MARSHALL SHAFFER ’15

Social Media Planner
Ogilvy

New York City, New York
WFU Class of 2015
Major: Communication, Sociology
Minor: Film Studies

DeacLink: Please take us through your journey to your current occupation since leaving Wake.Marshall Shaffer: I left Wake paralyzed about where I was going to end up – New York or Los Angeles – and ended up waiting so long to make a decision that I wound up stuck at home in Houston just to get a job. I worked at a small PR/marketing firm there for two years doing social media as an extension of publicity. I enjoyed learning about how the working world functioned there and appreciated the chance to gain more responsibilities than I might have as a cog in a larger corporate machine. But I watched the nature of social media change during my tenure there and knew I would need more exposure to the paid media side of the business if I wanted to continue in the business. This coincided with my desire to move to NYC, and I was lucky to find a job that gave me exactly what I was looking for at Ogilvy.
DL: How much did your studies and general experience at Wake inform or drive your career path?

MS: They informed my career path both a lot and not at all. I don’t necessarily use any hard skills or knowledge from my studies at Wake, but the overall mindset I gained from social sciences has been invaluable at being a critical thinker on the job.
DL: How did you find and apply to the various positions you’ve held?
MS: I got connected with my current position through a Wake Forest alumni who was not someone I knew or had any connection to prior. I am the living proof that you should absolutely talk to any and every person you can because you truly never know what doors they can help open for you. It’s easy to be scared of networking with a total stranger, but so many people have been the beneficiary of such gestures of support and want to provide the same to fellow graduates.
DL: What could Wake have done better to prepare students for life after graduation?
MS: I think there should be more realistic expectation setting of what your path to employment will look like within given industries or based on your major. I suffered with feelings of massive inadequacy all senior year because so many of my peers, primarily in the business school, got employment offers following the internships after junior year summer. Not all industries have that luxury, and many only hire for people who can start within 2 weeks. For some people, it’s all but impossible that you will graduate with a job offer lined up, and Wake should help destigmatize that.
DL: What is your favorite part of living and working in New York? What is the most interesting thing going on in the art scene there at the moment, in your opinion?
MS: I love living and working in New York because you can make your own community of like-minded people who are there for the same reasons you are. It is too tough and imposing of a city for people to live there lackadaisically. You need hustle and drive. People will see that in you, and you’ll connect over it.
Admittedly, I am writing this during the pandemic in which there is virtually no established art scene in New York! But beforehand, I adored the repertory film scene. There are so many theaters curating and programming such interesting cinema that expanded my horizons and corrected many canonical blind spots. (Apart from my 9-to-5 job, I dabbled in some freelance film journalism/criticism, so having all those options at my fingertips every day was truly an eye-opening delight.)
DL: What is your favorite part about working for Ogilvy?
MS: I do like working for a company with a lot of resources and industry expertise. It’s nice to be surrounded by so many smart subject matter experts and have the institutional might to support learning and professional growth.
DL: What and where is next for you?
MS: Who knows?! Not me! I plan to stick around Ogilvy and New York for the foreseeable future.
DL: Any kernel of advice you’d like to impart to the readers?
MS: There’s no reason to move to New York unless you absolutely have to live there. That’s not to say you can’t live or work anyplace else, but in order for it to be a worthwhile endeavor for you, it has to be the place you absolutely have to live.