Choosing a Marketing Career Path

Choosing a Marketing Career PathChoosing a Marketing Career PathPart of what drives us at is knowing that our resumes help people do something weve all done many times change careers. Of course, every career change is different, but theres something to be learned in each one. This is my story of how I came to work in marketing at .A career change begins with a questionWhat does a PR rolle actually do, I asked.Without knowing it at the time, this was the first step of my career in marketing. The idea came to me largely by chance and my personal career development was as haphazard as a balls journey in a pinball machine. Its crazy to think that 11 years later, Im still pursuing the same passion for bringing brands and customers closer together.As the great Steve Jobs said, sometimes you can only connect the dots looking back. So Ill share with you how I got into marketing and how you (unlike me) can have a well thought out career journey.Make koranvers a marketing career path is right for youFor me, it all started with a random conversation. One of my friends, a highs include Cialdinis influence, Hopkinss Scientific Advertising, and Campbells The Heros Journey.Never forget the classics. Otherwise, you risk losing the strategic perspective in a vast sea of new channels, hacks, and experiments.Cutting-edge tacticsIts easy to see the digital landscape is developing with lightning speed. It might be harder to comprehend how hard it is to keep ahead of the curve.Ive been in marketing for more than 10 years now. And every day, my routine consists of listening to 2 marketing podcast shows on my daily commute and going through 50+ marketing articles on blogs, social media, berichterstattung aggregators.Theres an increasing digital skills gap between what you know now and how quickly the technology landscape is evolving. Heres a slide from a Growth Tribe presentation that shows pretty clearly what we mean by thatThis clearly shows that even if youre good at traditional d igital marketing domains like SEO, e-mail marketing, or social media, you now need to get more technical, go into development, machine learning, and more.If youre ready to learn, here are some of the places Id recommend starting withGoogles Digital GarageUdemys Marketing coursesGoogles Academy for AdsGoogles Analytics AcademyFacebook BlueprintHubSpot AcademyThese will give you a head start and also show a potential employer youre really serious about marketing.The good berichterstattung is that the skills gap leaves a lot of room for new entrants in the job force what you know and what youve done is more important than what university you went to and how many years of experience you have.The bad news is once youre on the treadmill, you need to keep running. It doesnt stop and the pace is now getting even faster.Welcome to our robot overlordsYouve already seen I mentioned AI, machine learning, and automation. Lets first get this out of the way Im highly doubtful that the marketing profession will disappear any time soon.Still, as a marketer, youll need to familiarize yourself with some AI-specific topics. On the one hand, you need to know how all of this crazy AI stuff works at least on a general level. Then, you should make sure you have the right complementary skills. You cant beat AI, so why not work together with it, providing the skills that are still hard to masterSoft skills like customer empathy, semantic nuance, storytelling.Hard skills like data science, discerning between good insights and bad data.My favorite data person Avinash Kaushik has a great piece on marketing career development in the age of AI and automation that will give you additional perspective.Practice is a differentiatorMy early career mightve happened haphazardly, but the key benefit was that I started working as a marketer at age 19. This gives me a strong advantage there arent many 30-year-olds with 10+ years of professional experience.So the best advice I can give you is get stuff doneFind an internship even if its unpaid, youll gain valuable experience. Whats more, youll gain inside knowledge of what that specific marketing field looks like. Youll also forge some handy connections.Volunteer at a local organization they are surely understaffed and they will gladly accept help, even if its coming from a person with one completed online course behind their back. The best option is to find an organization that does something youre passionate about then work is not a chore, but a pleasure.Help friends in the age of startups, you surely know someone starting a business. Help them out Its not just good karma it will also guarantee you a lot of freedom of execution and breathing room to test new stuff.You may think only paid experience matters, but youre deeply mistaken. A potential employer will recognize your unpaid efforts as proof of your drive to learn and your proactivity. Those sometimes matter more than the right certificates.Above all else, find your callingIm keeping this as the last point, but its the most important one. Find something that truly makes you happy. We have only about 80,000 working hours in our lives, so youd better make them count.Make sure youre following your Workplan and your Lifeplan and youve found a position that corresponds with your values. Benefits and higher pay are easy to find, but doing something that matters is rare. To find out what really matters to you, follow the steps I outlined for creating a professional development plan.And dont forget to have funIf youre just starting your career in marketing, dont take it too seriously. If you mess up and take the wrong turn in your career, you will lose some time, but youll also learn an invaluable lesson.Ive been through 7 different positions in 11 years. Still, I dont think about any one of them as time lost. Theyve all helped me learn how to better follow my passion. But, if youre looking for advice on how to change careerswith a resume or just create the best marketing resume possible, weve got you covered.Share your journeyIts hard to travel alone. So Id love to hear your journey in marketing share it in the comments Vassilena Valchanova A marketing specialist with a passion for digital. Loves finding efficient ways for brands and communities to grow together. Also, a cat-lover, cappuccino addict, early riser and theatre enthusiast.Leave a Reply Cancel replyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *CommentName * Email * Website Subscribe now for moreSee more great content and inspiring examples of resumes done right each month. Subscribe Youre subscribed Latest posts See all posts by Eric D. Halsey The Resumes of Chernobyl by Eric D. Halsey 4 Ways Creativity Can Improve Your Resume by Katherine (Tori) LutzHow to Create a First Year Elementary School Teacher Resume