After 13 years in technical and product support at Bio-Rad Laboratories, Carla Terry welcomes a career change that she can feel passionate about. A December 2014 Certificate Program in Marketing graduate (with distinction), she is now working as a marketing assistant in Bio-Rad’s North American Sales Division.

I learned from the best instructors in the Bay Area. They are professionals working in the midst of new trends in marketing. 

From technical support to marketing is quite a career change. What drew you to marketing and the marketing certificate?
Working in technical support until I was 65 is not something I wanted to do. When I looked at the company as a whole, I saw different doors opening up for the marketing staff. One of the marketing managers at Bio-Rad suggested the UC Berkeley Extension marketing certificate, and I thought it was perfect. It gave me the background and education to change my career. The marketing techniques and business material I learned can be applied to different industries. I like that flexibility.

What was your experience like with your instructors?
I learned from the best instructors in the Bay Area. They are professionals working in the midst of new trends in marketing. I feel that I could go to any instructor I had and ask for advice.

You’re working as a marketing assistant now. Are you applying lessons learned in class to this new position?
I’m bringing in ideas from social media, ad campaign and neurobranding classes to projects that my marketing department is working on now. They want to go more digital, and I can provide ideas about what we need to do. My experience in class is reinforcing their direction. I’ll bring in presentations and projects that I worked on in class. It feels good to bring something immediately to a group that needed fresh ideas.