Search engine optimization (SEO) is a rapidly growing field of communications. We interviewed transfer advertising student Riley Peralta and recent advertising graduate Caroline Foley, KLN ‘21, to hear about their experiences in the field.

What is the nature of your work?

RP: I did an internship at 1SEO, which is just a digital marketing agency here in Philadelphia. [I] decided that I really love digital marketing and the pandemic was the perfect opportunity to kind of, like, capitalize on my own skills, see how far I could take it with social media management. That turned out to be really great because it came like second nature and there happened to be a time with small business owners looking for something like that.

It was the spring of my first year at Temple, so that was the spring of 2018, and I was just offered the opportunity for a foot in the door cause my mom, the owner is one of her childhood friends and I kind of was like, “oh, okay, search engine.” I didn’t know that that was what I’d technically go for but it was a really great starting point because you still need to kind of learn all of that stuff no matter what realm of marketing you’re in. I took everything that I learned from there as far as the structure of how search engine optimization works and how paid advertising and marketing works for companies. Obviously with the advertising classes and being at Klein I’ve learned from a whole different perspective, but all of us are consumers, and things I learned technically on the digital marketing side is just how deep it really goes. So, it was very business-y. It was a really great introduction to more of a professional setting. 

CF: I just started my full time job at Publicis but specifically PHM – so Publicis Health Media – but then before that, while I was still going to Temple, I was interning at another pharmaceutical marketing company, Thomas Scientific. I always wanted to work in something that has, like, a mass effect on certain stuff rather than more small-scale agency work. So I was so happy to be at a big agency. 

Thomas Scientific had a few categories of different roles. One of them was just SEO, search engine optimization. It did kind of set me up to be like, “Do I really want to do SEO?” So that was, like, an interesting experience. The biggest thing I did was supplier advertising, whether that be graphic design for display advertisements on the web, or our web banners on our own personal websites. I honestly got to, like, dip my feet into not only just SEO, but I was able to go towards supplier advertising. I am so thankful that I had that internship because genuinely, the amount of work ethic and organization I had to have in my own head throughout school and taking five classes and working, you know, 35-40 hours a week, like literally my mind was a constant whirlwind. 

How and why did you first get involved with SEO?

RP: I think that my mom was a big part of it because she so often seeks out such great opportunities for me. The second part that really led me was the time period it was. I was about to leave for California, um, and I didn’t really see the value in Philadelphia being such a great place to exercise that skill of having a lot of opportunity at your fingertips. I soon realized out West that it was not that way at all. The whole business aspect of it, the experience here is something you can’t get anywhere else and I wanted to do something local. 

CF: When I got my job at Thomas Scientific, that was not the first job I applied or interviewed for. I definitely interviewed for a few jobs before finding there and honestly had some negative experiences, which I think in turn made me a better interviewer. But, when I came across Thomas Scientific I saw that they were in need of someone with media and marketing skills which was exactly what I had to offer, but they obviously were in pharmaceuticals and biotech, which I was not very educated on. But, of course, my role there was really just being good at the advertising and media portion of it. 

How has Klein supported your involvement?

RP: It’s definitely, like, one of the schools that allows you to be kind of a little bit more creative but still have the direction and the structure that I really like. Mary Beth [Flynn] at Klein, she’s the director there over at advising. She’s dealt with me for years now, kind of changing my tracks, my ideas of everything I wanted to do. I really like the flexibility within the school itself. 

CF: Honestly, I brag about my experience at Klein all the time. I always attest back how much I love my career because of Klein. The biggest thing that I think helped me was the professors at Klein. I don’t think there was one professor that didn’t help navigate me towards where I am today. I got an award from Alison Ebbecke. I love her so much and she’s one of the people who has, like, recommended me to jobs during and after college. She was an amazing professor who definitely inspired me to get into media.

I just remember when I was graduating feeling so confident with just everything I learned from all the professors I had interacted with at Temple. I had, literally, the best time at Temple. They set me up as amazingly as they possibly could [have] but that doesn’t go to show that I definitely had to, like, put some effort in myself.

What have you learned from this work that will help you in the future?

RP: I think it taught me, kind of, application the most. You, you get to see how what you’re learning is applying to an actual business. Even if you’re not doing the work yourself, the experience there is listening [in on] meetings and listening [to] budgets and company growth. I think that was probably the best thing it taught me, just the reality of it. You need to learn that at some point so I think an internship is a great, great way and you need to start somewhere.

CF: I think the biggest thing that I learned from my internship, and this sounds so cheesy, but it’s just, like, genuine self-confidence and what you’re capable of in the workplace. When you’re stepping in, whether its an internship or an entry role, you’re always going to feel like the smallest fish in the pond when in actuality, you’re fresh out of an amazing four-year education, you have more energy than anyone in this office, and I think I had to really put that into myself at the internship and in turn I was just so much more confident.

What is the best part of your work?

RP: I would say, like, the motivation aspect of it. It was very fast-paced, I liked that about it, and I think that it motivated me to figure it out within myself what was next.

CF: It was such a healthy working environment and they just made me feel so equal to them, which is so important in an office. The people I met were also the best part. Just having that opportunity to, like, have a team in a workplace.