Welcome Shanah Gaskill to #Teamexaqueo

In case it wasn’t totally apparent, our team is obsessed with employer brand. We live and breathe it every day and welcome every opportunity to educate and inspire on the topic.

Before I introduce you to our newest team member, I want to share a little story — it’s related, I promise! My daughter recently said to me: “Mom, I want to be like you and have two jobs.” I was curious what she meant — I didn’t realize I had two jobs in her eyes. She told me “You’re a mom and a…wait, what’s your other job?” I chuckled, I knew what she meant — what we do is hard to describe! She told me she wants to be a mom and a doctor. The next day it was a mom and an artist. I’m sure it will change a million times. When you’re little though, your scope of the world is pretty narrow and you only know about jobs in “typical” fields like medicine, law, the arts, etc..

When it comes to a job in employer brand, everyone has their story for how they arrived at their career. It’s usually a winding path and not something they necessarily pursued. After all, what 4-year-old says “I want to work in employer brand when I grow up!” Well, imagine my surprise when I met Shanah Gaskill, a current MBA student at Vanderbilt University. She reached out to me after I was a guest speaker for one of her classes and shared with me that she left her marketing position at Uber to pursue a career in employer brand and felt that an MBA would help to bridge the gap. I mean, how often do you come across someone who drops everything to pursue a career in this very niche, under-the-radar field?!

It was the perfect fit for an employer brand-obsessed company to bring on someone who is craving experience in the field (plus she is super smart and driven). With that, I’d like to introduce you to Shanah (rhymes with banana) Gaskill, an Employer Brand Associate here at exaqueo. Below is a brief interview with her to give you a peek into her career and life. Join me in our warm welcome to #teamexaqueo!

What drew you to employer brand?

During my time on the marketing team at Uber, I was able to work alongside the employer brand team during a several-month long project. I was charged with helping the team understand the employee experience for our engineering talent. From recruitment to attrition, we worked to identify and improve gaps in the experience. It was through this specific project that I was able to gain first-hand experience with employer brand. At the intersection of business strategy, human capital, and marketing, one can find employer brand. Employer brand takes my passions—strategy, people, and marketing—and puts them into one exciting role.

How would your colleagues + classmates describe you?

“This is always a tricky question for me to answer. But I think they’d say I’m:  A kind, supportive listener, Funny, Hard-working”

What keeps you busy in grad school?

One of the great things about being at Vanderbilt’s business school is that it’s truly a student-led community and the opportunities for involvement are a-plenty. For me, it was important to be involved in ways that amplify and share our unique, family-centric culture. To that end, I am a campus visit coordinator, helping welcome prospective students to campus and Vice President of Communications for Owen Student Government Association, co-leading our internal student communications.

We always talk about the whole self at exaqueo, where you spend your time/energy outside of school?

There are a few ways I enjoy spending my time when not in the classroom. First off, Fitness, both Physical and Mental. It’s important for me to stay active so I spend time each day dedicated to both my mental and physical health. I really enjoy going to different workout classes here in Nashville and have had fun visiting new churches since I moved here last summer. Second, Quality Time. This is absolutely my love language. More specifically, I really love cooking dinner for my family and friends. Having them over to enjoy a meal together makes my heart so happy. Finally, Nap Time. Since I’m a student again, I get to enjoy the luxury of taking little cat naps after class. A quick 10-minute nap does me wonders!

Want to know a little more about Shanah? She was featured in Poets and Quants spotlight on the Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management Class of 2020 spotlight. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn.

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