Jesse Coleman

Philosophy, graduated 2017

BA (Hons) Politics & Philosophy

Jesse Coleman is a Senior Growth Manager at a high-growth B2B SaaS start-up. He graduated from Manchester with a BA (Hons) in Politics and Philosophy and talks here about his journey since graduation, and how he arrived at his current position.

My current role and how I got there

I began my career in a very broad Consultancy role but became increasingly interested in marketing and start-ups.

So, I moved to a fast-growing marketing agency, where I cut my teeth in the industry and got a strong foundation of what “best practice” looks like. Ultimately managing a team of marketers and being the lead on key clients such as The Economist.

From there I’ve moved to a couple of other Start-ups, with the current company I’m at (called Thanks Ben) being the most interesting & successful company yet.

Growth Marketing contains many different elements, but some of its most well-known elements are Paid Advertising (both online & offline), Organic (Social Media etc.), and Product-led growth (getting users to try a free version of a product and then up-selling them).

The skills & knowledge I’ve developed during my day job have helped me start my own e-commerce “side hustle” called Vented Sleep where I’m selling high-end duvets for people who find traditional duvets too hot. My various roles provide me with an interesting mix of strategy, data analysis, and creativity.

My experience at Manchester

Politics is a huge personal passion & interest of mine. I chose Philosophy to challenge my thinking & views on the world. Asking unusual questions has certainly helped me in my career.

During university politics was my number one interest, but I knew I didn’t want to go straight into politics after University. I wanted to experience more of the world, different organisations, whilst also challenging & improving my professional skills. The UoM Global Graduates program had a BIG impact on me.

It gave me an unprecedented insight in various private & public sectors organisations and challenged my view of what working in a company was like. In particular, the idea of “being paid to learn” and then ultimately building my own company became a keen interest after that trip.

How did your course set you up for your career path?

By far the biggest plus was the ability to develop and form arguments quickly based upon prior knowledge. At university I really didn’t like time-constrained essay exams, and often didn’t see the point in them. But in truth, working in a company is often like a time-pressed exam. You have to quickly form coherent, persuasive arguments based upon what you’ve learnt up to that point.

Most surprising was how much more tolerant I became of other people’s opinions. Political opinions in particular, but also lots of other sensitive topics. I came to University very argumentative, and indeed still am to a degree, but slowly found that connecting with people - really understanding their perspectives even if I vehemently disagreed - was so much more rewarding than temporarily beating them in a debate. I would never pretend to agree with someone if I didn’t, but I found I’d always learn so much more by exploring/uncovering their perspectives rather than debating them.

My advice for future students

Practical advice: Get an internship / work experience somewhere during your summer breaks. Whatever you chose to do, it’ll help you get the momentum you need to break into whatever sector you’re going after. The earlier you do it the better. Make sure it is results focused. Focus on delivering something valuable. It’s better to have one great internship (or two if you’re lucky) than a CV packed with a bunch of other random things.

General advice: Speak to people you disagree with, without the need to prove them wrong.