Marketing Qualification advice

[Bruno Costa]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for some advice on a marketing qualification which could help my employability. I am 25, I have a Bsc in Marketing & Advertising and a Msc Business Aministration, with a strong academic record from good universities. However I am struggling to get my foot in the door with Marketing jobs, and I believe the main reason for this is my lack of commitment to Marketing in the past couple years.

I finished my Master's at the end of 2013 and have since worked as a Graduate Management Trainee in 2014 and as a Project Analyst in 2015/16 in an engineering company, having distance myself significantly from Marketing roles. I now intend to apply for and develop myself in a Marketing role (primarily applying for graduate positions) and I feel a fresh qualification might renew my commitment to the industry in the eyes of recruiters.

I am particularly interested in an online marketing oriented qualification, since marketing fundamentals knowledge is still quite solid. I came across the CIM qualifications but found the prices too steep for my means (around £2,000 for a 3 day course). I would greatly appreciate any advice!

Many Thanks

 

[Mark T Jones]

Why not look towards a marketing internship, which will add experience to qualifications?

 

[Bruno Costa]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I've had a couple internships a few years back. While a new one would certainly improve my experience I can't afford not having a full-time job at this point. I also believe a new internship wouldn't fulfil me at all at this point.

 

[The Byre]

I am 25, I have a Bsc in Marketing & Advertising and a Msc Business Aministration, with a strong academic record from good universities. However I am struggling to get my foot in the door with Marketing jobs, and I believe the main reason for this is my lack of commitment to Marketing in the past couple years.

A strong academic record is about as useful in marketing as a bucket of warm spit.

Yet another qualification will make you almost totally unemployable. Do I need another dreamy academic? No. Do I need someone with energy and some funky ideas about getting our product out there and into people's homes or businesses? Yes!

When I read your post, I am immediately struck by the lack of energy you have displayed. We are talking marketing here, not nose-flute playing, or aardvark husbandry! I have to ask myself, is this the guy to set up a killer social media campaign that will create the buzz and emotional proximity we need to get our next project off to a flying start? Well, it sure don't sound like it!

Is this the guy that will schlepp a fair stand and samples around all the trade fairs of Europe and sleep in the back of his car if needs be? Well, that's not he impression I get!

Then there is the knotty problem of what killer skills you might bring to the party. Our company runs in three languages, so any high-flyer will have to be fluent in at last two. Someone who brings a new and exciting language (business-wise) to the party would be good. Mandarin is right at the top of the list.

Then there is the other rather boring question of what specific industry do you hope to target? I mean, working in marketing in an engineering company means usually you are an engineer. The head of marketing in an IT company will have to have a formal knowledge of all-things IT.

And so on!

Here's a suggestion - get a qualification (easy one, this one!) as an English teacher (EFL) and get yourself out to China and work as an English teacher. Google TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). These courses usually cost between £200 and £300. At the same time, learn Mandarin.

Vietnam is also a fun alternative.

Do that for a while and life will give you all kinds of fantastic opportunities!

But there ain't no Fairy Godmother gonna wave their magic wand over someone that sits around, collecting useless academic qualifications, instead of getting out there, seeing the World and living!

 

[fisicx]

However I am struggling to get my foot in the door with Marketing jobs, and I believe the main reason for this is my lack of commitment to Marketing in the past couple years.

Well if you can't market yourself why would anyone have any confidence that you can market their products? If your degree didn't inspire you then maybe Marketing isn't the right career for you.

 

[Bruno Costa]

A strong academic record is about as useful in marketing as a bucket of warm spit.

Yet another qualification will make you almost totally unemployable. Do I need another dreamy academic? No. Do I need someone with energy and some funky ideas about getting our product out there and into people's homes or businesses? Yes!

When I read your post, I am immediately struck by the lack of energy you have displayed. We are talking marketing here, not nose-flute playing, or aardvark husbandry! I have to ask myself, is this the guy to set up a killer social media campaign that will create the buzz and emotional proximity we need to get our next project off to a flying start? Well, it sure don't sound like it!

Is this the guy that will schlepp a fair stand and samples around all the trade fairs of Europe and sleep in the back of his car if needs be? Well, that's not he impression I get!

Then there is the knotty problem of what killer skills you might bring to the party. Our company runs in three languages, so any high-flyer will have to be fluent in at last two. Someone who brings a new and exciting language (business-wise) to the party would be good. Mandarin is right at the top of the list.

Then there is the other rather boring question of what specific industry do you hope to target? I mean, working in marketing in an engineering company means usually you are an engineer. The head of marketing in an IT company will have to have a formal knowledge of all-things IT.

And so on!

Here's a suggestion - get a qualification (easy one, this one!) as an English teacher (EFL) and get yourself out to China and work as an English teacher. Google TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). These courses usually cost between £200 and £300. At the same time, learn Mandarin.

Vietnam is also a fun alternative.

Do that for a while and life will give you all kinds of fantastic opportunities!

But there ain't no Fairy Godmother gonna wave their magic wand over someone that sits around, collecting useless academic qualifications, instead of getting out there, seeing the World and living!

Honestly - thank you so much for taking the time to write this answer to me. I think you're right - I've been trying to make my CV sound appealing on paper, but there's a lack of passion in it. Frankly, I am living a lot, I've been travelling, moving from country to country, trying new hobbies... The main issue is I've come to a point where I feel the need to build something long-term and dedicate myself to a career I can feel passionate about. If it sounds like I'm not passionate, that is correct - I don't feel passionate yet. But perhaps the best I can do is place my ambition on a path I am most likely to build passion for. So ultimately, I believe your reply will help me figure out the issue without my attitude and get on the right mindset.

As an add on I have just been to Vietnam and it is indeed a pretty amazing place!

All the best
Bruno

 

[Bruno Costa]

Well if you can't market yourself why would anyone have any confidence that you can market their products? If your degree didn't inspire you then maybe Marketing isn't the right career for you.

It did at one point. I did however feel inspired by many other things I wanted to try out. Frankly, what swept my attention away from Marketing was the way sales tried to invade (and so still does) my personal life, and how much marketing today is still dependent on such rudimentary approaches. Now I feel that I want to do marketing the way it should be done until I get the chance to work for the industry I want to work for.

 

[fisicx]

Excellent! In which case go forth and market the way it should be done. All you need is something to market. Who do know who has their own business? Offer to double their leads or increase their income or whatever.

 

[The Byre]

Sadly, I shall only be looking for a funky marketing guru in 18 months time and you need a gig right now.

Let me put it this way - when I was 19, I was about halfway through an electronics and electric engineering degree. Our main lecturer was a crusty old fart in Dunn-&-Co tweeds with the mandatory leather elbows and he just did not believe in transistors (which, being a Northerner, he pronounced 'transisteuers'). At home I was building mic-pres and compressors with transistors and during the day, he was damning them to hell!

"Eee, Lads!" he said, holding up a transistor by one of its three legs, as if it was a dog turd. "They say as like these things are talking over, but troost me, when it cumms to pushing summ real power, there's nought to beat a good old EL34!"

During the lunch break, I read a report on a special patrol (Charlie Company) unit of the 2nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment in the Telegraph Colour Supplement. It showed these hairy young men beasting through the jungles of Malaysia and Borneo, combating the 'insurgents' wearing camouflage, floppy green hats, carrying Bergens and abseiling out of helicopters onto the jungle floor.

The very next morning, I was down at the recruiting office. First choice, Parachute Regiment. Second choice, Parachute Regiment. Third choice, Parachute Regiment.

"You'll be bloody lucky!" said the recruiting sergeant.

To cut a very long story short, two years later I was in Two-Para, in Charlie Company, abseiling out of helicopters into the jungles of Borneo and Malaysia.

"Wow!" I said to myself, as I was brewing a tin of powdered tea and heating up a biscuit of what was supposed to be porridge, "I'm doing what I wanted to do and not what family, girlfriends, mates and college lecturers all expected me to do!"

That was about 45 years ago and I never regretted just bugg**ing off like that and literally from one day to the next. As soon as that travel warrant from the British Army arrived, I went to the college principal's office and told him what he could do with his college and his useless lecturers.

Never try to pick a toilet door with a piece of wet string! If something ain't doing it for you, quit.

Life is just too bloody short to be wasting your time on other people's dreams. The reality is, you have not found your own dream, but that's OK. There will be something in your childhood, some little thing that stirred you. One thing that made your heart leap in your chest. "Now, that's what I would REALLY love to do - but hey, it's just a dream. Doing it is impossible!"

Some crazy dream? Make movies? Run a radio station? Paint pictures? Make wild documentaries? Cover crazy stories as a journalist? Farm sheep or chicken? Work as a lumberjack? Be in a rock band? Become a hip-hop DJ? ("All the ladies in the house say 'Ooop! Ooop!'")

Well, I've done four of the above and (weather, police and platform tickets permitting) I shall be doing a fourth from that list by this time next year.

Of course, if you really, really, really WANT to develop a marketing strategy based on vertical integration and the Ansoff matrix, don't let me stop you!

But remember my mate Geordie. We were recruits together and were together in the Paras. On leaving the Paras, he found a bad tempered, moaning nag of a wife, who then gave him various children to feed. He worked for a huge company and climbed the corporate ladder, until at the age of 45, he became production manager at one of their plants. Company house, company car, company pension scheme, nagging wife and a nest full of chicks, all shouting "Feed me! Feed me!"

Thanks to the Interweb, when he was 48, I found him again and it was as if we were still recruits again. Silly giggles, laughing so hard it hurt, pouring beer over each other's heads, remembering old times and old mates, retelling the old stories in Goon-Show voices and just being irresponsible 19-year-olds again.

At he age of 49, he fell down dead.

You will only ever regret all things you didn't do.

 

[Nochexman]

...However I am struggling to get my foot in the door with Marketing jobs, and I believe the main reason for this is my lack of commitment to Marketing in the past couple years.

...and I feel a fresh qualification might renew my commitment to the industry in the eyes of recruiters.

You don't need more qualifications, you need practical experience. Marketing people with qualifications are ten a penny; young people with good marketing experience are an altogether rarer commodity.

A better question might be 'how can I get some marketing experience?'

Good luck!

 

[ethical PR]

Agree completely with @The Byre and @Nochexman

Not sure why you are applying for a graduate trainee position when you have two years plus work experience. Why online marketing - what skills do you bring to the table in this area?

Look at media like The Drum, Mashable, Campaign etc to get yourself up to date with the sector.

I recruit people into PR and marketing positions and am never particularly interested in qualifications - I am more interested in creativity, project management, inter-personal skills, initiative, team-player, research skills etc.

1. Decide what sort of sector you want to work in - finance, IT, charity, FMCG, agency side etc
2. Once you know your sector and location - make sure you register at every marketing recruiting agency and recruitment website that will have the jobs you want and that you have a beautifully crafted CV and update to date interview skills. Ask agencies for advice on getting your first marketing job.
3. Aim to get in four applications a week resulting in 1 - 2 interviews a month and to have a job by month 3

 

[RPower]

@Bruno Costa I can only recommend CIM which as you said costs a little bit too much...

Gain experience first, and then 'top up' your academic performance with a distance learning/part time course after a few years. I've considered doing it, it always helps to keep on learning and developing (as well as gaining experience, of course).

If you want to do it, then go and do it.

 

[Raul Picart]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for some advice on a marketing qualification which could help my employability. I am 25, I have a Bsc in Marketing & Advertising and a Msc Business Aministration, with a strong academic record from good universities. However I am struggling to get my foot in the door with Marketing jobs, and I believe the main reason for this is my lack of commitment to Marketing in the past couple years.

I finished my Master's at the end of 2013 and have since worked as a Graduate Management Trainee in 2014 and as a Project Analyst in 2015/16 in an engineering company, having distance myself significantly from Marketing roles. I now intend to apply for and develop myself in a Marketing role (primarily applying for graduate positions) and I feel a fresh qualification might renew my commitment to the industry in the eyes of recruiters.

I am particularly interested in an online marketing oriented qualification, since marketing fundamentals knowledge is still quite solid. I came across the CIM qualifications but found the prices too steep for my means (around £2,000 for a 3 day course). I would greatly appreciate any advice!

Many Thanks

Hi Bruno, I hope you're doing well.

Some of the qualifications you're going to find online are all going to be quite pricey.

Have you thought about doing the Hubspot Inbound Certification? Google it! In Hubspot's own words: "The Inbound Certification is a comprehensive marketing course that covers the core elements of the Inbound Methodology. The self-paced curriculum introduces the fundamentals of how to attract visitors, convert leads, close customers and delight customers into promoters."

I've done the above and it is a great course and the best thing about it is that it gets updated frequently so you are always up to speed with the latest change, etc.

Alongside the above, there's also the IDM (the Institute of Direct & Digital Marketing). They do a lot of one day courses and the price may be more in your ballpark? For example, their Digital Marketing Strategy course is £599.

I could suggest others but the pricing is actually higher than the CIM, but have a look at the above and hopefully it helps!

 

[hawts]

Honestly...you need experience, not more qualifications. @The Byre nailed it. You may even have to lower your salary expectations and start from the bottom up. If you really, really want to get into a marketing role you'll be prepared to sacrifice on money for the long term goal of working in marketing.

There are startups you can apply to work for. These will be less picky in terms of background and instead value hard work and being adaptable. Take a look at angel.co which lists UK startups looking for staff. Salaries might not be huge but you can sometimes get share options in the company if you get in early enough.

 

[vanleasing]

Experience is the key to land a good marketing job.

We have a marketing team and in all honesty, a degree in marketing is not much to go in.

Marketing has such a wide birth that you may have a bit of paper to say you can market, but it really has no value when another prospective employee has the same degree.

Personal portfolio is key.

 

[Ryan Scollon]

Ever looked at the Google Squared Online course?