Sports
Karina Barcellos on Her Career Transition to ASICS
After nearly five years at Centauro, the marketing professional shares how she achieved her dream of working for a global sports brand.
Karina Barcellos shares the behind-the-scenes story of her career shift to sports marketing at ASICS. She reflects on following intuition in professional choices, navigating an unusual hiring process, and fulfilling her ambition of working directly on global product launches.
Making a career transition requires the intuition to recognize when a chapter is closing and clarity on the path ahead. For Karina Barcellos, working directly in marketing for a major athletic brand had long been a goal. After nearly five years at Centauro, where she managed multiple categories, she felt it was the natural time to pursue new market challenges.
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Trusting intuition when choosing opportunities
Throughout her career, Barcellos says she had to make difficult choices, including turning down job offers that looked advantageous on paper. While interviewing at ASICS, she was also involved in another corporate recruitment process that offered perks like a higher salary and greater in-office flexibility. However, strong alignment with the brand's identity and her intuition guided her final decision.
Her connection to the company went back years: as early as 2022, she openly discussed her desire to join the ASICS team with colleagues. When the position opened, five different people sent her the job listing simultaneously, reinforcing how natural the fit was.
The hiring process and mutual respect for time
A defining moment in the hiring process came during the final evaluation phase. Right as she was about to leave on a solo backpacking vacation, Barcellos was contacted by the ASICS team to complete a practical case study. Without computer access during her travels, she explained her situation and offered to submit the assignment two weeks later upon her return. The company's willingness to wait confirmed the cultural synergy between candidate and team.
For Barcellos, leaving Centauro wasn't sparked by a sudden conflict or abrupt departure, but rather by the organic completion of a nearly five-year cycle, paired with her focus on moving from sports retail directly to an athletic brand.
Working inside a global sports brand
Now ten months into her role at ASICS, Barcellos highlights both the intensity and the sense of accomplishment that define daily life at the brand. Among the standout milestones, she traveled on a business trip to Seville, Spain, in February for the launch of the Superblast 3.
The opportunity realized a dream nurtured since the start of her corporate career: moving from a spectator to an active creator of global sports marketing campaigns and experiences.
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