Seasoned Marketer: Career Growth Through Curiosity, Courage, and a Little AI Help

For Alex Miller, advocating for herself at work has been key to her success, both personally and for her firm. She began her career at Maryland-based Lanigan Ryan as a marketing specialist in a one-person department.

“I learned as much as I could—about our people and what they do, our firm and the accounting industry. I looked around to see how I could make the firm better. I love improving things. It’s one of the things that motivates me.”

Eventually, she realized she was doing the work of a manager, not a specialist. Before approaching her managing partner about a promotion, she researched job descriptions from other firms to compare responsibilities.

“I would look for marketing manager roles at other accounting firms, study the responsibilities and compare them to what I was doing.”

It became clear she was operating beyond her original job description, and she now had evidence to support that.

Miller presented her findings and took the opportunity to educate her manager on a marketer’s career path.

“It’s not the same trajectory as an accountant. There are different steps along the way. Explaining the distinctions between a coordinator, a manager and a specialist is an important lesson.”

After stepping into the Marketing Manager role and growing the department to include a marketing coordinator, Miller soon realized she was exceeding the boundaries of her title once again. This time, she recognized she was functioning as a director.

True to her passion for learning and improving systems, her responsibilities had expanded well beyond marketing. As the firm grew, she found herself supporting operations, acting as a liaison to builders during an office expansion, and collaborating with IT on software implementations.

She and firm leadership weren’t sure what to call this evolving role.

“I was doing things you can’t really classify as marketing.”

It was time to advocate for herself once more, and this time she brought ChatGPT into the process.

Again, Miller dove into job postings, but with an added twist. She asked ChatGPT to analyze the postings and pull out relevant responsibilities. She also fed it goals from her annual reviews and reminded it of the various projects she had led.

“Instead of sitting and talking to myself, I was talking to the computer. I would ask it to make a position for me. Then, I would ask it to refine it.”

After nearly two years of refinement and ongoing collaboration with her leadership team, she and her managing partner landed on a winning title: Director of Operational Integration.

The name fits, she says, because she has always been an integrator at heart.

“I have always seen the interconnectedness of not only marketing but also how other departments work with one another.”

Her story underscores an important lesson: advocating for yourself—whatever that looks like—is essential for any marketer’s career. When your skills evolve, and your firm’s needs shift, it may be the right time to rethink your role.

“Some of it is advocating for yourself, and your strengths, but the other part is listening to what the firm needs and taking that into account and adjusting.”

Miller serves on the board for the Association for Accounting Marketing and was AAM’s Volunteer of the Year in 2025.