How do I leverage my experience to break into marketing?

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 - education

Michael asks: I am currently a full-time student studying for an M.B.A in marketing. I am extremely passionate about marketing as a subject (from what I have been exposed to) more specifically strategy development but I don’t know where to begin nor if strategy development is considered a separate marketing dimension per se. I would like to find out what a managerial position entails daily or how to get a better sense of marketing as a whole. Yes of course I have taken courses in marketing, learned a considerable amount and plan to take additional accordingly. However, I still would like to get a more practical approach. Any suggestions?

In answer:

Hmm – have you not answered your own question? You are trained in marketing, and you want to get into marketing, so any employer should be able to see in your application that you can market yourself?

Here are some options:

1. Go and see your college careers counsellor. Chat to them, see what associations they have, and then follow the formal procedure. I dare even if very successful and you got a bit of pro-bono work in summer 2009, in 2011 you will be leading the marketing of dog-chow in one of those square states!
2. Use your training, and pick the employer you really want to work for – think the top10 at maximum, no more: get passionate. As a first step, I would pick something in the Dow or the NASDAQ – if you get picked up, they offer great training; if not and all you get is a summer placement its good on your CV. Now pick one of their products, write a critique of its marketing, and how you would change that position/pitch. Then do the same for yourself, and write yourself a CV which plays to your strengths – I would even even suggest you use a bit of colour in your presentation, and maybe set up a simple website with some video on it

One Response to “How do I leverage my experience to break into marketing?”

1. Online Advertising Live » Blog Archive » How do I leverage my experience to break into marketing? : CV4.BIZ Says:
   December 27th, 2008 at 7:45 am

   [...] Ian wrote an interesting post today onHow do I leverage my experience to break into marketing? : CV4.BIZHere’s a quick excerptMichael asks: I am currently a full-time student studying for an M.B.A in marketing. I am extremely passionate about marketing as a subject (from what I have been exposed to) more specifically strategy development but I don’t know where … [...]

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