Our Career Talk Series invites faculty, former Cengage student ambassadors and Cengage employees to share their unique journeys into their current roles, highlighting the motivations that guided them.
Each talk delves into the unexpected twists and turns that shaped their paths, offering valuable insights and lessons for students as they think about their own future careers.
For this Career Talk discussion, we’re excited to share the experiences of one of our own Cengage leaders. We spoke to Charlotte McLaren, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Cengage Group, whose career in higher education, stretching back over 20 years, has taken her in many directions and given her a deep-rooted sense of appreciation for learning.
Where it began
Charlotte has been at Cengage Group for eight years.
After graduating from The University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia, Charlotte accepted a teaching position at a further education college in Northeast England.
Witnessing her manager’s unwavering compassion and commitment to the students they taught, Charlotte was inspired and motivated to double-down on her own teaching experience. She completed eight weeks of an intensive training course back in Australia to become a secondary music teacher.
Changing direction
Sometimes, it can take time before we realize where our true passion lies. Charlotte was teaching violin and voice and suddenly realized that she wanted to be able to help more than just the students she taught. She went in search of other jobs in education and found herself falling for a different side of higher ed — publishing. After working as a successful sales representative for two and a half years in the state of Queensland, Australia, she realized again that it wasn’t quite the right role for her. She wanted to connect the dots to drive not just sales, but the products and stories themselves. When the opportunity arose to join a marketing team as a Portfolio Marketing Manager for STEM and HSSL (humanities, social sciences and languages), she jumped at it. And things just grew from there. She transitioned into various marketing roles, eventually leading her to move to New York City before landing her first role at Cengage Group as Marketing Director of MindTap. She’s been collaborating with and inspiring those around her ever since.
We don’t know how she does it
During Charlotte’s time at Cengage, she’s seen and done it all. Working in various marketing roles, she’s skillfully managed and overseen our online learning platforms and digital learning solutions, from MindTap and WebAssign to our Cengage Read mobile app and now our AI products.
In her current role, she heads up our U.S. product and platform marketing teams, working closely with external and internal-facing portfolio and product marketing managers across key disciplines. These include STEM, B&E (business and economics), psychology, trades and health care. Charlotte and her team are focused on driving awareness and usage of Cengage’s digital innovations, creating stories that highlight the value of our products, including brand-new first editions and established titles.
Having been given the opportunity to mentor and coach those around her through several leadership roles, she loves being able to help others see their own unique potential. At the end of the day, it’s the conversations Charlotte gets to have with her team members, all with their own points of view and perspectives, that mean so much to her.
“You get the opportunity to help, coach, mentor and support. And I love doing all of that, but I find it’s also…. just being able to have robust discussions with someone and really look at a problem from all angles…and have all the different points of view. I find it energizing to be around…” – Charlotte McLaren, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Cengage Group
“…education is a pretty cool way to spend your life”
Charlotte’s love of education goes deeper than her role at Cengage. For Charlotte, education is all about developing a greater understanding of your identity, values and the world around you. Whether you learn in pursuit of a degree, through on-the-job training or by travelling the world, she believes that education is wide-reaching and anything but one-size-fits-all. Charlotte thinks that it’s those diverse experiences that make us all who we are.
“I think education, on the whole, just makes us… empathetic. It makes you able to critically think about the world around you, examine the things that are coming and not just accept what somebody else tells you. It helps you decide how you feel about something and what you value. And if that’s different from someone else, brilliant. It takes all sorts to make up the world.” – Charlotte McLaren, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Cengage Group
Embracing the unknown
Our careers can take us in surprising and exciting directions, allowing us to connect with many impactful mentors, managers and team members along the way. Charlotte’s story teaches us to appreciate our unique career journeys, learn wherever and however we can and engage with those who hold different perspectives from our own.
Check out additional career-focused articles for tips and strategies from Cengage employees, students, educators and experts.