Whether it's Engineering, Product, Insights or Marketing jobs at Ozmo, every Ozmonaut has a unique story to tell. This is why Ozmo is highlighting employees from various teams who share their career development and experience while at the company. These employees are passionate, innovative, engaged, hard-working and embody a true Ozmonaut.
Associate Marketing and Communications Specialist Madie Brookens sits down with Ozmo to talk about her growth and role at the company.
To learn more about Madie's experience, her career growth, marketing jobs at Ozmo and more, view the full interview below.
Q: How long have you worked at Ozmo and what were you doing when you first joined the company?
I’ve worked at Ozmo for about a year and a half, almost two years now. I started in May of 2020 as our Marketing Intern. As Marketing Intern, I was responsible for conducting industry research and creating internal company-wide messaging and newsletters. Also, I was responsible for managing all of our social media and facilitating an annual brand awareness study. Throughout my internship, I really began to fall in love with the work that I was doing at Ozmo and I expressed interest to my manager right away about how hungry I was for new responsibilities. I wanted to take on more challenges at the company to not only further my career but to really expand our team's marketing efforts and our initiatives, not only from content creation but also to SEO and more. I was really thinking more outside of just my own role and I wanted to champion our efforts as a company.
Q: Describe the path from how you started at Ozmo to the role you’re in now.
About seven months into the internship I was able to earn a full-time position as the Associate Marketing and Communications Specialist at Ozmo with a start date after my graduation from Virginia Tech. In my role now, I am responsible for all of our external marketing and communications efforts, from drafting email messaging to creating branded content. Whether it's blogs or white papers or custom sales presentations, I am responsible for creating content that is really honed into our specific buyers and our customer personas, while enhancing our digital marketing and inbound strategy. I also take ownership of our SEO strategy as a team and I help educate our department and other departments as well on SEO standards and website optimization.
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Q: Why did you choose to work at Ozmo?
I chose to work at Ozmo because I had been previously working in an industry that is completely different from technology and I wanted something that was not only interesting, but also something that was going to keep me on my toes. It was going to challenge me a little bit, and since joining I have learned so much more than I could ever imagine. Especially transitioning from my internship to now, seeing that growth both long term and short term has been so rewarding. Also, all of the values that Ozmo has are things that I personally value: from accessibility to employee engagement and really cultivating a safe, welcoming and supportive work environment for its employees.
Q: What makes Ozmo such a unique place to work?
What makes Ozmo such a unique place to work is truly the environment. Whether that's in the office headquarters in Blacksburg, Virginia, or it's our team in Austin, Texas, or in the homes of employees scattered across the United States and in our remote environments. I really think that Ozmo helps to cultivate a place where you can turn to anyone for help or for guidance. Every single Ozmonaut is going to be willing to lend out a helping hand to you.
I've also found that my onboarding at Ozmo from my internship to my full-time onboarding was extremely thorough and it really prepared me for all the responsibilities that I was going to take on. I just can't rave enough about the teams that we have here. We are so supportive of one another and we're always rooting for one another. The motivation that we have as a company is the competition for us to do better and want better, not only for ourselves but for our teams and for our company goals overall. It's never felt like you're competing against Ozmonauts because we're all working together. Ozmonauts are always ready to be adaptable to challenges that come their way. I think that's something that since working here I’ve learned more and I've been able to step into more since I started.
Q: What is your favorite Ozmo memory?
My favorite Ozmo memory is probably the annual Family Feud tournaments. Ozmo's Senior Software Engineer Tom Yancy has done an impeccable job leading these efforts over the years – from physically creating a buzzer board for us to play Family Feud on to replicating the software on a screen. Teams get really involved. We even make t-shirts and it's so much fun. I think it's a time that you really start to feel connected with your fellow Ozmonauts.
Q: What are some of your proudest accomplishments while at Ozmo?
Some of my proudest accomplishments at Ozmo have been being able to transition from an intern to full-time. We have a smaller team in our department, so I really want to get after it and try to take on as many responsibilities as I can. Also, given the opportunity to really lay the foundation for our inbound marketing strategy has been something that not a lot of entry-level, right out of college employees have the privilege of taking on which I've absolutely been honored to do.
Being able to enhance those strategies, think critically, connect the dots with our data has been what really drives me now. Also, the opportunity to have Ozmo rank organically number one in search engine results. This is something that is super big, especially starting out with building out our SEO strategy right off the bat. The last thing I’ll say too is, just having the opportunity to work alongside such awesome people, I think that's an accomplishment in itself. Getting to work with, learn from and grow from the people who you look up to the most and work with everyday – who are your marketing experts, your insights experts, your engineering experts, your new business experts – that's something that I'm really proud of too. I’ve been able to learn, grow and adapt since I've been working here on a day-to-day basis.
Getting to work with, learn from and grow from the people who you look up to the most and work with everyday...that's something that I'm really proud of.
Associate Marketing and Communications Specialist Madie Brookens at Ozmo
Q: What does day-to-day life look like for you at Ozmo?
I typically work from home, so once I make my morning coffee, I head on over to my laptop and crack it open, and get started right away on crafting and strategizing new content that we can push out to other channels. I also work on content syndication and how we can make our website even better, drawing in more qualified traffic and really putting the Ozmo name out there. Most of the time I’m working with a fantastic team of marketing experts and other spectacular teams to really think strategically and implement unique ideas.
Explore what marketing jobs are like at Ozmo
What I enjoy most about my role is really getting to see the fruits of your labor, not only as an employee but also as a team, really getting to see the work that you're putting in and seeing the results that come out of it. Working together as a data-driven team and seeing where we can connect the dots, where we're seeing any trends and patterns and how we can go from there is something that I’ve loved and continue to learn more about. From a design aspect, that's something that I know deep in my core I really want to learn more about. From UX/UI design to understanding how a website looks to attract people, what type of content, what type of words and communication are we putting out there that's going to really attract new people.
Q: What does being an Ozmonaut mean to you?
To me, being an Ozmonaut truly means being a lifelong learner. We're always wanting to learn more from not only our customers but also our prospects. We especially learn from one another, always trying to work towards the good of the group. I've really valued how you're truly a part of something bigger than yourself when you're working at Ozmo.
Q: What do you like to do when you aren’t working?
When I’m not working I love to spend time with my cats. I also love to go on long runs outside. I am currently training for a half marathon so that's pretty exciting. I also love to bake – we have some incredible chefs and bakers at Ozmo. I enjoy listening to music and I love listening to new podcasts. My favorite podcast at the moment is Whistleblowers on Spotify.
