Manager, Partnerships & Programming @ Wealthsimple Foundation with Junior Brempong
Junior and Blair discuss what makes partnerships a marketing function; the importance of human skills in this role; and, deciding to pick an industry vs. a job.
In his year one, Junior’s working as Manager, Partnerships & Programming at Wealthsimple Foundation, a charity focused on financial literacy that’s connected to Wealthsimple, a financial technology (“Fintech”) company. Some of the things that Junior and Blair discuss include what makes partnerships a marketing function; the importance of human skills in this role; and, deciding to pick an industry vs. a job.
About Junior Brempong
Junior is the Manager, Partnerships & Programming at Wealthsimple Foundation, a charity focused on financial literacy that’s connected to Wealthsimple, an online financial management company. He recently graduated from the Digital Media Marketing postgraduate certificate program at George Brown College. Before that he completed a bachelor’s degree at Toronto Metropolitan University. Between those two periods of education, Junior had the opportunity to move to London, UK while working for lululemon to support the building the brand through developing the community in that market.
The Highlights and Hottest Takes 🔥
How Junior Got the Job
Junior decided he wanted to get into the technology industry so he focused his job search on it. As part of this, Junior found the Black Professionals in Tech Network (BPTN), a community for early-stage career people who want to get into technology industry. Through this process he found a job posting for the role at Wealthsimple Foundation online and applied to it focusing on his past work in community-based marketing.
“I understood this was for a new division in Wealthsimple with a focus on collaborating with different groups of people at all levels both internal and external. It’s all about building relationships.”
Lesson Learned
Be shameless. Introduce yourself to people. Let people know what you want to do. If you don’t ask a question, you won’t get an answer.
Pro Tip
Don’t choose a job, choose an industry. Pick a sector you see with growth potential–both personal growth and sector growth–as the job title doesn’t matter, but there are transferrable skills within an industry that can take you to different places within it.
Segments
Junior's Year 1ne @ Wealthsimple Foundation | 0:48-27:54
Waelthsimple Foundation is a charity focused on financial literacy that’s connected to Wealthsimple, an online financial management company. The foundation started in 2020 after internal conversations around how the company could do corporate social responsibility (CSR). Junior was the first hire for the Wealthsimple Foundation.
The partnerships part of the role is about identifying and partnering with different organizations–from corporate to charity/not-for-profit to post-secondary education–to further a shared mission of financial literacy for more people. It's more legal dealing with negotiating scopes of work and contracts. Doing social listening and social media monitoring is part of the assessment criteria for a new partner:
"We need to know what the partner and their community are talking about. I have to make sure they're 'not knee deep in drama' is one way to put it."
The programming part of the role is all about content marketing by developing multimedia content, email newsletters and events related to financial literacy for partners to use with their audience.
Empathy is an essential human skill required in Junior's role. While charity/not-for-profit partners all do great work, some of them don’t align with the work that Wealthsimple does in financial literacy space, it’s mission and objectives.
"I had hard time grappling with this. Not everybody can be helped. Some organizations won’t meet our partnership criteria so how do I articulate this to them."
But sometimes he's able to make a warm introduction between potential partners who are more mission/values aligned.
Getting to Day 1ne: The Job Search | 27:55-36:34
Junior wanted to get into technology industry–so he decided to target this. Why?
"Technology is a growing industry with a lot of money in it, so it generally pays well."
Wealthsimple Foundation came onto his radar from here. Junior submitted a "cold application” after seeing the job description online (vs. a “warm introduction”) and applied with focus on his community marketing work in the past.
"I tailored my resume to focus on the community background, which I understood the from job description was a big part of the role."
Because it was a new organization with high-level of working with different groups of people internal and external, he went through a "long interview process" to ensure it was the right fit.
Things I've Learned in Year 1ne | 48:13-53:29
Finding a job is hard work. Really must keep focused. It’s tedious work and exhausting, but you’ll be fine. It’s annoying hearing it from folks who have a job. You’ll get through it.
Be shameless. Introduce yourself to people. Let people know what you want to do. If you don’t ask a question, you won’t get an answer.
Re(Sources)
- Connect with Junior Brempong: LinkedIn | Website
- Brands/organizations: Wealthsimple Foundation | Wealthsimple | George Brown College | Black Professionals in Tech Network
- Marketing and media tools: Hootsuite | Sprout Social
- Connect with The Year 1ne’s host Blair Smith: LinkedIn | Website
Credits
- Created and Produced by Blair Smith
- Hosted by Blair Smith
- Mixed and Mastered by Ray Harripaul
Sponsor(s)
N/A for this episode...Interested in being a sponsor of The Year 1ne's Show? Drop us a line via email 😀
Junior Brempong
Manger, Partnerships
Junior is a recent graduate from George Brown Colleges Digital Media Graduate program. After graduating from Toronto Met University, where he received his bachelors , Junior had the opportunity to to move to London, UK to support the brand building of Canadian company Lululemon. Once he arrived back to Canada, he was looking for a shift and to get a leg up in the competitive job market. That's when he applied to GBC. In the 3 years since graduating, Junior has shifted his career into the tech industry where he has worked for local tech start-ups and most recently Wealthsimple, leading partnerships and programs for their Foundations team. He is ,however, currently on his journey to transfer into engineering, where he hopes to continue his work in the tech space.
