Learning about a Career in Marketing

Remember that I am just a bit biased about marketing, okay? If you want to have a career in the one area of any business or organization that is integral to its success, then you want a career in marketing. Marketing is all about developing (superior) products or services consumers need, and delivering them at the highest level of customer satisfaction as possible. Marketing is both an art and a science. Without successful marketing, no organization can survive — because without marketing, you don’t have any customers.

You don’t need do major in marketing in college, but I would strongly consider it. You might also consider communications, public relations, psychology, and sociology as possible majors or minors. More importantly, once you are in college, you need to get the marketing experience — as much as possible — through volunteering, school projects, campus organizations, and internships or co-ops. The experiences will be invaluable in not only helping you land a great job upon graduation, but also fine-tuning your specifics interests within the field of marketing.

I define marketing as delivering customer satisfaction at a profit… and there are many career opportunities in performing marketing, such as: services marketing, brand management, retailing, distribution, sales, research, advertising, public relations, business-to-business marketing, political marketing, international marketing, direct marketing, non-profit marketing, and more.

Marketing is a hot field — and expected to keep growing for the next decade, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, with services and business-to-business marketing having the most opportunities.

You can learn more about marketing and marketing careers by going to the Website of the professional organization of marketing: The American Marketing Association.

You can also get a feel for jobs and careers in marketing by going to the marketing job sites found in this section of Quintessential Careers: Jobs in Business, Management, Finance, Accounting, Marketing, and Sales.

See if your library has this book — a great source of information — Opportunities in Marketing Careers, by Margery Steinberg (McGraw-Hill).