Symba welcomes a new marketing leader: Meet Carlotta Bartolini
By Team SymbaToday, we are thrilled to announce that the Symba team is growing and we have brought on a talented marketing leader to join our team!
Carlotta has experience working across multiple sectors and with different organizations - nonprofits, small firms, and multinational companies, in the US and abroad. In May 2020, she earned her Master’s Degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Georgetown University. Now, in her marketing leader role, Carlotta is going to craft Symba’s marketing strategy from scratch and coordinate the organization's marketing and communication efforts.
This is a Q&A blog to get to know Carlotta.
1. We are thrilled to welcome you on board! Can you please share more about your background and how your journey brought you to Symba?
Thank you, the feeling is mutual! I am very excited to be part of the team!
I have had this dream of doing something meaningful since I was a little kid. I come from a very small, Italian town that I love but that always felt a little tight on me. So, after earning my Bachelor’s Degree, interning at a multinational organization, and realizing I wanted a career in marketing and communications, I decided to spend a year in the USA to experience a new culture and see what was out there. I moved to Arlington, VA in 2016 and I immediately felt I belonged here. My “marketing dream” - as I call it - blossomed in 2018 when I started my Master’s Degree in Integrated Marketing Communications at Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies. Finally, I was able to hone my communication skills and I used them to do something meaningful for the community - I supported several social enterprises and local nonprofits, such as the Network for Victim Recovery of DC and the Children’s Art Studio. Thanks to these rewarding experiences and to my supportive network, my passion and drive for marketing led me to Symba. Now, I am excited to enact change with Symba!
2. What makes you excited about Symba and made you want to join the team?
Great question! Do you know that burning feeling you have when you know that you are meant to accomplish something particular? That’s how I felt when I read about Symba and its leadership team - it was immediately clear to me that I wanted to work here. First of all, Symba’s mission - to remove barriers of entry to the workforce - really touched me. Not too long ago, I was an intern and I understand the challenges that American and international students have to face to get an internship or first job. The Management Platform that Symba offers and all the internships Symba was able to save last summer sparked hope in me! I wanted to give my contribution to Symba, and give prospective interns the chance to get a valuable, paid opportunity in a different city, state, or... why not? Country! I wish that I had the opportunity to work for a company in a different country when I was still in Italy! I want to make this possible for future interns!
Last but not least, I really wanted to be part of this amazing team of successful, inspiring, hard-working women!
3. We believe in internships at Symba! Where have you interned before?
I have done multiple internships, which should be mandatory in my opinion. In fact, they allow students to explore different paths - I experienced that firsthand. I wouldn’t be working in marketing without my first internship! It really opened up my mind to uncover the true passion I have for marketing.
It was 2015 when I was hired as a commercial department intern by Indel B (a division of Berloni Group S.r.l., a multinational company based in Italy). During this experience, I had the chance to collaborate with their marketing manager on a couple of projects and that’s when I discovered my passion for marketing and communications.
In 2019, I interned at the Children’s Art Studio, a nonprofit based in DC. They needed me to develop a marketing strategy to increase their summer camps and workshops enrollment by 50 percent. The plan I put together led to doubling their enrollment!
4. What is your mantra and why?
I’d say I don’t have one mantra, but my life has had many twists and turns and there is something I kept reminding myself every time things did not go the way I had planned - “Just keep moving.” After graduation in May, I looked for a job for six months. In September, two opportunities came along at the same time and I accepted the one I liked the most. Long story short, there was an issue, and four days before starting they left me at home. One day I had two job offers, a week later I was back to the drawing board. It was not easy, but I kept reminding myself that I had to keep moving. I could not stop. Two months later, here I am at Symba! Everything happens for a reason. I am grateful that what happened to me brought me to Symba.
5. What do you hope to accomplish the next year at Symba?
Personally, I want to become a successful, inspiring manager by making everyone in the team thrive, and thrive myself. Professionally, my goal is to craft a comprehensive marketing strategy that will enable Symba to reach new milestones, carve out a piece in the market, and actualize its mission to open up the workforce. I will leverage my expertise to ensure that we have a clear vision, mission, and purpose, that our goals are aligned across the organization, and that we have a successful integrated marketing communications strategy.
6. In ten years, what’s your vision for Symba?
In ten years, I want every student to have access to the internship of their dreams. That is what Symba will accomplish - I can definitely picture it as a global leader in the remote work industry and not only for internships! I believe that my team has the right vision and passion to ensure that Symba will be leveraged in every continent. I would love to see it in action in Italy! I look forward to playing a role to make Symba’s vision a reality!
Want to connect with Carlotta? LinkedIn; Personal website
By Team Symba
