ALANAH MOIR // NEXT WAVE
Name: Alanah Moir
Handle: @alanahmoir
Job Title: Head of Strategy & Growth at @daymanagement
Workplace: Day Management
Location: Melbourne, Australia
What does a typical day in your life look like as Head of Strategy & Growth at Day Management?
It depends on the day! But typically it starts with tackling the inbox, checking in with my amazing talent for the day and making sure our campaigns are all on track. I live on Gmail and always have about a thousand tabs open with talent info, pitch ideas, content to watch and send off, etc.
I love opening my inbox in the morning and watching content that my talent have submitted overnight. It’s always so cool to see their concepts come to life! Next is a morning matcha/coffee run, of course. Then the rest of my day will be a mixture of internal planning + strategy meetings, more emails and talent campaign management, or working on fun creative projects like talent strategy decks and pitches. Plus a break for lunch and an afternoon cup of tea with the team.
If you were graduating today, what would you focus on during your first three years in the workforce?
Internships! Literally get as much experience under your belt as possible!! Not only is it great for your resume, but it will develop your skills in a real world environment and help you learn what parts of the industry you love.Make sure you take notes on all the projects you’ve worked on and the role you had in them to build out your portfolio, and don’t be afraid to ask for letters of recommendation!
Also build industry connections whilst you’re at it. Go to in-person events with peers, connect with people over socials, reach out to people in the industry you look up to for advice. Soak up every little piece of wisdom you can. You never know what one connection can lead to in the future.
What roles helped shape your path to becoming Head of Strategy & Growth, and why were they important?
My very first job at a small creative agency called Inka Creative was extremely pivotal. I started there as an intern and left as a Marketing Manager and during my 3 years there, I basically tried everything under the sun - social media content creation, paid ads creation, brand strategy, PR, influencer management...you name it. But it was there that I fell in love with Brand Marketing and Brand Strategy and really honed in on these skills. I worked on in-depth brand and business strategies for years, learnt from incredible people and have now found a way to take all of that knowledge and experience and bring it to the world of talent management. I definitely think it helped me stand out from the pack and it’s also brought a lot of depth and meaning into my work.
I truly love being able to apply deep strategy work and data to the careers of our talent and know that the work we do comes from a shared goal, intentional strategic planning and data + trend analysis.
What's one skill more junior professionals should focus on if they want to build a successful career?
Analysing data! I know it might sound dry, especially in a creative industry, but it’s so important to be building campaigns, strategies, pitches and even creating social media content off the back of audience and brand data. This could be looking at anything from market research, reading substacks and listening to podcasts on audience behaviour, looking at WGSN industry and trend reports, checking past campaign results and data, attending industry upfronts, gathering social media insights…the list goes on. I’d recommend getting familiar with the data and learning to interpret and apply it to the work you’re doing. In my opinion, the marriage between creativity and data is where we see the best work happen.
Favourite project you've worked on and why?
I think I actually need to throw back to my previous job as the Beauty Marketing Specialist for Myer. And it was seeing my first campaign on a billboard in the Melbourne CBD. Not only was it super exciting to see my first ‘big girl’ campaign out in the wild, but I had such an emotional connection to this particular job and campaign. My Pop (mum’s dad) worked at Myer for 35 years and at one point in time my Nan, my two Uncles and Aunty and even my Great Aunty and Uncle all worked there too. Myer has always been extremely special to me. I felt that I had added to that piece of family history with this campaign and it was pretty special!
What's something a candidate can do in an interview that instantly stands out to you?
Show your personality! I likely already loved your application and thought your experience was super relevant for the role if we’re at the interview stage. So I’m now interested to know more about you and see if you’d be a good fit for the team culture! Try to be yourself and share some fun and unique things about you, your interests or what you feel you can bring to the team in terms of culture and vibes.
How do you structure your day and week so that you leave Friday feeling accomplished?
Monday and Friday are my WFH home days and I reserve these for deep work. It’s a non-negotiable for me since I have a role where I need to get stuck into deep thinking pieces around the strategy of our business, as well as our talent strategies within the agency too. Tues-Thurs is when I’ll schedule meetings and do a lot of my collaborative work seeing as I’m in the office. This balance always leaves me feeling like I’ve kept things moving in the two key areas of my role - talent management and strategy work.
What's one piece of career advice you wish you'd received earlier?
You’re not any less capable if your path looks different to what’s expected or traditional in this industry. My degree is in Criminology and Anthropology and after uni I took a chance on some marketing and fashion internships to scratch a creative itch I’d had since high school. Even after I was hired, I spent the first few years of my career constantly feeling like I couldn’t measure up to people who had relevant industry degrees and connections. It’s not true! The experience I did have allowed me to think differently about brands, marketing, target audiences and the industry at large.
So embrace your unique path and just know that you don’t need to take the traditional route, you just need to have a curiosity to learn and a desire to make the most of the opportunities you’re given.
