MS Marketing Student Spotlight: Danielle Forbes

Danielle Forbes is graduating from the MS Marketing program this summer. She shares how the program helped her find her dream job.

Q: What is your background?

Forbes: “I was born and raised in Florida and grew up in Jacksonville in the Northeast. I obtained my undergraduate degree in management at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and discovered my love of marketing through internships and roles I worked up until graduation.”

Q: Why did you join the MS Marketing program?

Forbes: “Having really enjoyed my time working in the marketing department of an entertainment technology company, I decided to pursue specialized education in marketing to learn more about how this discipline drives beneficial changes and decisions for organizations. In my mind, there was no better place to do that than at UF. I applied during the spring before my graduation and the rest was history!”

Q: What did you like about the MS Marketing program?

Forbes: “I’ve loved my time in the MS Marketing program; it’s a bittersweet feeling having to leave campus but knowing you learned so much to take with you into the next step of your career and beyond. The professors at Hough are incredible and truly have real-world experience to explain principles learned about in the classroom. There’s no replacement for experience and our professors have some of the very best!”

Q: What are your professional career plans after graduation?

Forbes: “After graduation this summer, I’m excited to say that I’ve have accepted an offer to join E&J Gallo’s Sales Leadership Development Program (SLDP)! This rotational program allows me to start as a sales representative, transition into a manager and hopefully manage an entire market of Gallo products in the future. I couldn’t be more excited to get started in August, and I credit finding this position to the events put on by the Career Connections Center and help from Houston Bailey, my MS Marketing advisor. I first met my recruiter at one of the career fairs at UF and continued to pursue the company by networking and asking as many questions as I could from people currently in the SLDP and in other roles at Gallo.”

Q: Any advice for incoming students?

Forbes: “My advice for incoming MS Marketing students would be to hit the ground running when you get to UF. Make use of the career fair and events since you never know who you’ll meet and what a brief connection can turn into later down the road. One conversation can lead to the next, and the more the better. Expanding your network can open doors you hadn’t initially foreseen, and it can make all the difference in finding your dream job!”

Q: Tell us a cool fact about yourself.

Forbes: “A fun fact about me is that I speak German and I’m a twin! My sister and I spent our summers growing up visiting family in Germany. We believe that the best cake in the WORLD is found in a tiny German town outside of Frankfurt – but you’ll have to try a bunch of places to find out which one it is!”