My biggest influence in my career has been my determination and resilience, says Ruchi Jaju

We recently caught up with Ms. Ruchi Jaju about her professional experience and her journey so far in Luxembourg. The following is the brief excerpt of the interview

Q1. Tell us about your journey so far

From a sales professional to an independent consultant, freelance content creator and content strategist, I am proud to make my own career path in a new country and chalk out my growth journey. I have over 8+ years of work experience in business development, marketing, personal branding, and content writing.

Q2. What prompted your interest in sales and marketing? According to you, what is the most important thing to make a successful pitch?

Ever since I completed my graduation in Computer Science, I wanted to enter marketing because I was fascinated with the brands around me. It always intrigues me to see how commercials have this tremendous capability to influence customer to buy any product.  

The ad jingles, copy writing, conceptualization, etc. everything was just so interesting. Hence marketing was an obvious choice for a person like me who has creative interests. If I have to point out the single most important thing to make a successful pitch, then it would be listening to your prospect. If you do this, then no matter whichever product it is, you will be able to sell it even without pitching it.

Q3. Tell us something about the various roles that you have undertaken in your career

I started my professional journey as a management trainee in a FMCG company and eventually moved to Unilever in the institutional sales division.  I personally believe, in order to be a good marketer, you need to have a good on-ground understanding and that is only possible when you spend some time in sales. Hence, I spent a couple of years in sales.

Then, I had to relocate to Luxembourg because my husband moved here. After struggling for couple of months to get a job here, I started exploring writing on LinkedIn and hence new doors of content writing and personal branding opened up for me and there was no looking back.

Q4. What or who has been the biggest influence in your career so far? How do you balance your personal and professional career?

My biggest influence in my career has been my determination and resilience. I use the hashtag #ResilientRuchi on my LinkedIn posts. People who know me vouch for it, because I don’t believe in giving up. At the end of the day, it is we who have to make our own path. No one will do anything for you if you will not make efforts to make it happen.

This is applicable for both personal and professional goals in life. Being an independent consultant, I am now able to have a great balance of my work and personal life. I work as per my wish. Having said that, there are times when I give more time to my work but that is out of choice. If you are satisfied with what you want to do, balancing professional and personal life should not be a problem. It is all a matter of prioritization.

Q5. Which is the biggest challenge you have faced so far? What are your future plans?

Moving to a European country where sales and marketing is highly language specific, I faced difficulty in getting a job not only because of work permit but also because of language. I find it difficult to learn languages. Hence, the biggest challenge was how do I get to work. Thankfully, freelancing opened new avenues for me. I want to grow my freelancing business by 10 times. I love the independence I have and I get to work on projects from across the globe.

Q6. How has the lockdown impacted you as a professional?

Initial few months took a hit for sure because marketing was one of the first expenses that companies cut down. But eventually, things started becoming better because organizations too realised that this pandemic is here to stay and curtailing their marketing altogether would become more detrimental for their businesses. Work started flowing in, and things were fine. I was working from home since the last 2 years, so not much of a change on that front. But as a professional, I have seen others evolving around me because of the new normal. ?

Q7. What would be your advice to young professionals and students?

Never give up!

You just cannot. If one option closes for you that does not mean that the world is over. Thanks to the internet, you have so many options that you can explore. And, keep learning and acquiring new skills, it never fails you.

Q8. You have worked in Luxembourg. How would you describe the work culture compared to India? How can our readers connect with you ?

In terms of work culture, what I like here is the fact that once the office working hours are over, people have their entire time to themselves. People don’t bother you in non-working hours and respect your personal time. This ensures that you get to have a good work-life balance. Those who wish to connect with me can find me on LinkedIn .

Q9. Any suggestions for IdeasMakeMarket.com?

Keep interacting with professionals and industry experts from various fields. Optimize LinkedIn to grow your community and build meaningful connections.

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