Throughout his near decade-long career in advertising, Matt Ong, known by colleagues and friends as MO, has led integrated marketing campaign planning and development at top-tier digital marketing and branding agencies. Valuing collaboration, transparency, and a culture-building mindset, MO has championed and scaled cross-functional teams to drive big ideas into impactful business results. His work spans a diverse portfolio of brands in a wide range of industries, including retail, CPG, hospitality, and automotive.

Despite this momentum and on-paper success, MO admits he began questioning whether he had the depth of knowledge or experience to continue to succeed in his role. In an effort to seek outside learning and upskill opportunities, he is so grateful to have stumbled upon the Advanced Creative Operations Certificate program offered by Continuing and Professional Studies at Rutgers SC&I.

"I was fortunate to experience rapid advancement in my career, finding myself in teams that valued my contributions and the institutional knowledge I brought to the workstreams I led," MO said. "I pride myself as a strong individual contributor - navigating the day-to-day challenges, big and small. Then, 'imposter syndrome' became very real as the complexities and expectations of me increased. I enrolled in the certificate program to continue to work on these muscles, seeking outside learning that would benefit my 9-5."

"We shared short and long-term techniques and solutions to push our individual org structures and the challenges we faced. The peer support system, paired with the mentorship from the instructors, made it refreshing to log into the course each week." 

His decision paid off, MO said, adding that on a weekly basis, he found many parallels between the content of the course and his day-to-day role.

"The classes and discussion gave me confidence to own my space and provided tools to show up as a confident, enthusiastic advertising leader.” he added. "We shared short and long-term techniques and solutions to push our individual org structures and the challenges we faced. The peer support system, paired with the mentorship from the instructors, made it refreshing to log into the course each week.

"Ultimately, I received expanded knowledge, shared perspective, and validation to lean into my expertise and unique values. We all shared in the desire to better ourselves, but also the desire to encourage formalized education programs and emphasis on Creative Operations as a career path. There is an 'art' and 'science' to providing the tools and runway for creatives to deliver their best work.”

Noting what he enjoyed the most about the certificate program, MO said he "loved the asynchronous structure of the coursework - the last thing I wanted to do after a strenuous day of work is to discuss processes, resourcing, technology, and tools even more, so I am glad it was structured to work in the best way for me. I also appreciated the 'support group' aspect as we became a close-knit community."

"Ultimately, I received expanded knowledge, shared perspective, and validation to lean into my expertise and unique values. We all shared in the desire to better ourselves, but also the desire to encourage formalized education programs and emphasis on Creative Operations as a career path. There is an 'art' and 'science' to providing the tools and runway for creatives to deliver their best work.”

Since MO has finished the certificate program, he has found that it continues to align to and support his career success - noting that the completion of the course coincidentally aligned with his promotion from Associate Director to VP Director of Project Management. He said he continues to lead complex business priorities, notably an effort to optimize his team’s tech stack through a full-scale migration to Workfront as the centralized project management tool, fostering collaboration and clear communication across agency teams, in-house studio and channel leads, all the way up to leadership and key stakeholders.

The certificate course also impacted his life beyond the office, MO said, adding, "I was reminded of the importance of outside learning and hobbies. I am really putting an emphasis on my '5-9' outside of my '9-5.' I am currently learning American Sign Language, and leaning into my hobbies, including playing tennis, trying a variety of workout classes on ClassPass, and I just recently graduated from the Asian Leaders Program through API Rising/Asians in Advertising."

Offering advice to anyone considering enrolling in the Rutgers ACO certificate program, MO said, "I would encourage prospective students to thoughtfully reflect with the prompts and homework, and listen and learn from your peers. You will leave with new perspective, tangible materials and exercises to put into practice, and a newfound energy for the capability."

Learn more about the Advanced Creative Operations Certificate program offered by Continuing and Professional Studies at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on the website.