When she decided to study communication and film/media studies at UC Santa Barbara, Alyssa Fine ’22 –working as an Events Marketing Coordinator at Tubi, at time of publishing– knew she was learning about subjects she loved, but they felt like separate paths.
With her sights set on a live television production career, Fine interned for a local community broadcast station and with the Television Academy Foundation. While film and media fit, she wasn’t sure where or how communication could play a role in her future.
When the pandemic hit during her junior year—and lingered through her senior year—live productions were paused, and she decided to move in a different direction to see if she could bring the two together.
That’s how she found Northwestern’s MS in Leadership for Creative Enterprises (MSLCE) program.
“It seemed like a perfect merge of everything I had been studying and doing,” she explains. “It could provide that foundational knowledge on media business that I didn’t get during my undergrad experience. When I left production, I was pivoting from everything I knew. This was a way for me to figure out what my interests really were.”
She says two courses in particular—Marketing Strategies in Creative Industries and The Power of Strategic Storytelling—were instrumental in broadening her horizons, especially since she didn’t get to experience those types of classes as an undergraduate student.
“I didn’t know that side of the industry even existed, but it was a way to merge my love of film and TV with marketing,” she describes. “Brands, marketing campaigns, and streaming are all blending, so it was super interesting to learn about that. It was like discovering the underbelly of the entertainment industry.”
She also enjoyed putting together plans about how she would market a unique event based on a specific theme—part of a hands-on project she completed along with other members of her cohort. “Those types of exercises helped me establish a framework I could build on and still use today,” she says.
But what Fine enjoyed even more than the classes and discussions were the people she met and their different perspectives and points of view.
“Everyone who comes into the program is from such different yet similar backgrounds,” she describes. “I learned so much from the people I was around—professors, staff, and students—and all the different industries they came from and were interested in.”
While Fine earned her master’s degree, she also interned with a small production company in Los Angeles, where she learned more about the branded environment industry and helped create branded entertainment content through market research and commercial design.
When it came time to choose between an internship and a thesis during the MSLCE summer quarter, she chose a hands-on internship at Dolby. Working in brand marketing, she got hands-on experience in promoting movies and TV. The work brought together everything she had learned in the program up to that point.
“It was my first experience being as part of a corporate marketing team, so I did my best to explore and learn from everyone around me and how they work together,” she explains.
She worked with the event marketing and experiential marketing teams, working on industry events like the Oscars, CinemaCon, and D23.
After interning for a year, she then joined Dolby for a second year on a contract basis—this time as an experiential marketing coordinator. Primarily working on trade shows, Fine helped support some of the largest events in the world, including the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), where she learned about all aspects of event planning, from event registration and budget management to booth building.
“I fell in love with the events and experiential world,” she says. “It merged my marketing experience with working in entertainment, as well as my production background, since event execution and production are very similar.”
When a permanent, full-time position at TV and movie streaming service Tubi became available, Fine decided to make the leap last year. She joined Tubi’s event marketing team in September 2024, where she has helped launch premiere screenings for Sidelined and The Z-Suite, both Tubi originals. From pre-planning and execution to post-event recaps and data analysis, she’s been involved in it all.
“It feels like the post-COVID era has brought on a new rush of experiential events,” explains Fine. “There’s a newfound value in getting to interact with brands and content in new ways. You can tell immediately whether an event is a success or not, just by being there. It provides a deeper, more emotional connection when you get to experience something live versus just watching it, especially in this digital world. I feel so lucky to be part of helping forge this new ground.”
3 Job-Hunting Tips from a Recent MSLCE Grad
Alyssa Fine ’22 says she applied for many internships and jobs before finding the right fit. Here are her tips for other students and graduates who are doing the same thing.
- Leverage your online connections. “I found both of my jobs through LinkedIn, and the MSLCE program really helped me build out my profile and learn how to use it effectively.”
- Use your in-person connections. “Don’t forget to talk to the people around you, like your professors and other students. They might know about opportunities, too, or have suggestions.”
- Don’t give up. “It’s not fun to hear ‘no’ when it feels like nothing’s working. But keep trying. That’s the most important part.”
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