Coffee and a Chat with Aqeelah Careem

coffee chat with aqeelah careem

Coffee and a Chat with Aqeelah Careem

Believe in yourself and the rest will fall into place. Have faith in your own abilities, work hard and there is nothing you cannot accomplish

Meet the Team:

Our meet the team series, ‘Coffee and a chat’, allows us to showcase our wonderful team and give prospective clients an insight into their lives; both at work and at home. We want our clients to be able to put a face (and a story) to the name. Here at SearchMax, we are one big family and we thought we would use this opportunity to have some fun and introduce our digital marketing experts to you properly. So grab a seat and let’s have a coffee and a chat while getting to know Aqeelah!

Between caring for her kids at home and providing high-quality work to our valued clients, Aqeelah is the SearchMax queen of time management and planning. Since changing careers 3 years ago, she has worked her way up from a digital marketing associate position to now being one of our esteemed digital marketing specialists. An adrenaline junky, with a ‘can-do’ attitude towards everything she does, Aqeelah is determined to give our clients the best outcome possible and we love having her as a part of our team at SearchMax.

01. What do you do at Searchmax?

I started my career three years ago, as a digital marketing associate & now I am a digital marketing specialist. Within these three years I have gained a lot of exposure in various industries such as; real estate, medical equipment, and even education.

As a digital marketing specialist at Searchmax, I spend most of my time doing basic optimisation by  making strategies & audits for my clients. What I find most interesting about my job is client communication.

02. What are some of your professional qualifications that help you deliver exceptional results?

I am professionally qualified as a teacher, however, since joining Searchmax as an individual who had minimal knowledge about the digital marketing industry, the Google Ads certifications & the Facebook Blueprint certifications have helped me build a foundation to what I know now. Also not forgetting my amazing bosses and the team at Searchmax who are always ready to share their knowledge and expertise that helped me to continuously grow in my career as a digital marketer.

03. What does a typical day look like?

I would love to say my typical day starts with getting that extra 10 minutes in bed in the morning or going for that early morning jog.

However, being a hands on mum while also juggling a job in between, my typical day actually starts at 4am, where I clock into work by 5am. Trying to get the breakfast laid out for my family, getting the kids ready for school, and especially getting them out of the house can be quite a challenge.

04. What inspired you to get into Digital Marketing & why?

A very near and dear friend of mine who I would say is full of passion, determination, and kindness, who also juggles work together with being a mum, inspired me to do what I am doing today and I wouldn’t be where I am today without her help.

She had greater faith in me than I could have in myself, she made me believe that I too could build a career for myself as well as being an active part of my kids’ lives.

05. What is your favourite food/music/place to go (pick one)

Okay, this is a tough question, all three of these are extremely important in my life. I am a huge fan of Westlife & the Backstreet boys, so I would go with music.

backstreet boys

06. How do you balance your work and family life?

I never truly believed in “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” till I started juggling work and also being a full time mummy.

A LOT of planning goes into my week. A LOT. If I fail to plan it gets a bit hectic, with three kids around, I can be planning anything; meals for the kids, getting their school homework done and also making sure my busy schedule doesn’t affect my clients. So to strike a good balance between my work, my week needs to be planned well ahead.

I find that with the right company, such as Searchmax, it’s pretty easy to balance life and work. I enjoy what I do, so it doesn’t feel like a chore. I always make sure that when at home, my family gets my attention first. I take time on the weekends to do things for myself and ensure that I renew my energy before the work week begins.

ageelah careem and her family

07. What is the best advice you would give someone considering digital marketing as a career?

“Just do it”.

At first it may sound intimidating to start something new, but start it, get into it, read about it, you don’t need any fancy qualifications to start your journey as a digital marketer, all you need is some faith in yourself.

08. If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

Digital marketing was a new field for me so I was hesitant to switch my career from being a teacher to a digital marketer, so if I had to start from scratch knowing what I know now I would definitely have more confidence in myself.

09. What do you owe your success to?

My awesome bosses and splendid team mates. Searchmax has been a second family to me. I owe all my success to Searchmax and of course my supportive family at home.

10. What is the best advice you can give to your younger self?

It should be the other way around for me. My younger self would give me advice telling me to be more confident and enjoy life a little more.

11. What’s a fun fact about you that not many people know about?

I am an adrenaline junky.

point of view of an adrenaline junky