How a final-year marketing student drove a 47% increase in organic signups for a Canadian SaaS product and graduated with a Marketing Director reference while classmates were still asking professors.
Marketing Student – Final year at university
Bangalore, India
Role: Growth Marketing
Duration: 6 months (during final year)
Priya was in her final year of university, already thinking about graduation and the job market. But she saw the problem forming around her: classmates with no professional experience were going to graduate alongside her, and the only references available were professors. Academic references said nothing about whether someone could drive real business results. Priya needed professional references before she even finished her degree — and she needed them from someone who had watched her do real product growth work.
A Canadian SaaS company building a project management tool for remote teams — used by startups and mid-size companies across North America.
A growth marketer to build and execute user acquisition campaigns — SEO strategy, email automation, and in-app growth features for the product.
Marcus (Marketing Director) managed the growth function. The Product team collaborated on in-app growth features. The engineering team built what growth needed.
Every signup mattered. The SaaS product's growth depended on organic acquisition — and Marcus could directly see whether Priya's campaigns were working.
"My classmates were begging professors for references. I had a Marketing Director in Toronto who ran product growth campaigns with me for 6 months on a real SaaS tool. That's why I got hired before graduating."
— Priya, Bangalore
Two months before graduating, an Indian SaaS startup building an HR tech platform reached out to Priya. They asked for references. Marcus confirmed he had managed her for 6 months on a real growth function — described the SEO strategy, the activation campaigns, and the 47% signup increase. The Product Manager confirmed she had collaborated on in-app growth features. Priya was offered the role before she walked across the graduation stage.
Six months of real growth work gave Priya credentials that no coursework or internship application could have provided at the same speed.
A 47% signup increase is an objective number — Marcus could verify it, and it spoke for itself in interviews.
Working with Product and Engineering on growth features showed she could operate in a real product team — not just execute in isolation.
This hypothetical scenario shows how students can build professional credentials before graduation. Your path to real growth experience could start today.