Important Things Every Graduating Marketing Student should know: Part 1
During College final day, Graduation caps are flying in the air, everyone names are pronounced, and bad questions about future careers are being asked. But what were missing ?
A foundation course when it comes to what marketing students should know before enter the real world of marketing.
Unfortunately, featuring and flaunting your new diploma with the words MBA in Marketing does more for great graduation photos than it does for cool post-grad jobs. The bad side is that most marketing students are not enough prepared for the real world.
To all of you current and future marketing students, here follow a list of 20 great turns , divided into the five sections , of what you actually need to know before entering the realistic marketing world. The list is a bunch of suggestions from a head of a Marketing Company and full-time marketing professionals with a many years of marketing manager and also from marketing interns who are graduating this year or in the future.
Academics:
Numbers can not afraid you:
I can not say you, that how many students have come across always ask to the forums avoid taking any classes that involve quantitative analysis or statistics. The Answer is You need to be prepared to analyze everything what you can do. Don not use a lot of excuses that you plan on social media marketer. When I was on the social media team and I spent every single day looking at and calculating charts and graphs. You always need to be sufficient enough to look at a spreadsheet of numbers, make the proper calculations, and analyze what they mean. You are wasting a whole lot of time making decisions without proof that they work and benefits your business in some way. So pay attention in your current status.
Do not obsess :
If your marketing courses preach the Ps or Cs of Marketing, you do not need to worry because it doesnt matter. As they can help and introduce you to the real concepts of marketing, than chances of you brainstorming how you meet price, product, place, and promotion in the a real-life marketing situation is unreal. You need to think about many more, which will come in later parts of the blog.
Just Simulate your real-life scenarios as much as you want, but you will not actually learn to make privileged decisions in hard time periods till the moment you are managing real money, working to hold a real company reputation, and investing your energy in real projects.
You can not practice it either. You have to be there and do it a less times, and then you will learn. Use internships as an opportunity to do this, which takes us to our next section.
Experience:
Having an internship on your resume is not that much good:
How was your internship last summer? Amazing! So it was for everyone. The fact that you had an internship is not impressive,that is what you did when you were there that is .
All Students have just accepted this wrong notion that even if you are just answering over phones, you had some big companys name on your resume will get you a job offer. It must get you in the door for an interview, but if you can not share the benefit you provided to the company, you will not be seen as a worthy resource.
Having a number of marketing internship is not impressive:
Now you have already created that it is not just about only an internship; it is actually when you do there. Substitute of having great internship experiences is receiving different experiences and perception.
If someone interested in marketing, do not just apply to internships at marketing companies every summer. Just change it and test your skills in new marketing environments, just like a company that executes its marketing in house area.
Now you got to know staying true to your final goal while when using your talents in different types of areas. Few important thing about this is you will learn what you needed yourself to be best.
End number, extracurricular activities doesnt mean you gained expertise:
You love being involved in every organization you can possibly be a part of. You think putting it all on your resume will show your great variety and extensive expertise.
But sometimes such a work really does is, it confuses recruiters and make him puzzled.
So many employers say they get upset and disappointed by students who seem too involved because they do not show any one true great strength they can bring himself to the table. Instead of being an expertise in one area, they just have their feet step seems like they are dancing in the mud.
Employers are always looking for something unique that you can do in reality , not that you have tried everything to be experienced and that is what marketing teams are for. If you have participated in a lot of different activities in college, narrow down the few that you can actually say you have learned from, excelled at, and helped you to grow at height.
A standard resume does not exemplify modern marketing:
If your career advisor giving you a template for your resume to adhere to just avoid it.
Now a days Marketing is changing so that buyer behavior is changing. So it means your entrance into this evolving industry should be change accordingly. Create your own resume line. One that highlights your uniqueness and is set up to show, not tell, what you worth for.
Paper resumes will always hold their big value and you also need to be present where marketing employers are looking. In reality 90% of all recruiters report having hired someone through LinkedIn.
Beyond LinkedIn, think about other unique ways to present your experience, info graphics, tweets, slide shares, or even e books
Marketing always moves fast:
There is high chances are that whatever your professor learned you for your freshman year of college that is no longer applies. Need an answer to a pressing marketing problem? You will not find it in that years-old textbook.
Very Effective marketing is not about looking up the answer, it is about creating the unique answer. Like, social media was not taught in a classroom until recently and yet it has been around for years. Nobody taught professional marketers already in the business how to "do social media marketing".
Marketing is not about pretty pictures and viral videos:
Effective marketing campaigns always focus on creating new content which always benefits your audience and you can not spend your marketing career creating hilarious videos for the sake of bringing attention to your brand. You need to be prepared to think critically and analyze the needs of your target audience and your content will naturally become viral.
