For many individuals, getting a marketing degree seems like a sound idea. Marketing isn’t a degree that doesn’t have very many practical applications in the real world. Quite the contrary: a marketing degree opens up many doors, and can send you on your way down many different career paths.
If you want to know about some of the possible jobs that you can land with your marketing degree, then read on.
Product or Brand Manager
Some of the skills that you’ll develop if you get a degree in marketing include:
- Analytical skills
- The ability to coordinate with the media
- Persuasive and presentation skills
All of those will come in handy if you elect to become a product or brand manager. When you look into getting a degree in marketing, part of what you’ll learn is how to market a product or service. This is something that virtually all companies need, from the smallest mom-and-pop operations to the largest conglomerates.
If you start as a sales rep, market research analyst, or a trainee in a development program, then a marketing degree might be the last thing you need before companies consider you as a viable candidate for this job. As a product or brand manager, you will be intimately involved in product development, advertising, market research, and more.
Meeting or Event Planner
You can also become a meeting or event planner. If you do so, you can act:
- Completely independently
- As a single-company employee
- As an individual who only works for a couple of select companies
It’s all about which of these situations sounds best and turns out to be the most lucrative for you.
If you want this job, you might be able to plan events such as weddings, school reunions, training sessions, promotions, and professional conferences. You will have research and analytical skills on your side. You can use them to assess what the event attendees are going to need.
If you liked promoting student events when you were getting your degree, this might be for you. If you have skills with social media and are a talented writer, that’s even better.
Fundraiser
There are also lots of for-profit companies or charities that need fundraisers for various causes. Someone with a marketing degree can assess possible donor interest. They will likely have the required communication skills to emphasise the benefits of contributing to the entity that employs them.
As a marketing major, you’ll learn how to make pitches to important people, which in this case would be the donors. Your interpersonal skills could mean the difference between success and failure. If you are a person for whom persuasive abilities have always come easily, this might be ideal for you.
You can even be instrumental in getting sponsorships for famous individuals or corporate entities.
Media Planner
A media planner is someone who has to locate patterns by consumer groups. You would also need to be able to plan out what form of media a company should use to best get their point across. That means you would need to have an intimate knowledge of various social media platforms and media outlets.
If you were well-organised as a student, this career path might appeal to you. You should also be systematic in your approach to projects and able to think and reason quantitatively.
If you want to go in this direction, then you might start as a media assistant. You can sharpen your skills in areas like preparing presentations, organising data, and generating spreadsheets. You might want to latch onto a political campaign for some experience in the early part of your career.
There are also several other possibilities if you have a marketing degree. You might become a public relations representative if you have strong journalist-style writing skills. You might become a sales rep if your personality is outgoing, and your nature is competitive.
There are things you can do now with a marketing degree that might never have been possible twenty years ago, like becoming a social media manager. As technology has moved along, new jobs have opened up, and many of them require someone with a marketing degree and a good head on their shoulders.
You may decide to pursue a marketing degree while you’re already holding down a job, or you might want to focus on your schooling exclusively. Once you have the degree on your resume, you will be a much more attractive candidate for all sorts of positions.
