Sarah Bruce, class of 2010, is an Advertising Operations Specialist for Twitter, Inc. She works in Dublin, Ireland, where Twitter’s European Headquarters are located, managing the Ads Help Center on business.twitter.com.

Noctiluca: What is your official job description?

Bruce: My official title is Advertising Operations Specialist, and I manage the Ads Help Center on business.twitter.com. It’s a project management role where I liaise with many other teams including Web Developers, Designers, Legal, and Engineering to ensure advertisers on Twitter have an online resource for how to run ads. My day to day involves a lot of written communication, data analysis, and strategic planning. My larger department is Sales Operations, whose job it is to optimize, support, and enable the Sales teams to sell as much ad space on Twitter as they can.

N: How have you reached the position that you are in now? What steps/choices have you made to work as an Advertising Media Specialist for Twitter International? Have you known since North days that you wanted to work for Twitter or did you decide that later?

B: I had absolutely no idea I would end up at Twitter, my career path has been surprising to me! I started in college as a Biology Pre-med major intending to go to med school. Along the way I added a Philosophy major because I enjoyed the classes so much and was questioning my desire to become a doctor. To be honest I wasn’t enjoying the biology courses as much and the thought of four more years of school was nauseating, I was burnt out. I chose to take “a gap year” after doing the MCAT and getting all my med school requirements in case I wanted to still go after time off. In my gap year I waitressed to make money to backpack, which I did in southeast asia for four months.

When I got back, I had no plan but was sure I did not want to go into medicine. I ended up driving my car across the country to California with the intention of living in a new place with sun. I worked at a kids camp there for 2 months while applying for any and every entry level job in tech that I could. Tech is a huge growing industry, and includes companies like Twitter, Google, Apple, and Uber.

Twitter ended up hiring me for a temporary six month contract, which is very common in Tech and an awesome way to get your foot in the door. From my contract work I ended up working my way up to a full time role on the Ad Operations team in San Francisco. After a year, I was promoted to the role I’m now in managing the Help Center and was relocated to Dublin, Ireland, where Twitter’s European Headquarters are.

I wasn’t familiar with Tech as a field before moving to California as it hasn’t really reached the Midwest yet much, but now that I’m here I wouldn’t change my career for the world. Tech is fast paced, innovative, and hyper-relevant to society. I’m so passionate about Twitter as a company and a product, and I truly love going into work every day. All the free food helps as well.

Sarah Bruce is pictured with her collegues at Twtter International.

N: What have you taken from North throughout your career? How has North helped you progress into your career?

B: North was a great place to go to high school, I loved how it has so many things to get involved with. Because there’s so many things going on, it really helps you to start learning how to juggle responsibilities, which I’ve find to be a crucial skill in my career.

N: What is one piece of advice you would give to students who are currently at North?

B: My advice is that you absolutely do not have to know the answers right away, but work hard now to put yourself in a position for success. Take chances and do something that everyone thinks isn’t the “smart or safe choice,” but those risks are a heck of a lot easier if you’ve worked hard along the way. You use your hard work in school to get yourself an interview, but once you’re in that room, what gets you hired is your passion, drive, and willingness to learn. I’ll always hire someone who seems hard working and ambitious over someone with experience but a bad attitude.