Alumni Spotlight: Brittany Kruglick, General Motors
Eller alumni Brittany Kruglick '16 (Marketing) works as a Digital Product Strategy Manager at General Motors in Dallas, TX.
Tell us about your job responsibilities (day-to-day and/or projects).
In my role as a Digital Product Strategy Manager, I'm specifically focused on developing a new "vehicle visualization tool" to improve the customer shopping experience on our brand websites when a customer wants to customize and interact with our vehicles online. My day-to-day involves cross-functional collaboration between our program managers and technical IT partners to execute the business strategy that I've created. I also work with our UX (User Experience) team on a daily basis to work on the actual visual design of this new tool within the website. I am here to ensure that our partners are meeting the deadlines they need to so that we can deliver this new customer experience on the timeline that was committed to leadership. I create and measure our OKRs (Objective & Key Results), lead committee meetings, and strategize ways to improve the current go-to-market process. I also work with our brand marketing website team to figure out how we can incorporate the tool into their website (both strategically and technically) so that we make sure its easily accessible to customers who are on the website. Outside of my "9-5 role", I'm also a strategy chair for GM's digital business cultural committee, where I lead a team of about 150 people dedicated to improving GM's workplace culture!
What do you enjoy most about your job or company?
One of the things I enjoy most about my current role is getting to experience a completely new part of the automotive industry that I haven't mastered yet. This allows me to learn a lot of new things, interact with people who have different experiences than me, and continue to grow my GM network. I feel really challenged (in a good way) with this new role - being static and complacent is never a good thing, so having opportunities to grow and show my potential to leadership is something that drives my work ethic. I like to think that if I'm not learning something in my job then it's time for something new, and every day since I've been in this role for the last 3 months, I've been learning more about our industry and growing my personal skillset. As a company GM prides itself on innovation and being an industry leader, and I enjoy getting to innovate how our customers experience our vehicles online.
Please share what led you to your current job/company (past experiences, networking, classes, multiple rounds of interviews, or anything you deem relevant).
The summer going into senior year I interned for Bridgestone (the tire company) in a Firestone retail store. This wasn't my dream internship, but I enjoyed cars and car brands and this was the best opportunity that was presented to me for the summer, so I ended up taking it. After graduation from Eller, I started my career as a Sales & Marketing analyst at Nissan USA in their regional Dallas office. They had mentioned that my experience at the Firestone store was the reason they decided to hire me, which I feel shows the importance of taking advantage of your summer breaks to get internships in industries that you're passionate about! After working at Nissan for a few years in various analyst roles, I transitioned from automotive to powersports, working for BRP (think Sea-Doo, Ski-Doo, and Can-Am brands) as a Retail Operations Manager for their West region. Great culture and an awesome product line-up but I realized that my heart lies in automotive, and after getting my MBA from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, I wanted to transition away from regional operations into business strategy. I joined General Motors a year ago in a role that was focused on digital retail strategy, basically working on creating the strategy for how GM customers can start their vehicle purchase online. After 9 months of that, I was promoted to my current role, where I'm the product strategy manager for GM's vehicle visualization tools on our websites. This new role is very different from anything I've done in my career so far, but it's been a great way to learn new skills and grow my resume in different areas of the business.
What advice do you have for Eller students seeking a similar career path?
If there's a specific area of business you're interested in, whether that's automotive, fashion, sports, advertising, or literally anything that drives your passion, I would tell you to do as much networking within that industry as you can. Find companies you want to work for and reach out to employees on LinkedIn, whether they're fellow alumni or not. More often than not, people are happy to donate their time to helping others who are interested in their line of work. Ask lots of questions and make sure you develop the relationship - one meeting with someone doesn't mean that you've made a connection! Additionally, do your best to gain experience and exposure into that specific field you want to get into so that when you graduate, you already have specific industry experience that sets you apart from someone who may not have that. It's a competitive job market out there, and anything that you can add to your resume that shows that you already have some knowledge in that industry when you graduate will be a big plus.
Please share an Eller memory:
Experiencing the first semester of junior year after getting into Eller and adjusting to the change of pace, meeting new classmates, and working on all the various group projects that take place at the same time. It was a lot to handle but getting through that was a big accomplishment!