u/Sea-Brain3976

Hi everyone,

26F living in Cape Town, South Africa, and looking for some career advice.

I currently have around 1–2 years of experience in a marketing coordinator-type role, mainly doing content scheduling, email marketing, social media copywriting, some content creation, basic design, etc. It was quite execution-focused and for a specific brand within education.

I then took a year to study and completed a postgraduate qualification in Marketing & Advertising Communications. This year, I moved into a digital agency that focuses heavily on AI and currently work on the marketing operations side of the agency so I’m not client-facing.They operate across different countries, so I’ve been exposed to different markets and the broader process of aligning marketing with business and sales objectives.
It’s been a really valuable experience, but I’ve realised that long-term I’m much more interested in strategy, brand thinking, consumer insights, human behaviour, communications and PR.
I’d ideally like to move into a creative/advertising agency where I can work more closely with brands, have some creative freedom, build a strategic portfolio and gain exposure to different industries. I’m interested in eventually moving towards roles like Junior Strategist, Brand Strategist, Creative Strategist, Planner or PR/Communications.
At the moment, though, I feel like my experience is positioning me more towards marketing/brand management and operations, which isn’t really where I see myself going.
For anyone working in agencies or who has made a similar pivot, how would you recommend making this transition beyond just applying for jobs?

Would building a strategic portfolio, networking, freelancing, doing spec projects or taking specific courses actually help? And would you recommend taking a more junior agency role to get that initial experience?
Would really appreciate any advice, especially from people who have made the move from marketing into agency strategy/creative/PR.