To me, marketing is the study of motivation – the art and science of what drives our decisions. That’s why I chose to earn my bachelor’s degree from Stony Brook University in marketing. When I graduated cum laude in 2014, I considered it just the beginning of a lifelong education in the study of people and persuasion.

Analyzing how a market works, understanding market changes and trends, and discovering how to make services and products better serve the people who use them all excite me. I like the idea of keeping up with an evolving industry and solving challenging problems creatively. To me, marketing is more than selling alone. It’s about creating a legacy of sustainable growth to be proud of – about building products, services, and companies with integrity.

At its core, marketing is communication, getting your message to people and showing them reasons to buy your product or service. I love the research aspect of marketing – finding out what entices people to buy something, go somewhere, or act on an offer. Through research, marketers learn to meet their customer base’s needs more efficiently and completely. Marketing requires constant communication with people; as a marketer, I’m excited about finding new ways to connect with and engage an audience.

Social media has become such a huge part of marketing your company now, and it fascinates me to see how simple it is now to reach so many people at once with a single click of a button. I have always enjoyed marketing work that involves working in teams to develop and nurture creative ideas for a campaign. I feel marketing is always a kind of collaboration, either with other marketers in a team or with customers.

Another reason I chose marketing is its omnipresence. Virtually every organization, from privately owned companies to not-for-profits, needs marketing specialists. The quality of their marketing often determines a company’s success or failure. Whether it’s a financial institution, fashion retailer, government department, e-business, or charity organization, good marketing is vital to success. Because each kind of business requires a different suite of marketing skills, growth and discovery are a part of marketing throughout a career – and that’s my passion.

Marketing is often unpredictable, yet it also has underlying rhythms and patterns that make the big-data aspects of it so fascinating. Marketing messages need to be constantly refreshed, renewed, and transformed to cut through the noise of competing messages. There’s no place for complacency; marketers must work continuously at finding new approaches while developing insight into why buyers make the choices they do. Few jobs hinge on creativity and innovation the way marketing does.

I enjoy applying my creativity at every level of scale, from developing big-picture marketing strategies to the details of which text and images to use in content. Marketing can take the form of written material, podcasts, viral videos, graphic design, and physical events; all of these channels spark my interest. As a marketer, I will drive new revenue production that raises my organization’s value and puts people to work while satisfying customers’ needs. I can play a role in helping the economy thrive by promoting useful new products and services.

And when it all clicks – when a campaign gets a massive response and transforms a business’s fortunes – I can imagine that is the most amazing feeling. I look forward to discovering just how fulfilling it is to make a difference.