Filling A Fulfilling Position: By Zach Knight

          Whether I’m taking pictures for marketing materials, positioning signs I have created, or taking a quick stroll on my lunch break, there is a decent chance that one has seen me around one or more of our Goodwill locations. My name is Zach Knight and I am Goodwill’s new Marketing Specialist. I can briefly be summarized as a 23-year-old Penn State graduate who has a love for marketing and a knack for music. 

        Having always been involved in music to some degree, I decided to pursue my hobby with a more serious approach approximately six years ago. I found myself in a more professional recording studio, playing bigger shows, and expanding “my brand” to all platforms of social media. In the midst of having the desire of achieving some sort of musical success, I was left figuring out ways to promote myself on the largest level I could on the little budget and few resources I had. Over time, I was able to acquire small but favorable success through my self-marketing endeavors, obtaining over 1.3 million views on YouTube, shooting a couple music videos, and having my songs globally played on store playlists in popular retail chains such as Abercrombie & Fitch. Throughout these attainments, it had completely gone over my head that what I was doing was in fact, marketing. I loved everything about the promotional and marketing aspects of things and seeing exactly how far I could run with them. When it came to choosing my (final) major while completing my undergraduate degree, I didn’t even have to think twice.

          I graduated with a marketing degree from Penn State in December of 2015. Post-graduation, I had spent nearly six months searching high and low for a marketing position that seemed to also have been searching for me as well. I was hired as Goodwill’s Marketing Specialist towards the end of May 2016, and it has since been nothing but the most fulfilling occupation in more ways than one. Goodwill promotes a hand up, second chances, and building self-sufficiency; all principles and ideologies that align with my own. Since the beginning of my employment, I have been privileged to meet a countless number of people and hear stories on how Goodwill has helped change their life around and get them back on their feet. Directly or indirectly, I know my efforts here at Goodwill will contribute to these stories, and I am more than eager to see the ways in which that will be done. At the end of the day, the turnaround we see from clients and program participants is what keeps us, the Goodwill staff, inspired; that’s what keeps us fulfilled.