Mentor's are cool... especially if they're M-School Alum
- Hojoon Lee
- Nov 10, 2020
- 3 min read
The next mentor I found and was lucky enough to talk to and learn about was Ceceli Da Rosa. She is actually an LMU Alum (graduated 2 years ago), was also involved in Greek Life (DG), and was even a member of the M-School! It was crazy talking to her about her college experience, especially within the M-School as she was telling me when she was in it, there weren’t two separate pathways (Strategy and Brand Management and Content) like there is now. Through her experiences at LMU though, she is now an Account Manager at Fullscreen managing the YouTube channels for Intel and their whole tech, business, and gaming channels as well as Vans.

Ceceli's explanation of how she got into account management is a unique one that I was curious about as I didn’t really know what account management actually was. She related back to the M-School and said that the 2 year program actually helped her figure out what it was she really wanted to do. She explained how when she was in the M-School, the program really focused on agency marketing and this talk about account management sparked her interest as she related to the field and thought her skills could be best used there. Luckily she was able to secure an apprenticeship position under an account manager at TeamOne her senior year so she was able to get a lot of first hand experience during her first semester. This really solidified her decision to want to work as an account manager of some sort.
It was actually during her last semester of college that a professor at LMU that I am also fond of, Mitch Rufca, recommended that she apply for a position at Fullscreen Media. She first got the position in account management/sales intern during her second semester senior year, from which they offered her a full time position as an Account Coordinator right out of college. As an account coordinator, she focused more on the organic front of managing clients, all YouTube specific. She managed clients such as Amazon Prime, Topgolf, and Intel, thinking of strategies and optimization tactics for their channels and other general management of content that their content teams would send them for their YouTube. Along with this, she would send weekly and monthly reports for all her clients. Within 9 months of being an account coordinator, her boss abruptly left and she was given the opportunity to take more responsibility as an Account manager. Her main clients are Intel and Vans, both of whom she works very closely with on a daily basis.

When asked about what she likes most about her role, she brought up the ability to build personal relationships with her clients. To be able to gain their trust and to know that she has their back and that they have hers is something that she believes is very special. Specifically when talking about Vans, she mentioned that they have been a client of Fullscreen since 2016 but have been tossed around between different managers since then. Now with her as their go-to manager, she has been working hard to build a stable foundation and a good relationship while gaining trust with the work that she does. She does wish that she could have other accounts that are more social focused to broaden her horizons, but good things come with time.
While talking with Ceceli, it really opened my eyes to this whole area of Account Management and its relation to marketing. I’ve really learned a lot about this industry even with the short conversations I’ve had with Ceceli and looking more into it, may be a career defining moment for me. We’ll have to wait and see.
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