Following the completion of the IB programme at St. Julian’s (Class of 2016), Giulia de Oliveira Camargo embarked on a BA in Communication and Digital Media at IE University in Spain. A skilled marketeer, she is currently Product Marketing Lead at StudentFinance.

What was it like attending St. Julian’s?

St. Julian’s was my home for many years. It was a very hard place to leave, and I still have a lot of connections with it today. Many of my friends attended St. Julian’s with me, and we still have a close bond. There are teachers I am still in touch with. As a person who has grown up in so many different places and has family all over the world, St. Julian’s was the place that felt most like home. It is an amazing school.


Is there a memory you hold dear from your time at St. Julian's?

The trips were a big bonding experience. The yearly ski trips are some of the fondest memories I have. I learned to ski thanks to SJS.
I was always the person who wanted to go on every trip. All the learning experiences we got physically to experience were fantastic. Among these experiences, the trip to Berlin holds a special place in my heart. The Dofe Gold Award in Serra de Gredos was awesome. I also enjoyed the MUN (Model United Nations) meetings and ISTA festivals I was lucky to attend.


Did you have any favourite teachers?

So many! Mr Wilkinson, our GCSE English teacher, was the one who inspired me to be in the field that I am today. I have always wanted to do something with writing, like journalism. He sparked an interest in marketing and communications. Mrs Moore was also an influence in how she pushed each one of us to our absolute limit. Both made us see what a good piece of work is and how to communicate something well. I owe them my eloquence and ability to do my job well. They both are massive inspirations.
Mr Brooke got me into tech. I had to do an insane spreadsheet project with him that made me very good at Excel, an essential skill that has helped me immensely in my career. 

How was the experience of attending the International Baccalaureate programme?

To this day, it is probably one of the hardest things that I ever done. You have to go very deep in a lot of different subjects. I learned a lot about time management and how to produce high-quality content quickly. It made my life at university easier.

Can you speak about your current role at Student Finance?

I take care of Marketing, from product creation to strategy, all the way to how the brand is communicated externally. I am currently building the marketing function from the ground up. We are going through a rebranding phase, which I am heading, and launching a new product. I am ensuring this new product aligns with the expectations of the market.
I also do a lot of consulting. I have been at a couple of Edtech startups, always in the same role: building marketing from the beginning, bringing the human element to the product being communicated, and ensuring non-technical people can understand it.

What is the project you are most proud of?

I hold one project I worked on at IE University very close to my heart: The European Edtech network. This network connected entrepreneurs who were creating technology processes for education with researchers and educational institutions. These were three stakeholders that needed to be more aligned. A lot of researchers didn’t focus on the applications of their research. Many entrepreneurs did not read about the latest tech research, and then you had institutions in the middle that did not have strong links with the other players. We held events throughout Europe, and that was my doorway into the world of education technology. It was fascinating to see how we could bring all these people together. We organised conferences, workshops and wrote white papers explaining the process. Although it was small scale,  you could really see the impact. I sometimes think about this project and how it could be done on a larger scale, where we could unite these players at one point to make tech products better.

What advice would you give our students wanting to study Marketing?

This sector is changing significantly with new technological advances, especially with IA. What I learned at university is almost obsolete. A lot of the things we were taught to do can already be automated. It is a role that is becoming more technical over the years. People interested in human connection and understanding what makes people tick, particularly in the context of influencing purchasing decisions, will find themselves in a role increasingly grounded in science. If you want to work in marketing, a comprehensive skill set is evolving, requiring a deep understanding of psychology and proficiency in technical skills such as Excel, IT, and information organisation. The marketers of tomorrow will be those prepared to study other disciplines.