Kiara Anderson, ‘23, came to UMD from Rice Lake, Wisconsin, because she loved Duluth. Frequent trips north for figure skating competitions instilled a love of the city and inspired her to look into options for school.

For Anderson, attending a school the size of the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) “gives you the opportunity to work closely with your professors,” she said. Anderson studied marketing and sales, and participated in a wide array of activities across campus and the community.

In the classroom and beyond, she found her community to be one of the important parts of her time here. Anderson was a part of the University Honors program, and one of her most memorable experiences was collaborating with the head of the marketing department in the Labovitz School of Business and Economics to write a literature review about consumer behavior.

Another pivotal experience was her work in the Career Center.

Working in the office gave Anderson a front-row seat to learning the ins and outs of landing a job, including resume building, writing effective cover letters, preparing for an interview, networking, and participating in career fairs.

Growing up and through high school, Anderson says, “ I never envisioned myself working at Google.”

But halfway through her senior year at UMD, Anderson applied for a position in their San Francisco office. It was a dream job in many ways, and she doubted she would get it. But before long, she’d received an offer. She was elated. That was January, and she wasn’t slated to start until the following January, “so I had a really unique experience where I got the job offer a year before the start date.” The extra time enabled her to branch out a bit, working at a horse ranch as a receptionist in Colorado before moving to San Francisco to begin her job.

At Google, Anderson works as an account strategist for Google Ads. She’s in a group of other recent graduates who partner with small- and medium-sized businesses to help them grow their accounts through Google’s ads solutions. Anderson and her colleagues were hired as a cohort, and she appreciates the broad array of cultures and perspectives she’s found at Google. “They really invest in building a supportive community from the first day,” she said.

Since starting her career, she says she’s found many of the lessons and skills learned from her classes translate directly to her job, like being resilient during challenging times and knowing to pivot when needed.

Many of the experiences she had during her time at UMD helped her be ready to start her career at Google in San Francisco, she says. “ My education prepared me really well.”

Header Image: Anderson poses at the San Francisco office of Google, where she works as an account strategist. Some of her most impactful experiences at UMD included LSBE’s sales and consumer behavior classes, which helped lead to her University Honors senior capstone project: research on risk and consumer behavior in relation to promotions. Submitted