A graduation and promotion for marketing alumna Hayley Boneham

You are here:

A graduation and promotion for marketing alumna Hayley Boneham

Wednesday, 23 March 2022

Tags:

February 2022 was a momentous month for Hayley Boneham, graduating from the School of Business and Law’s Masters in Marketing and Innovation Management and also promoted to Head of Marketing at Bonfire, Perth’s largest digital marketing agency.

Hayley joined Bonfire as Marketing Manager two years ago - just before COVID.

Despite being busy establishing herself in this new role, she said that not being able to travel left her with spare time and so she decided to go back to uni after 10 years and study.

‘I looked at the Masters degrees at ECU, UWA and Curtin and felt that the ECU units would most effectively expand my knowledge’.

‘Interestingly, even though the Innovation elements of the degree didn’t initially seem so important, the Innovation Management components actually proved to be really useful.'

‘They offered a lot of opportunities to liaise with industry, and on one project we worked collaboratively with students across the world to develop a product. Working with a team of Swedish science students was a great experience as that kind of collaboration happens in industry.’

‘I studied online although when units were scheduled in the evening I attended in-person. The lecturers were very supportive. Dr Helen Cripps, in particular, reached out to me a number of times to check that I was juggling study and work OK.’

Hayley’s first degree was also from ECU. After a couple of years of Sports Science and Education, she swapped to a Bachelor of Management, Events, Sport and Recreation, majoring in Marketing.

She moved straight into the workforce from there; starting work in a 12-month position at the City Of Joondalup just three weeks after her last lecture.

Hayley’s advice to current students is to treat relationship building and networking as importantly as doing assignments and studying for exams. ‘Both are critical to get a job and succeed in the industry.’

When recruiting staff, first I reach out to my network for recommendations. Very rarely will I recruit someone just from a Seek application. Build relationships with your lecturers, be active on LinkedIn, attend industry events, and connect with the people you want to work with. And next time they’re looking to fill a role you’re more likely to be top of mind. It also helps you build communication and interpersonal skills which are critical skills to have if you want to be successful in marketing. ‘

School of Business and Law