Jobs for the Major
How this major affects a job search
Here's the good news: All companies—big or small—need some form of marketing to be successful. Sure, some use crowd sourcing to do their work for them by getting a bunch of "likes" on Facebook or celeb endorsements on Twitter.
Most companies allot money each year for professional marketing or branding. That means there are job opportunities out there for our marketing majors to grab by the horns. They come in the form of market research, product management, or straight-up advertising.
Now for the bad news. Most companies go through one of the major advertising firms to get their marketing. This is a safe move on their part—trusting the record and knowledge of a bunch of people instead of one freelancer. It also means that unless you get a job with a big ad firm, you'll probably find landing a gig pretty rough.
So, it's time to put all of your marketing knowledge to good use and sell yourself.
Common Career Fields
Advertising. Got Milk? Just do it. I'm lovin' it. These advertising slogans aren't just catchy, they're indispensable parts of pop culture. Even without listing the companies they belong to, they are familiar to us. With their training in slogans and branding, Marketing majors head on over to the world of advertising to flex their copywriting skills. While there, they take care of business because to them, impossible is nothing. The only question left is: What would you do for a Klondi—er...job in advertising. Whew. That kind of got taxing after a while. Don't write too much copy in one day. It can wreck your brain.
Distribution. When you buy a fabulous pair of shoes or a book online, you want your stuff to come straight to your door. Fast. That's where a distributor comes in. They make sure that the products are in the right place and get out in a timely manner. Marketing majors learn about different techniques of distributing materials in their courses in college, so they're naturals when it comes to working in this industry. They make sure you don't open a box of diapers when you were expecting Manolos. Phew.
Marketing Research. When you hear "research", you might think of math more than marketing, but stick with us. Essentially, the research involves looking at how different groups deal with various stimuli and situations. Then they analyze the data to figure out what kinds of products people want and what the best way to market them is. Research in this field is often responsible for the trends you see in advertising over the years, the most current of which has been the "weird" trend. Usually involving muscular men. Marketing researchers often hail from this world because the work matches up well with what they did in college. Analyzing real-life humans isn't so different from reading about market viability in text books, if you think about it.
Product Manager. In sales, your "brand" is almost as important as the product itself. Think about it. We love ourselves an iPod because it holds all our jams, but we'll admit we also love it because it's a hot ticket item. Everyone thinks an iPod is way cooler than other MP3 players, even if they do the exact same thing. Thank you, product manager. These savvy marketing majors make sure that everyone is familiar with the brand by overseeing advertising and commercials about the product and coming up with a concept or selling point for the item too. An MBA certainly doesn't hurt for product managers, especially if you want big companies like Apple to take you seriously.
Public Relations. When a celeb crashes a car or has one too many drinks on a night out, a PR person steps in to smooth things over. They were clearly tricked into drinking and when they realized they had been dosed with alcohol, they tried to drive home as quickly as possible before becoming intoxicated. Yeah, that's it. There's a reason celebs have them on speed dial. Major companies do too. Public relations specialists make sure customers, investors, and, you guessed it, the general public, is on board with the decisions companies (and famous peeps) are making. Marketing majors are naturals with PR because they know how to flex their rhetorical muscles. Plus, they spin details like nobody's business.
Real Estate. With a marketing degree in hand, many test out the real estate waters. Since realtors need to be able to attract attention to the properties they're selling, they could use a background in the latest marketing techniques. Marketing is really about getting people to buy stuff, so it makes a good fit for real estate. No one wants their house to stay on the market for months, and Marketing majors make sure the whole process is quick and easy.
Retail. Don't let the bad rep of car salesmen throw you. Retail is a growing business that attracts a lot marketing graduates. These guys and gals are comfortable with figuring out the best selling technique for costumers. Plus, they know how to advertise and highlight the key selling points. Sales jobs run the gambit. They can be in retail, telemarketing, or door-to-door. Then there are traveling salesmen. As you may have guessed, they get to travel all around to meet new people and make sales. Granted, it's still work during the day, but the time off is like a vacation.
Current unemployment of the major
6%Percentage of majors who get a higher degree after college
14%Stats obtained from this source.