Meet María de los Ángeles, better known as Maru, our amazing Analytics Specialist, who has not just statistics in mind, but is also very much in contact with her human and creative side.
She has an extensive and diverse background, from Digital Marketing, Social Media, to Community Management and now Data-Driven Analytics. But like many people in the industry, she never planned to work in Analytics. It was only after going through most of her Law studies that she decided that’s not what she really wanted to do with the rest of her life.
After, she worked as a Google Ads Assistant, which later led her to the Wunderman Thompson Data Team. Although she originally focused on marketing, having the chance to learn Google Analytics was a way for her to develop different skills such as the interpretation of data and how to use it to improve businesses from the inside out with the help of data insights.
In 2020, she was approached by Conexio and we couldn’t be happier about having somebody so talented and dedicated in our team!
Maru lives in Buenos Aires but has worked for companies large and small based all over the world. She loves to use insights to help her clients find answers to questions they didn’t even know they had.
Get to know Maru.
- As a kid, what did you want to do when you grew up?
Wow, I wanted to be so many things but never what I do today. I wanted to be a professional dancer and a vet because, as you know, I deeply love animals. Finally, I decided to be a lawyer to “make the world a better place.” But when I started studying Law at UBA I discovered that reality is very different from the dream I had.
- Tell us about your career story. How did you end up working in Conexio?
When I decided to stop studying law, it was hard to make. Still, I definitely knew that it wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, so I started looking for alternatives after having a mental breakdown, as I was almost about to finish my degree. By this time, I received a job opportunity at Google to assist in the Google Ads support center. This was the start of my Marketing career. They trained us in every Google marketing tool to be experts. Our main task was helping users maximize their results and, of course, continue investing in the tool. I kept growing there, kept learning more and more, and was finally promoted to Team Leader. Of course, this role had other responsibilities. It was a bit far away from marketing, so I decided to start looking for new opportunities dedicated to Analytics.
I later worked at Wunderman Thompson on the Data Team. Mainly using implementation tools like Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics and developing dashboards on Google Data Studio and Power BI. I discovered that I felt really passionate about this.
As I discovered Digital Marketing really interested me, I started studying Advertising at UAI. Finally, I received a job opportunity from Samsung. They were looking for people with my profile to train them on Adobe Tools. Of course, learning a new tool sounded amazing, so I accepted that challenge.
Adobe was a whole new world, although sometimes information can be hard to find because it's not as widely available. So at first, I struggled a bit, but I started feeling more comfortable with these tools in time.
Then, Conexio appeared in my life in the middle of the lockdown. I will never forget it. The first interviews with Cande were the best interviews I've ever had in my entire life. Once in Conexio, I realized that there were many things I still had to learn about these tools and discover new and exciting tools.
What I love the most about what I do, is that even though sometimes it can be very technical, it also allows me to have a very strategic business perspective.
- What is the best thing about the place where you live?
I live in Buenos Aires, but I’m not very fond of this city. I would say that I love its diversity of places and people.
- What are your interests outside of work?
In my free time, I practice Pole Sport, better known, as Pole Dance. I also love dancing and singing. One of my dreams is to fully dedicate my life to this.
- How do you describe what you do to your family and friends for a living?
Most of my friends work the same, so talking to them about this is easy as we all manage the same vocabulary or knowledge. But to my family or somebody that does not know what it is, I would say that I analyze customer opportunities and weaknesses, also their target, and plan a 360° strategy to help them to optimize their results using all the tools we've talked about (digital marketing tools, social media, community management, etc.)
- What's something that's surprised you about your career path?
If I look 10 years back, I would never imagine myself in the place I am today, honestly. And, of course, that is what surprised me the most.
- What have been your main challenges working as a Data Analytics?
The main challenge is to understand customer businesses' needs and transform them into measurable data in analytics. It is super normal for customers not to know how analytics works, so they come up with many ideas about what they want to do but don't think how or if it's possible because that's our task, so sometimes that conversation or process can be hard.
- What advice do you have for someone starting their career?
We never stop being learners, all these tools are constantly updating, and they have lots of information. It is pretty impossible to get to know them at once. So be patient; sometimes, you won't solve it and may need help.
Sometimes you won't find the information necessary (because Adobe does not always have everything available), and you'll need to keep investigating or trying or asking. And that's OK because most of the time, that is what being in Data Analytics is like.
- If you could pick up a new skill instantly, what would it be?
SQL, PHYTON, JAVASCRIPT.
Favorites: Singer/Band - Food - Book - Instagram account.
- Singer: Nathy Peluso
- Food: Pizza
- Book: Harry potter
- Instagram Account: @astro.luz - @gotitasdepoliamor - @lagloriavegana
The most interesting internet discovery you made recently
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Our Conexio Talent Series is a space to share more about our talented team, get to know their skills and interests, explore their career path, and overall, hear their story. At Conexio, we love bringing the smarts and the heart to everything we do. If you’re interested in discovering new career opportunities, learn more about our open positions.
