Some marketing career advice please..

daenis

Hi all,

I'm currently doing a postgraduate masters in marketing and i am half way through the course I have started to consider my career propects when i leave. (I have a degree in Business management, 2.1 btw)

So basically i love marketing and can't wait to work in the area. My fear is that I will end up doing basic admin which is what I've heard is the norm. Don't get me wrong I don't expect to walk into a company and become a top account manager but i also don't want to have my education wasted.

I have recently applied for the civil service AO exams. The only reason for this is that it is quite a high level to enter the civil service and would not be stuck doing admin. I am not a big fan of the civil service and would much rather work in industry but the propects are quite impressive (the salary is also higher than average for a graduate).

Ideally i would like to begin as an assistant marketing executive or an assistant account manager but as I have already said, these jobs usually over stated.

So i'm just wondering - what the prospects for me are in the 'real world' of marketing??

stepbar

Administrative officer = AO. You will be doing admin work. Marketing is an extremely hard area to get into. I have as friend who is in the same predicament, 6 months after finishing his masters. Tough but never impossible.

betonit

bring something to the table, abit of flair..... a masters in marketing, im sure there are and i have come across people who have more marketing accumen with no formal qualifications than people with masters. so u have the indepth knowledge from the masters but add a bit extra..what ye think?

daenis

Thanks fot the replies.

I know that it's an administrative officer but i have done some research and and there is very little adminisrtation. It is a middle management or possibly even higher, which for someone coming out of college is an excellent start. My only fear with taking a job like this is that you could be placed anywhere and not necessarily in marketing.

I think that i can bring something extra to the table because i have done alot of finance and my part time job has been in accounting for the last couple of years. I think this would show that i have a good all round business knowledge and that i can understand money. Plus in our first set or exams i was top of my class.

But the problem is trying to get a job where i could even get an interview in order to impress. I've been checking alot of jobs advertised, and those advertised for graduates are really bad. Any good jobs require at least one years experience. Maybe i should have got a job after my degree and i'd have a years experience now. Although i'm sure the masters will stand to me in the long term.

sportbilly

Did you not do the milk rounds at the beginning of the year for graduate entry into all the big companies like Diageo, Eircom, Accenture, Unilever etc?

Otherwise it's all about getting a load of CV's (which is a chance to show a prospective employer how you can sell yourself in a small space, be creative, you want to be in marketing) and covering letters and doing a "Direct Marketing" piece on yourself. Ring up get names and address the envelopes to a specific person.

You have to contact as many prospective employers as possible. Just because you will have a master's doesn't mean they're going to be beating down your door. There are hundreds of people out there with master's degrees. If you actually love marketing as much as you say you do you should enjoy this challenge.

It's the jobs that aren't advertised that are often the best ones.

daenis

Thanks for you reply.

The milk rounds are mainly for finance and accounting students are they not. That is the impreeion we were always given in college. Its the big 4 recruiting new staff. Maybe i'm under the wrong impression about them.

I suppose you're right that it will be a case of doing some marketing of myself. I have already been doing some research of marketing companies that I could send my CV to in the future. Although one of my lecturers recpmmended going to smaller companies as you will generally move up the ladder faster than in a very large company. Not sure how true this is.

It's just that there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. I don't expect employers to beat down my door 'just because i have a masters' but i have worked very hard in order to get to this level and was just wondering what are my realistic prospects when i finish.

sportbilly

Big firms and small firms both have their pro's and cons.

In a big firm you will get lots of training, possible opportunities to work abroad for a while but you're right it's harder to get noticed. Other downers about big companies are that often marketing in these places is really constrained by brand guidelines, shareholder needs and nobody willing to take a risk or make a mistake.

But a few years experience with abig marketing company looks good on your CV!

With smaller firms you can progress quicker, the people in charge can see what you have done as opposed to it going though a load of levels and all your work getting lost and/or claimed by other people in the mix.

They are more open to taking risks.

You should also decide what sector you think you'd like to be invovled in FMCG, finance, telco, creative agency, media agency, broadcaster/media, research agency and be prepared to only stay in your first job for 2 -3 years. Variety at an early stage is very important in marketing. It keeps you fresh, gives you loads of ideas, learn from vasious business and people.

But all this is just my opinion!

daenis

Thanks sportbilly, that was some of the best advice i've gotten about where to start my career. Our career guidance lecturer is a joke and its hard to get a straight answer out of anyone. I'm doing my dissertation in an area i'd like to work in (services marketing) so that its at least in some way relevant to the area i want to work.

Really interested in what you said about variety at the start of a career. It makes sense because it would mean you are more rounded. It's given me lots to think about.

carol@quovadis

Sports Billy advice was good.
Here's an extra tip
Work experience is always very useful but as you say hard it's hard to get.

If you have some time, volunteer work is available in marketing on specific projects from time to time so register with the volunteer ireland web site.

http://www.volunteeringireland.com/

Also if you like a particular small organisation providing services your old school, GAA club etc, go to them with some specific ideas about how you can help them- emphasise low cost and that you won't take up too much of their time

Most of these smaller organisations don't know anything about internet marketing, so that may be the way to go. e.g even a blog presence can help improve access to markets

Ditto if you know of anybody running a small business volunteer to do some specific marketing for them.
Make sure you quantify on your CV