- Careers
How diverse perspectives and feedback enrich everyday working life in the content marketing team
Elke Gegg, manager in Serviceware's content marketing team, impresses with her fascinating life and professional expertise. In this interview, she tells us about her journey from self-employment to teamwork and her passion for writing, researching and bringing different people together around a topic.
Hello Elke! You said you've had different jobs before. What were they and what led you to Serviceware?
Elke: I've been doing content marketing and public relations for over 30 years now - and I still enjoy it! I learned how to sell and talk to people when I was 10 years old. I was standing on an apple crate at my family's stall at the weekly market, selling fruit and vegetables. After leaving school, I started my own business for the first time. I then spent a year as an au pair and student in the USA. Back in Germany, I was drawn to languages and journalism. During my Chinese studies in Taiwan, I worked as an English teacher on the side.
I eventually became a translator for Chinese and Arabic. With additional training for academics, I became a public relations consultant. As a marketing and PR consultant, I set up my own business in Hong Kong. Back in Germany, I was able to combine my career with having children. From 2016, I gave German lessons to refugees on the side. During the pandemic, however, I missed personal contact and interaction so much that I decided to rejoin a team. I found a great team at Serviceware, where I feel right at home.
What are your daily tasks and what are the highlights of your job?
Elke: My daily tasks include collecting, preparing and distributing information, i.e. campaign management, researching and writing - for LinkedIn, social media, blog articles, the website and white papers. Highlights are customer interviews that I am allowed to conduct. In press and media relations, I also manage external agencies and freelancers.
This involves a lot of interaction with people and contact work - exactly my thing.
How important is teamwork to you and what do you think makes a good team?
Elke: After three years of the pandemic, I was really fed up with being "alone with the coffee machine". It was clear to me then: get out of self-employment and join a team. I'm a social person and can simply work better in a team. In marketing at Serviceware, I have sparring partners who give me feedback or add a creative idea. In addition, all generations are represented with their different perspectives. I learn something new every day. And recently I received a "MaxiAward" in the internal "Appreciation Competition". Wow! Giving and receiving appreciation is something special here.
Is there something you're passionate about at work that makes you think: "I think that's really cool"?
Elke: How I make the best use of "Colleague AI", I try things out, find new things every day and want to keep at it. Networking on LinkedIn is interesting. As you already know, I like people from different backgrounds and find it exciting to bring them together.
Is there a project that you are particularly proud of?
Elke: Yes, I'm particularly proud of the "Digital Value" communication at Serviceware. In IT financial management, there are many different terms and opinions on this complex task of IT controlling. Focusing on value creation and not on cutting costs at all costs will hopefully not only relieve the burden on IT but also on other shared services such as HR or marketing.
How long did it take you to find your feet?
Elke: I was able to work comfortably after about two months, I would say. In any case, I'm still learning something new every day, for example about artificial intelligence. Our developers make sure that we are right at the forefront.
Which skills and expertise do you think are particularly important in marketing?
Elke: Firstly, the technical aspects, such as journalistic forms of presentation: How do I set up an interview? How do I ask what kind of questions and structure my answers? That's a craft you can learn. The next step for me would be to learn which software supports where and how to manage projects. Apart from that, openness to new things is important. The world changes every day, just stay relaxed and don't stand still. That's how I understand the saying: "Go with the flow."
What would you recommend to a younger colleague in order to pursue a successful career path?
Elke: Young and old, peer-to-peer: Basically, not just for someone who is interested in content marketing, my recommendation is: Dear young colleague, find an experienced colleague and form a tandem to reflect again and again. Ask questions. Ask everyone around you questions. Find out for yourself what is really important to you. If something is important to you, then you can develop further in it and will be successful.
Learning groups are just as important, whether at vocational school or among trainees, where you can reflect on things together. You may have the same tasks and can solve them together.
Thank you for your time and, above all, for your insights into your day-to-day work!
