Marketing employment is similar to almost every other type of employment, in that many of the jobs start out the same way. Anyone who wants a job of any kind has to start by selling himself or herself to their potential employer. People who dislike the process of job applications and interviews are often found to be lacking in self confidence. They are terrified of appearing, at best, unworthy of the position for which they’ve put themselves forward or, at worst, of being humiliated by being exposed as someone who should never have put their foot inside the interview room in the first place. These people don’t believe, deep down, that they can offer a skill set to match what is required of the position on offer.
So, in order to get marketing employment, the first marketing strategy the jobseeker must put together, is one that highlights their own strengths, and what they can bring to the table that no one else can. The clever candidate always walks in knowing that there is something they can offer to their potential employers, and to the company’s customers, that not one other person on the planet can offer. And that is, the candidate himself.
Each person, by definition, is an individual, and therefore different in some way from every other individual in the world. The candidate who can put forward that about themselves which would bring a positive contribution to the company has done the hard bit. Whatever it is they’ll be marketing after that will be a piece of cake, and infinitely easier to figure out than how to sell oneself.
Products can be researched. Numbers can be crunched to show which demographic offers the best opportunity for increased revenues. Customer services can always be improved. Marketing these things is about learning and adapting. Marketing yourself is about confidence and belief.
Ok, it’s true that, just because you like yourself, the prospective employer is not automatically going to hand you the position. Many sales positions allow people with little or no experience to apply. These jobs usually have lower starting salaries and are geared highly towards commissions making up the majority of the remuneration package. Marketing jobs generally require a degree of training. Courses are available everywhere, from fully fledged BA-degree courses in marketing, to night courses that reward certificates of achievement, to online courses that combine marketing studies with economics and even law. The more strings to your bow, the better your pitch will resonate with your interviewers.
All the qualifications in the world, however, will not replace a bit of savvy, or “street smarts” and these are the traits that employers want to see as much as good grades, diplomas and degrees. Having those things is great, but mostly because they give someone even more reasons to come across as confident in their ability to do the job. Being a sharpshooter is one thing. Being a sharpshooter with a fully loaded gun is altogether more impressive. Carrying this analogy forward; let your certificates and training be your “bullets”, but let your personality be the “bomb” that gets the interviewer’s close attention and blows the competition away.
Once you have that career in marketing, it’s going to be important to keep up with current trends. All those things you learned to get those certificates or your degree could be about as relevant to tomorrow’s market trends as an ash tray on a motorcycle. Ten years ago, everyone knew internet marketing was coming. Now, it’s a massive force, but one whose nature is as ever- changing as the surface of the sun. Failing to keep up means you’re going to get burned, no matter how confident you are or how great your personality.
Recently we have become the new sponsor’s of Local Biz Buidlers, the leading local internet marketing forum. Our goal is to continue in Keith’s, LBB Founder, original vision of creating a large, powerful community of local Internet marketers where newbies and experts alike can give and take information in our special niche.
