. Additionally, she made sure to gain as much professional experience as possible. She formed relationships with Advertising Department Chair Dana Saewitz, Klein College Career Center Director Lu Ann Cahn and fellow advertising students, and used the resources they provided to learn more about opportunities for professional development.
As a result, she has held positions with companies in Philadelphia, including Fame House and NBC Sports Philadelphia. She even received sponsorship from Facebook while working as a prestigious International Radio & Television Society fellow. The yearly fellowship is based in New York City and gives about 40 students around the country the opportunity to explore the world of communication through intensive summer training and a summer internship. She advises students who are currently in the advertising program to “take these experiences but also learn and work hard; because nobody will ever say ‘no’ to a hard worker.”
Brown’s work certainly did not go unnoticed. After graduating, she tracked the positions she wanted to apply to in a Microsoft Excel sheet and got to work. Despite dozens of completed applications, several rejections and a few interviews that did not lead her to a career, she pushed onward. Her breakthrough offer came through LinkedIn, where a talent recruitment agent reached out and worked with her to find an ideal position. The agent was able to get her an interview with Disney, and after a successful interview, the agent negotiated directly with the company to secure Brown with a competitive salary.
The job was hers, and the first person she told was her father. Because her family has provided her with so much, she says, “I’ve always had this feeling that it’s sort of selfish to not do as much as I can if not more because they helped me get here.”
In her new role, Brown helps maintain partnerships with industry giants such as Dave & Buster’s, Paramount Pictures and Chanel. She says that although her hustle was a key component to getting her position, Klein College elevated her mentality in ways she never could have imagined.
“It’s been an amazing experience as my first job out of school and I’m really learning so much, learning a lot about the industry,” says Brown. “And it’s really just been the cherry on top of my whole experience at Temple.”