Beyond The Traditional Path: How Rachel Del Vecchio Learned To Trust Her Unique Journey

“I know this hasn’t been the most linear path to end up where I am.” 

Rachel Del Vecchio, a member of the MKTG WMN community, found herself saying this line in a lot of job interviews. But here’s the thing about non-linear career paths: they often lead to the most interesting destinations. 

As a marketing manager at Rise8, Rachel brings a unique perspective shared by her experiences in journalism, advertising, entrepreneurship, and tech. Her story offers valuable insights for anyone questioning their own meandering career journey.

Breaking up with your first career love

Rachel’s first love was journalism. Not just a casual interest - we’re talking Rachel as a high schooler with the First Amendment tattoo on her back (not the whole thing – just the rights) writing for the city paper, running a radio show, and dreaming of exposing corporate corruption. “I was going to muckrake. I was going to expose big brother, big corporations, big government,” she recalled with a laugh during our conversation. 

But sometimes first career loves don’t work out. As newspapers shut down and digital transformation swept through the journalism world in 2010, Rachel found herself at a crossroads. The reality of modern journalism - with reporters expected to churn out four stories daily while maintaining their Twitter presence - didn’t align with her vision of impactful storytelling. 

So she pivoted to advertising within LSU’s Mass Communication program. 

The agency years were a reality check

Pivoting to advertising seemed logical. After all, it was about storytelling, just from a different angle. But Rachel quickly learned that agency life wasn't quite what she'd imagined. "Going from college world to the real world was a major slap in the face," she shares. "I was woefully unprepared for the reality of working at agencies and how it's not all these big brand campaigns."

Instead of crafting purpose-driven campaigns like Dove's Real Beauty, she found herself writing about CDs for a regional bank. “There were days that I’d wonder, why am I here? What am I doing?” 

What followed was a series of agency positions that read like a cautionary tale, including one that gave her with a non-compete agreement after she moved her entire life and relocated to Knoxville. 

"They slapped a non-compete on my desk once I moved there that said I cannot work for another ad agency within 200 miles of this building for three years after I leave for any single reason," she recounts. The workplace proved toxic, and the experience taught her an invaluable lesson about listening to your inner voice.

The Reset Button: Food Trucks and Fitness

Sometimes the best way forward is to step off the path entirely. For Rachel, after she returned to Knoxville, she explored her passions: health, fitness, and food. These led her to launching a healthy breakfast food truck and becoming a personal trainer. 

But here's the twist – these "breaks" from marketing actually helped her fall back in love with it. "I still got to do marketing. God, I loved doing the branding for my food truck," she says. "That was the best part of the experience was doing all my food photography,  running my Instagram, building our website."

Through marketing her own ventures, she rediscovered her love of marketing - this time on her own terms. 

Finding a career home in tech

The combination of marketing expertise and genuine human connection eventually led Rachel to the tech world, where she found her stride at companies like Simplero and HubSpot. Working in customer success and consulting roles, she got to merge her love of problem-solving with her marketing background.

“I loved it,” she says about discovering software consulting. “I could still use my client skills that I gained in account management, in personal training, in operating a food truck, into talking to people, really  listening to people.” 

Through her time at HubSpot was cut short by layoffs, it helped shape her perspective on marketing and brand building at Rise8.

A marketer should have a perspective

Now at Rise8, Rachel brings a unique philosophy to marketing and brand building, informed by every twist and turn in her journey. "You need to have a perspective. You need to have a clear mission that carries through every thread of your company," she emphasizes. "Every auto reply email, every blog post, every single small touch point, it needs to be intentional."

Her varied experiences have taught her that authenticity in marketing isn’t just about messaging - it’s about living your values at every level. “People can see through you if you are not living to your values as a company,” she notes. “If you want them at all of these touchpoints to buy into what you’re saying, brand needs to be involved in every step of the way.” 

Embrace your meandering career journey 

Rachel's story reminds us that career paths don't need to follow a predetermined formula. Each seeming detour - from food truck entrepreneur to personal trainer to tech consultant - added valuable perspective and skills that make her a more insightful marketer today. 

For those feeling uncertain about their own winding career paths, Rachel’s journey offers a powerful reminder: sometimes the best way to find your North Star is to allow yourself to take on new experiences. After all, it’s not about following someone else’s career map - it’s about trusting your journey to lead you where you need to go. 

As Rachel puts it, “I’ve been steering my ship, checking in with myself, and listening when I ask, does this feel good? Like, does this feel right?” Sometimes that’s all the navigation you need. 

Want to connect with other incredible marketers with unique journeys like Rachel? Join MKTG WMN - where you will be supported regardless of what your marketing career path looks like.