Graduated from Berklee Online in 2022 with a major in Interdisciplinary Arts.
Position: Retention Marketing Manager at The Lotter, a small multinational tech firm that lets people gamble (lottery tickets, casino games, etc.) via their smartphones. He works on both the strategic and the operational side of campaigns to encourage inactive customers to become more active. He designs and does quality assurance on marketing campaigns, but also is in constant communication with other people at his company to make sure everything is working as planned.
Overview: In 2013 Itai went to “brick-and-mortar” Berklee straight out of high school, mainly becase everyone told him he was really good at playing trumpet so that’s what he should do. But while at Berklee he realized he was less passionate about music than his classmates. He moved to Israel to be with his family and did some music, focusing more on production. Then the pandemic hit and his freelance work dried up. Figuring his proficiency in English would be a benefit, he applied to a range of relevant jobs, and was hired by his current company as a content writer.
This was a good entry-level job, but Itai sensed that his career would benefit from him completing his degree, so in 2021 he enrolled at Berklee Online, doing a heavy 4-course load per term so that he finished his degree in late 2022. (“I was pretty driven.”) Shortly before completing his degree Itai applied internally to a position in customer retention and got the position. A few months after completing his degree Itai was promoted to his current position. The job being remote, Itai moved back to the United States.
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You can see Itai’s LinkedIn profile here.
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Choice Quotes: “Advertising is corporate and capitalist, but it’s always been creative. We put old ads in museums today! I find that fascinating and weird. It’s not artistically motivated, but there’s something inherently creative in what’s driving everyone. You give someone 6 works and they REALLY try to come up with the best combination of words. Like within music, I like working with strict rules and limited spaces. Being forced to produce on a daily basis is also an interesting thing. I came from a background where a song every few months would be pretty good. Now I see something I wrote on a radio ad. It’s not as exciting or artistically fulfilling as when I was writing musicals, but it shows I’m doing something of value that exists out in the world.”
“Even at 18 and taking music tech, there’s a large component of what’s cool about Berklee is the contemporary focus and a technical focus (even though we grew up with easy-to-use devices). Many jobs today are SO technical, you’re constantly dealing with software that changes all the time. Our tech management suite can change every year! There’s constantly stuff to learn. Similarly, music software is SO difficult to use and learn! Just getting software programs to work together is a huge challenge. It’s helpful in getting a minset in understanding the intersection between modern creativity and these convoluted technical workflows. It’s beneficial to be the person in the room who can make software do something new.”
I have a keyboard next to my desk. I work remote so there’s always the opportunity to take 5 minutes and play something whenever I’m in the mood. I write and play music for my own enjoyment now–doing music is now a fun hobby. I used to hate performing–it made me so anxious and nervous.”
“What surprises me every day is how many jobs there are that you don’t know about until you meet someone doing it. We tend to focus of well-knows jobs while in school. There are a lot places you can get your foot in the door, then once your’e there look at what everyone is doing and figure out what would be a good fit. Expecially in tech companies where people are doing such different things. Find some previously-unknown niche that’ll make it easier to develop your career. I’m doing something I didnt’ know existed until 3 years ago! (Obviously I knew marketing existed, but there are so many sub-sections of it.) Be flexible. Learn overall abilities and apply them to many different things. It helps to have a wide variety of skills. You can even go to the jobs page of a company you like, scroll through 100 job descriptions, then learn some of the skills that are called for.”
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