When Andrew Kazmierczak ’13 thinks about all the guiding principles he learned at Butler, one of the first that comes to mind is the five-year rule.

“One of my professors said, ‘Whatever you do, think five years down the road,’” Kazmierczak said. “‘What’s going to be more impactful—what you’re doing now or this other decision that you make?’”

At the time, Kazmierczak used that advice to decide whether to go to watch Butler play in the NCAA tournament or stay at school and take a test. (“I got a big ol’ zero on the test,” he said.)

But early on in his career, as product marketing manager for Oracle’s Marketing Cloud software, or now, as a Senior Solution Architect on the Marketing Cloud Experience team for Salesforce, he uses that idea to guide his choices.

Kazmierczak, who earned his degree in Marketing and Management Information Systems, grew up in South Bend, Indiana. He chose Butler because “I came on campus and felt like I fit. I felt welcome.”

As a sophomore, he was speaking on the Butler Business Scholars program when he met a senior who spoke about the post-leadership opportunity program with ExactTarget. He talked to her, interned, became a contractor, then a full-time employee. When the company was acquired by Salesforce.com, he continued on as a software consultant.

Then Oracle called, offering the opportunity to be in charge of its business-consumer cross-channel marketing platform. Essentially, he said, that means marketing software that companies like Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. use to send you email confirmations and reminders of your reservations.

Kazmierczak said he expected that it would take him at least five years to be where he is now in his career. He credits his success, at least in part, to what he and others learn at Butler.

“There’s some sort of innate hustle we have when we graduate from here,” he said. “You do better work, you’re more motivated to do good work. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some kids from other schools and some kids from Butler and I’d take the Butler kid on my team any day of the week and twice on Sunday.”