Taking her chances: how Masha Kaptilina used networking skills to secure an internship with CogX

LCF Graduate Futures encourages students to be brave and take positive risks when job searching, providing spaces for students to develop these crucial communication skills and make connections. We recently caught up with MA Strategic Fashion Marketing graduate Masha Kaptilina who took advantage of this opportunity, securing her dream marketing internship with CogX.

Marsha spoke to us about her determination to be proactive and take chances when they come, explaining how she benefited from the Graduate Futures’ ‘Storytelling, presenting and networking’ workshop. Masha, like everyone else at the session, saw it as a great opportunity to develop her skill set both personally and professionally. Storytelling was something she was very passionate about. So naturally, she identified it as something she wanted to utilise more in her professional approach.

Taking her time to research the guest speakers presenting at the session, she realised she shared a unique link with Charlie Thompson, a business and brand engagement expert and at the time, the Marketing Director for the world’s biggest festival of AI and transformational technology, Cog X. This was the moment Masha recognised the enormous networking opportunity that stood before her. Nevertheless, she couldn’t ever have imagined just how far making the most of this moment would take her.

What were your aims before attending the storytelling, presenting, and networking session?

Firstly, I just really like marketing, I'm passionate about storytelling and I wanted to learn how to connect with consumers in general. So, when I saw the session advertised, I was immediately interested to see what I could take from it. However, when I started reading into it, I saw that Charlie Thompson was going to be speaking. He was previously a managing partner at BBDO, somewhere I had interned at for six months, so that made me want to come even more as I wanted to introduce myself to him. I was also quite intrigued because I interned at BBDO myself. So naturally, I wanted to speak to him regarding the experience we shared. Our paths had never crossed during my time there, but I was aware of who he was. So, seeing he was going to be talking at a Graduate Futures event was a really pleasant surprise for me.

What impact did Charlie's presentation have on you?

I think just to develop my skill set further, because I do love marketing, so I’m really interested in hearing from people whose whole career is based around telling stories as this is something that I am very passionate about. So, I think hearing from an expert is super valuable because I can learn from it and then implement the ideas in my own career later on. He also showed us a couple of advertisements that were very emotional and utilised this aspect very well. I really resonated with this as it intersects with what I learned back when I was at BBDO. I was in the creative department at the time and that's what we really focused on, how to tell a story and make an emotional impact.

How did the opportunity at CogX come about?

After Charlie's presentation, I introduced myself to him during the networking section of the event. We ended up talking about our shared experiences for a little while so whilst I was talking to him, I thought I would pass him my CV just to see if there were any projects I might be a good fit for or if there was anything at all I could get involved with. The conversation was great to be honest. He was very helpful, and we actually connected on LinkedIn as a result. After the event, I sent him a follow up message to let him know I was keen to get involved however I could, and he sent some opportunities over and set up an interview for me!

The event gave me the opportunity to talk to Charlie so when I did, I wanted to come across as motivated and passionate. A big part of it is chance. I didn’t expect to have met him, so if you have an opportunity like I did in this instance, take it because I don’t think these moments come around often. I didn’t go into it thinking I might have a chance of getting a job there because I thought that would be so unreachable. Everybody always says it’s so difficult to find a job in London, especially when you're still studying, which I totally agree with! That's why I think luck and trying everything out is so important.

Tell us a bit about the opportunity itself, what is it you’re doing at CogX?

Currently I'm a marketing intern at CogX so I’m doing a little bit of everything. However, I would say my focus at the moment is social media. So basically, creating content and managing the various social media channels CogX is active on. I’m also responsible for creating visual assets for the socials so a bit of graphic design as well. Since starting, I have also made a Tik Tok account for Cog X, so a lot of my focus has been on creating interesting content for that too. Prior to my internship, I’d never worked with social media before so having the opportunity to learn has been amazing. It’s also helped me identify that content creation and that side of marketing is an area I’m really passionate about and is potentially where I would like to focus my career in the future.

What have been your main takeaways from this experience?

Overall, it’s been a very interesting experience to have the opportunity to work for a great company with a message that really resonates with my core values. Because CogX is a company that is aiming to address the question ‘how do we get the next 10 years right as a society?’

Basically, we're trying to encompass all the important topics that are being discussed today. To start conversations, improve the world we live in and prepare humanity for what is next. So, I would say the main thing I’ve taken from the experience is just how amazing it is contributing to such a powerful message. And that I really love working for a company that has so much purpose, because it’s given me that purpose too. Just to reiterate what I said earlier as well, another main takeaway for me has been trying to explore who I am professionally and what I want to be professionally because my experience has given me opportunities to explore new career paths, allowed me to learn skills that I can later utilise in my career, and ultimately given me the confidence to navigate myself in the professional world.

• Find out more about  MA Strategic Fashion Marketing
• Connect with Graduate Futures
• What’s on at LCF: open days and events
• More LCF Stories