Leveling up from an A/E/C Novice at the SMPS Bootcamp

Posted on May. 6, 2025  /  Events  /  Subscribe 1

Author: Sidney Marcey, Marketing Coordinator at Sasaki

I graduated with a degree in marketing from UMass Amherst last year, and even though Sasaki is my first “real” job post-graduation, I’ve been lucky enough to have brushed against the world of A/E/C for many years beforehand. My father is an architect, and it was through conversations I had throughout my time at school with his contemporaries that I realized that this was a world that I could enter into as well. 

Through introductions with many of A/E/C’s leading ladies (such as event speaker and Rhino PR founder Susan Shelby), I was put on the path towards joining Sasaki, and inevitably SMPS! Having joined SMPS Boston very recently, I was unsure where to get started, but my manager and mentor Jenn Robertson encouraged me to apply for the Marketing Bootcamp Scholarship to take the chance at getting my roots in the industry. Luckily, I was accepted alongside my peer Clare, who started at Sasaki the same day as I. Getting to grow parallel with someone in this position has been a great joy and it is my pleasure to report that not only did I learn a lot with SMPS in one day, it was incredibly fun as well!

I’m sure any one of us who has had to explain our jobs as not necessarily marketing qua “traditional marketing” knows how niche and complex working in A/E/C can be. The events were truly like a bootcamp: foundational skills and knowledge for understanding the ins and outs of our industry that, unless taught, would have to be learned simultaneously with the hard day-to-day work we do. Without much background knowledge of the whole process to ground my ideas in, I often find myself unsure of the unique contexts in which we win work. 

That’s why Emily Jenkins’s talk on business development skills for A/E/C marketers resonated with me: understanding that the Venn diagram of business development and marketing is ultimately more of a circle. Recognizing that my position was not as siloed as I thought was a big theme of the day, as the second workshop on the lifecycle of a project, hosted by Kate Murphy and Nakaila Pollard showed us the interplay of marketing and design. While marketers have ideas for great campaigns, it takes a lot more collaboration with the design team in order to successfully communicate the value and beauty in good design. 

Before breaking for lunch, Vanessa Schaefer gave a phenomenal presentation on design basics. As someone with a degree in marketing, it was unfortunate none of my coursework touched upon design fundamentals in the way that Vanessa had. It is priceless as a marketer to be equipped with the language to explain why a certain layout may feel wrong, be it in the context of visual hierarchy, proportions, or whitespace. 

After lunch, I was incredibly excited to see Susan Shelby’s presentation on PR. Susan was gracious enough to lend me her time when I was still figuring out my path, and she was just as engaging and enthusiastic about her work as I remembered. As a junior level coordinator, public relations is not something I get to touch on in my day-to-day, but as I progress through my career, Susan did an excellent job of making it look like something to look forward to! 

The final workshop was very engaging and fun, where teams of professionals had to make a proposal from scratch, with real-time deadlines and hiccups. This workshop, hosted by Jess Guyer, Kristie Norris, and Amy Russes was not only entertaining, but stressful in a realistic way that forced the team I was a part of to really get our heads in the game. Being able to practice tight turnarounds in a low-risk environment gave me a safer space to think about what sort of things I prioritize when under a quick deadline. 

Although it was a full day, time flew by. Compared to my studies towards the end of last year (maybe due to senioritis…) I felt seen and engaged by the string of workshops such that it was never dry or difficult to follow. With this new knowledge gleaned from the workshops, I feel better energized to tackle my deadlines, knowing that all of us as A/E/C marketers are all going through the same things. In the time since, I have returned to my tasks with fresh eyes and new considerations: how can I adjust the design of this layout to better communicate strengths of the firm? Where might the hidden connections between the team and potential work exist? Would a level of rigidity with scheduling the proposals actually make the approach and scope text arrive on time? To be determined...

Many thanks again to SMPS Boston for sponsoring the adventure, and thank you to the A/E/C professionals who have proven over and over again that I made the right decision to pursue this industry by being welcoming, collaborative, and always eager to uplift newcomers like myself.

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