Erin Jaeger ’11 shares her unlikely path to Director of Product Marketing at Yext
Where did you grow up? What led you to Dartmouth?
I grew up about an hour south of Dartmouth, in Keene, New Hampshire. Dartmouth wasn’t my top choice at first because it felt too close to home. That all changed when I went to Dimensions.
I’d spent the previous weekend at the school I’d thought was my top choice (ironically, the school that my now-boyfriend attended). That whole time, there was this attitude that seeped through every presentation, like, “you should feel super honored to be here. We could’ve chosen anyone and we selected you.” It felt really elitist and self-important. My mom and I made the short drive to Hanover a week later. The first thing I saw as I stepped out of her car was a bunch of kids wearing animal onesies, dancing to Madonna and shouting, “Welcome home!” The attitude was night and day from the other school. I felt completely at home at Dartmouth as a bright-eyed eighteen-year-old who didn’t take herself too seriously. I decided on Dartmouth on the spot.
What did you do during your time at Dartmouth?
It sounds so nerdy, but all through high school, I loved the romance of reading old books and writing papers and academics for academics’ sake. I wish I could say I chose my studies at Dartmouth with a long-term goal in mind, but in reality I just picked the classes I enjoyed the most. I majored in English with a concentration in creative writing, and I minored in Religion. I was also fortunate to study abroad twice — I spent my sophomore Fall on the Spanish LSA in Barcelona, and my junior Fall on the English FSP in Dublin.
On campus, I was a proud member of Sigma Delta and active in Sexual Abuse Peer Advisors (SAPA), and I was also one of the founding members of the Dartmouth Yoga Club.
You worked at IBM in Product Marketing right out of college. How did you decide you wanted to work there?
Honestly, it was a long and winding road. My trajectory at Dartmouth pointed me towards law school, not the tech industry. I’ve always been a good communicator and excelled in the humanities, so law school felt like the most immediate path forward after graduation.
I scored an internship at the ACLU in New York City my junior spring, which was amazing. I lived with my grandparents on Long Island and commuted every day. I also interned at a private law firm in NYC my junior summer, and I studied for and took the LSAT my senior spring. But, when I started applying to law schools, I came to the tough realization that I didn’t actually want to be a lawyer. It was a pretty painful time, to be honest, because I felt like I’d worked so hard up until that point and had absolutely no idea what I actually wanted to do with my life.
Luckily, my parents encouraged me to do the Tuck Business Bridge program the summer after I graduated, and I found it really fun and energizing. (I’m incredibly lucky to have had the resources to take advantage of that program, as well as my unpaid internships. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become a lotmore aware of the crazy privilege that supported me on this winding journey. I’m simultaneously grateful for these opportunities, and also enraged that not all students have access to them. More on that later.)
Until Tuck Bridge, I’d thought “going into business” had meant “working on Wall Street,” which I did notwant to do. Tuck Bridge opened my eyes to the many types of companies and industries out there in the world. It was also the first time that I really saw an opportunity to use my communication and writing skills for something other than law.
After Tuck Bridge, I moved to Boston with some Dartmouth friends, taught yoga to cover my rent, and spent 8 weeks applying to a total of 85 jobs. I did try to work my network, but I also trolled Monster.com for any job opening that included some combination of the keywords “marketing,” “communications,” “analyst,” or “associate”. The tech industry had piqued my interest at Tuck Bridge, and thanks to a compelling cover letter, 3 really great interviews, a manager who in hindsight was willing to take a huge risk by hiring me, and a lot of luck, I scored my first job at IBM.
How did your experiences at Dartmouth help to shape your career path?
I wish there was a clearer connection, but my path was not linear. However, as I progress further in my career, it’s become more clear how the soft skills I honed at Dartmouth have really propelled me forward. Learning quickly, thinking critically, and communicating well are core to my work, and I refined all those skills through my classes at Dartmouth.
Can you talk more about your experience at IBM? What responsibilities do employees have in Product Marketing and why did you choose to work in Product Marketing specifically? What was the transition from college to working life like for you?
Product Marketing is a really interesting track within tech companies, because it sits at the intersection of engineering, marketing, and sales. The role of a Product Marketing Manager (PMM) is to understand complex technology, break down that complexity for a non-technical audience, and communicate not only how it works, but why it matters and why someone should spend money on it.
At IBM, I was the PMM for two software products we sold to marketers at other companies. The products basically made it easier to track and manage all the interactions a customer has with different types of marketing, from reading an email to clicking on a banner ad to attending an event. Since this was my first job, I didn’t have any experience in marketing — but I did have a lot of experience being a consumer. So, I focused on storytelling: how great it is for consumers to have a seamless experience, and how frustrating and annoying it can be if a company doesn’t get it right. My lack of experience was actually a huge asset in this role, because I didn’t know the industry jargon. It allowed me to humanize the way we talked about the products we sold, which really resonated with our customers.
The transition to working life was pretty easy for me — I was just excited to get to work and happy to finally have a path ahead of me. But, learning how to buy my own groceries and cook for myself continues to be a challenge almost eight years later. Adulting is hard. 🙂
Was there a particular path that you thought you wanted to follow after working at IBM?
In 2014, after working about IBM for about three years, I moved from Boston to New York. Boston was feeling small and I was hungry to get back to the big city where I’d done my internships. I actually kept my IBM job through the move, which was a perk of working for such a huge company.
As far as a career path, I continued to be challenged by PMM, so I figured I’d climb that ladder and stay at IBM for as long as I could. I honestly didn’t think I’d leave IBM so soon.
What made you decide to move onto a new job, and why did you choose Yext?
Yext reached out to me on LinkedIn a few months after I moved to NYC. I was super uninterested in leaving IBM, but I figured it’d be good to practice my interview skills in a low-risk environment, so I said yes to a meeting. I ended up interviewing really well precisely becauseI didn’t think it would go anywhere (it was easy to be confident and comfortable when the stakes felt low). Three weeks later I had a new job offer.
This next part has become part of Yext’s lore over the years — I initially rejected the offer. It was for a bit more money than I was making at IBM, but it didn’t feel like quite enough to leave the stability of a huge company or the relationships I’d built at IBM. As my dad tells it now, Yext “rejected my rejection,” brought me back in, and were willing to negotiate to get me to a salary level that was compelling enough for me to take the risk of leaving IBM. Saying yes to their second offer was a calculated risk and one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Can you talk a bit about working at a growing tech startup? What was it like working at a company going public?
When I joined Yext, the company was slightly more than 200 people — so it wasn’t the kind of 5-person startup you see in the movies. We’d found market fit with a single product, and we were in growth mode. So, my job was all about helping the company scale. We were hiring tons of salespeople, expanding into new countries, and building more products on top of the one everyone knew us for.
At IBM, I spent most of my time refining or improving sales pitches that someone else had come up with. At Yext, I was building these stories for the very first time. It was super energizing, but the work was never done — it felt like we were constantly reinventing ourselves and our core message every six months. As the company grew, it became clear that we needed not one product marketer, but a team, and they offered me the challenge of building that team. Suddenly my work wasn’t just about writing the best pitch or the best copy for our website, but hiring other star players and learning how to be a manager. It’s been a constant challenge but I’m still excited to tackle it every day.
In the months leading up to our IPO, Yext hired a number of seasoned executives from companies like Salesforce, Pandora, and Cisco. They had a ton of experience of having taken other companies public, and I had the deep knowledge (Yextpertise?) of our product, pitch, and buyers. I was able to help craft the message and pitch we brought to investors, and on April 13, 2017, I got to stand with 50 of my colleagues on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as our CEO rang the opening bell. It was an experience I’ll never forget.
Any plans for the future?
The short, cheeky way I’ve described my life goals is that I want to run a marathon, run a company, and run for office. (I actually checked off the first one last year!) But, more specifically, I see my calling as helping build and elevate the next generation of women leaders. I want to use my privilege for good.
I’ve been incredibly lucky to get some crazy opportunities in my career, but with every promotion I’ve received and every notch I’ve risen up the ladder, the number of other women at the table keeps dwindling. Most companies these days, especially in tech, say they’re focused on hiring more women and diverse talent. But simply hiring more people who aren’t white men doesn’t mean these companies are actually closing the pay gap or promoting underrepresented people at the same rates. So, my calling is twofold: I want to set an example by becoming an executive to show other women that it’s possible, but I also want to transform the industry from the inside by pushing for more diverse and representative leadership at every level.
Whenever my time at Yext comes to a close, I want to build on my experience to make tech leadership more inclusive and representative of what our world really looks like. That probably means joining another company at the executive level myself. Longer term, I’d love to start or join a venture capital firm that funds underrepresented entrepreneurs.
What is the best advice you have ever been given (career-oriented or otherwise!)
“Every decision about you and your career is going to be made in a room that you are not in.”
As much as we want to choose our own destinies, we are never at the table when it comes time to decide whether we should get hired or promoted. So, we absolutely need to advocate for ourselves and ask for what we want, but other people are also going to have to advocate on our behalf. To do that, they need to know what we want and why they should argue for us. Spend time cultivating those sponsors.
Do you have any advice about making the best of your Dartmouth experience? Is there anything you wish you had known about your career path or working life while a college student?
I love Dartmouth, but diverse career options did not feel accessible or available to me while I was at school. It felt like the options were to go to medical or law school, do corporate recruiting and work on Wall Street or for Bain/Deloitte/McKinsey, or go into the Peace Corps. There is so much more out there that the campus recruiting process didn’t highlight when I was a student there. That’s why initiatives like Excelle excite me so much — I wish we’d had a resource like this when I was still on campus.
If I could translate that rant into advice, it would be to avoid falling into the trap of thinking that your career has to be selected from the limited options Dartmouth presents. It’s a lot more difficult to choose your own adventure, but it’s going to be so much more rewarding in hindsight.
What is your number one bucket list item for Dartmouth seniors? (i.e. Lou’s challenge, go to Montreal for a weekend—something fun!)
Spend a weekend with a big group of friends at Titcomb Cabin on Gilman Island. It’s so magical.
