It is time. You need to pick your major. And, since you’re reading this, you must be thinking marketing may be the right choice for you. But how do you know whether it really is?
First, take everything colleges and universities have told you about their programs with a grain of salt. They might not be 100% transparent with you – they’re interested in your tuition money, after all.
Instead, consider these five unspoken realities that marketing graduates want you to know. They represent an unedited (and unbiased) look at what it’s really like to study this field – and later work in it.
Source: unsplash
What You’re Taught Will Get Outdated Fast
Since most of the marketing has moved online, the lag between the reality of the job itself and how it’s being taught got wider than ever before.
Let’s take social media as an example. If a business isn’t present on social media, it doesn’t exist for a huge chunk of its target audience – and it’s been true for years. Still, the intricacies of promoting products on Facebook or Instagram made their way to curriculums only recently.
Besides, digital marketing never stops changing (like any other tech-related field). Social media platforms constantly roll out new features; Google changes its ranking methodology several times a year. So, even if your teachers do their diligence to stay up-to-date, what you learned during freshman year can easily become old news by the time you graduate.
However, some marketing methods will always be applicable, such as print marketing. Print marketing allows you to get your business name out and about physically. If this one marketing method you are learning about, you also need to learn about inventory management and stock control to ensure you don’t run out of material. You need to know you have the right products in stock at all times.
So, it won’t matter that much if you do your homework yourself or order custom writings at Essaypro and go beyond the curriculum on your own. In fact, outsourcing your assignments can be the right decision – especially if you use the time you’ve made to build your professional skill set.
You’ll Still Need to Get Your Hands Dirty
A degree isn’t enough. In part, it’s because it doesn’t guarantee you have the necessary skills even for an entry-level position (due to the reasons described above). In part, it’s also because you’re not the only one after a job: the competition in the field is cutthroat these days.
So, you will need to gain some real work experience while you study. Whatever simulations you might run in the classroom setting, they won’t ever teach you how to do the actual job.
But how do you gain the said experience without having worked before? Here are some ways to do just that:
- Land an internship. But remember: having one or several internships on your resume isn’t impressive in and of itself. The achievements you have to show for them are.
- Start a side project. For example, if you want to learn the ins and outs of working with social media, set up accounts for your services or a product if you have one, or anything else – even memes!
- Do some charity work. There’s probably a friend, family member, local business, or non-profit that would gladly accept to use your services for free.
It’s a People-Centric Field
If you’re not a people person, a career in this field probably won’t work out for you. That’s because this field is, in a nutshell, all about behavioral psychology.
A marketing specialist’s goal is always to sway people’s opinion in the product’s favor and buy it – or do something else that gets them closer to the purchase decision.
To become an expert in this field, you need to have great intuition when it comes to people and their decisions. You should be able to walk a mile in your target audience’s shoes to understand which approach has chances of working great and which one will be a disaster.
Apart from that, you’ll spend a lot of time talking to and collaborating with your colleagues, too. A lone marketer is never a successful one. Collaboration is where your social skills play a huge role – and employers know this, too.
It Takes Both Creativity & Analytical Thinking to Succeed
There’s this one common misconception about what working in this field is like. People think that they’ll be spending their whole working day brainstorming ideas for slogans, posters, and commercials. But the reality isn’t as entertaining.
Yes, you’ll spend some time getting your creative juices flowing. But most of your working day will be dedicated to looking at graphs, charts, and statistics – and analyzing them. You’ll also regularly be drowning in research on the market, the audience, and so on.
That’s why employers and recruiters are looking for a combination of these five soft skills when screening their potential interns or employees:
- Out-of-the-box thinking;
- Curiosity;
- Research and analytical thinking;
- Problem-solving;
- Adaptability and multitasking.
Marketing Isn’t a Monolith
This field is so vast there are dozens of careers you can build if you have a degree in this field. What’s more, they will all be different in terms of the required skill set, day-to-day tasks, and goals to be achieved.
Here are ten areas of marketing that you can focus on in your career-building efforts:
- Social media management and marketing;
- Search engine optimization;
- Content marketing;
- Search engine marketing;
- Community management;
- Public relations and corporate communications;
- Media buying;
- Advertising management;
- Brand management;
- E-commerce marketing.
It’s a long list, isn’t it? And this isn’t even a full one! But since this field is so diverse, you’ll need to choose your specialization early on to build the right skill set. You don’t want to come across as a jack-of-all-trades to potential employers, too.
Source: unsplash
In Conclusion
Whatever happens, marketing won’t go anywhere. It’s existed as long as humans started trading with other humans – and it will continue to exist as long as people trade. That means that if you choose marketing as your major, your skills will always be in demand.
But make sure that your choice is well-weighed. Choose this major because you want to do it, not because it promises a high salary or because your parents want you to pick it.
Otherwise, the only positive outcome of your studies will be the realization you don’t actually want to spend a single day working in this field.
If it’s your cup of tea, on the other hand, you’ll enjoy your work. And isn’t this the most impressive achievement you can ever boast?
