Marketing: Creative problem-solving at its finest

Go after the career you want, but be prepared to do a variety of other jobs to get you there. That’s the advice of Leanne Zamrykut, regional marketing manager for MNP (Meyers Norris Penny), one of the largest full-service chartered accountancy and business advisory firms in Canada.

“I always suggest to people, think of where you want to be in five to 10 years,” Zamrykut said. “But you've got to do the dirty work. I was able to put in long, hard hours and realize how much it takes to actually get to where you eventually want to be.”

Zamrykut was hired by MNP in 2011 as a co-ordinator, then was promoted in 2014 to the position she currently holds. And as is often the case for many who study at Assiniboine, it was location that drew her to the college.

“I was living in Victoria, BC and I'm originally from Baldur, so I wanted to come back home,” Zamrykut said. “I don't really like Winnipeg, so Brandon was more of a fit for me. I loved that I could go across the city in 10 minutes, and that the class sizes were smaller. I didn't want to go to a big college or university.”

Zamrykut chose to pursue marketing after watching her brother succeed in the field. He worked his way up to vice-president of Mars Canada – Mars, the chocolate bar – and inspired his sister to pursue the same line of work.

Assiniboine was a perfect fit for Zamrykut. She’d already been working for five years before she enrolled in college, and figured she’d benefit from having a certificate or diploma. And she found Assiniboine’s hands-on approach very much to her liking.

“It really was Learn by Doing,” Zamrykut said. “The college’s business projects definitely helped me, and knowing the teachers definitely helped my career path when I graduated. They have connections. The work placement teacher when I was there connected me with a marketing job at McKenzie Seeds. I was doing things that people who'd worked at Mackenzie Seeds for years were doing, so it was amazing! And when that was over, then I got my work placement at Christie's Office Plus. So those two experiences were kind of the junior level of what they were looking for at MNP when I went there.”

Although people understand she’s a regional marketing manager, Zamrykut said there are many misconceptions about what her position entails. She’s essentially an idea person, and a creative and design team at MNP’s Calgary head office are in charge of implementing her vision.”

“People still think that I design and write all of our ads,” she said. “And I don't. We have experts. We have people for that. So I'm the one that ponders what is our overall goal, what do we want to achieve, and then I get somebody else to do that work.”

And because MNP is such a large company – it was born in Brandon but now employs more than 4,000 people across the country – Zamrykut is always busy. She works with 35 partners who are on the job all hours of the day.

“My typical day is not very typical,” she said. “My job is so broad it's hard to narrow it down. Our year starts in June, so in March we sit down and we strategize, plan, budget, and then implement these plans that we’re going to do to educate the public, brand ourselves and brand our people, and to show that we are the experts in the community.

“There's a lot of speaking engagements, education, and networking events, too. So looking at different opportunities consumes most of my day. I'm the one who's always thinking and strategizing about how can we get that client, or how can we make a good name for ourselves.”

Zamrykut credits Assiniboine with helping her attain the job she has now. She’s confident one of the reasons she was hired is because she’s an Assiniboine graduate.

“When I interviewed for this job, I think it definitely helped that I had ACC on my resumé,” she said. “At MNP, we’re all about homegrown, local talent. So that definitely helped, and there’s ACC’s reputation as well.

“ACC just felt like a big family. I had a really positive experience there. (It) made me who I am today. So I've always loved ACC.”

To find out how you can be successful like Leanne Zamrykut, visit assiniboine.net/business and find out more about the Marketing specialization in Business Administration at Assiniboine.