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Name: Radhika Duggal
Age: 35
Job Title and Description: Set high school and college students up for future financial success as the Head of Student Marketing for Chase’s Consumer Bank.
College Name/Major: Undergrad: NYU Stern School of Business, Grad: Columbia Business School
Website: chase.com/student
What does your current job entail? Is there such a thing as a typical day? At Chase, my team and I build a strategy aimed at helping high school and college students make smarter money decisions so that they can begin their adult lives with a solid financial foundation.
While no day is the same, my job is to plan for, develop and execute our student campaigns which include events, video content, emails, and other tactics. This is where the magic happens — the execution of our strategy is key, from the words we use to communicate with students, to the advice we offer, to our customer experience.
What was your first entry-level job in your field and how did you get it? In my first entry-level full—time job, I was a management consultant at Deloitte. I spent almost six years there helping clients tackle everything from marketing and brand strategy problems to operations challenges. It was a great way to start my career.
When or how did you realize you were passionate about working in finance and/or marketing and brand strategy? Any advice for anyone trying to find their passion?
I realized I was passionate about marketing in college. I was fortunate to attend an undergraduate business school where I was able to take a number of marketing courses and from my first Introduction to Marketing course, I realized that I loved the topic — I loved the idea that marketers could take data driven insights, apply them to creative asset development, and create content and tools that consumers engage with.
If you’re a student trying to find your passion, I’d encourage you to try the following:
- Take advantage of your time in school to take classes that could be aligned with your interests. Use your class time, as I did, to explore different topics and potential career paths.
- Take on internships that might be aligned with your area of interest — there’s no substitute for real world learning where you could experience what it’s actually like to be in the shoes of a professional in the field you are exploring
- Don’t be shy about reaching out to professionals in fields you are exploring. Reach out to folks in your linked in network or alums of your school to set up coffee chats to get a sense of what it’s like to be in a field you’re exploring.
What words of wisdom (well-known quotes, an anecdote from your boss) do you find most valuable? The best words of wisdom I have received in my career came from my father. From a young age, he encouraged me to “never give up.” I really took that to heart as a student, being persistent in pushing to execute things I believed in in club leadership roles, and by the time I reached the working world, I realized that he was totally right.
Here’s why: in the working world, if you never give up, and you always look to find a solution to the challenges you face, you’ll always accomplish your goals in some way. The outcome may look slightly different than what you originally set out to do, but you will be able to accomplish something close to what you set out to do – or maybe even something better!
What has been the most surreal moment of your career thus far?
College was such a pivotal time in my development so the most surreal moment it in my career was receiving an email from the (then) head of the NYU Stern Undergrad Marketing Department inviting me to teach a consumer behavior class at Stern. Teaching at Stern in the same classrooms where I truly grew up and gained the skills I needed to be a working professional was – and continues to be – an absolutely incredible experience. I walk away from my class each day grateful to NYU for the foundation they provided to me and inspired by my accomplished students.
What do you look for when considering hiring someone? When I’m hiring an entry-level team member, there are a few “must-haves” that a candidate should display. They include:
- Action is everything: While marketing strategy is important, I feel strongly that how you bring that strategy to life through the creative, like websites, videos and emails is the true determinant of a campaign’s success! Because of that, I look for team members who aren’t afraid to do the execution work – to pitch in to write copy where needed, to help out at events where needed, etc.
- Customer obsession: As a marketer, one of the most critical elements of the role is understanding your customer – knowing how they spend their time, what they struggle with, what they’re passionate about, etc. The best team members I’ve worked with want to truly understand their customers and find scrappy ways to get customer insights.
- Personality: Work is a big part of my life, and I want to spend that time working with people I really like! That means I’m focused on finding someone who is a great culture fit, whom I enjoy spending time with, and who has some of the qualities listed above.
What advice would you give to a 20-something with similar aspirations?
There are a few pieces of advice that I would give a 20-something with similar aspirations:
The “how” matters just as much as the “what”
There’s no question that results matter – but in any business, generating measurable results is table stakes. What differentiates true leaders who can inspire large teams is how they go about doing their work – with kindness, patience, and a keen eye to building others’ success stories. After all, the success of your team members is the true mark of a leaders’ success.
Say “No, but…”
Being solution-oriented isn’t easy and you’ll find that you’ll have colleagues and team members who will consistently tell you why something can’t be done. Differentiate yourself by saying, “No, but…”
Just what comes after the “but”? A solution – a way to implement the idea you were discussing, a next step that enables your team to make progress, or a path forward to achieve your goals. Coming to the table with solutions will enable you to distinguish yourself as a problem-solver who gets things done, which is what most of us aspire to be!
What’s the one thing that’s stood out to you the most in a resume? I always love looking at people’s interests when they share them on a resume because that helps me to ask questions to really get to know them. When I can chat with someone about their interests, I can see how they light up about something they are passionate about and how they solve problems related to something they care about. In my mind this is 100% applicable to how they’ll act in a work environment because I assume my team will be passionate about the work that they do as well as the hobbies they pursue in their free time.
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC