Simon Johnston, marketing executive, The Chartered Institute of Marketing
Simon said:
You can transfer skills gained in sales and customer-orientated roles to marketing: Many sales and customer orientated roles have skills that can be transferred to a marketing role. Negotiation, communication, numeracy and the ability to work to targets, for example. Media planning is a great skill to have as a lot of small and medium-sized companies will perform this role in-house. The other advantage you have over candidates coming from unrelated disciplines is that you are already familiar with the language used by marketers and can relate to them.
You will undoubtedly get asked at interview 'why move from sales to marketing?' so think about which aspect of marketing is most appealing.
Use job adverts to discover what marketing employers really want: Have a look at the job adverts for the roles you are interested in and tick off the skills and competencies you can satisfy at the moment. You will then have a good idea of the areas to address, which could be through training, research and reading or through qualifications.
Having a marketing qualification will help secure interviews: To start your marketing career, it helps to have a mix of two things; qualifications and experience. The problem is, it's very hard to get experience when you don't have any. In order to keep earning full-time, you are best off considering part-time study either via evening class or intensive weekend while seeking out marketing work placements. Unfortunately, as many graduates find out, having a degree in marketing is certainly no guarantee of a marketing job unless you have taken the time to gain work experience through placements, student brand manager schemes or similar.
Qualifications on their own won't give you the necessary experience but they can open doors and help you secure interviews you might otherwise not have got. At the risk of sounding sales pitchy I found listing that I was studying CIM on my CV helped to get an initial interview when I was looking at marketing assistant roles.
Seek marketing opportunities within your current organisation: I studied graphic design at university but quickly realised I wanted something creative and business-orientated after I graduated. I felt marketing could offer me both of those things. After several short-term temp jobs, I had a breakthrough while working for an educational charity. I plucked up the courage to speak with the marketing director and mentioned I was studying CIM and willing to get my hands dirty on any project work, no matter how administrative. A week later I had a six-month contract in the marketing department. I quickly learned to never underestimate the power of networking.
Scott Knox, MD, The Marketing Communication Consultants Association (MCCA), a trade body set up to support marketing agencies
Scott said:
Experience and skills just as important as a degree in marketing: Not everyone who works in London's leading marketing agencies has a degree but what they do have is entrepreneurial flair and a creative eye. You may need to start at the bottom, most do. Apply for admin posts and send your CV directly to great agencies telling them why you have to work for them. You may need to offer to work for free on a work placement, harsh as that may sound, but if you are serious about a career in our sector you have to take that leap of faith and just do it.
Working on advertising sales can help prepare you for the marketing industry: MCCA has helped quite a few former ad sales people into account handling roles in some great marketing agencies. Working on ad sales can help develop your presentation skills and toughen you up. If you really are serious about getting into a marketing agency and are happy with a starting salary of £17-18k then send me your CV.
You need drive, entrepreneurialism, pragmatic thinking and an ego to make it in marketing: The one thing I spot in all successful people in our sector is drive, entrepreneurialism, pragmatic thinking and a bit of an ego. I'm not a great believer in formal qualifications — marketing moves just too fast — so keeping up with industry and technological advances due to happen tomorrow is key. This is especially true of agency life. That said, we all benefit from training in the softer skills; negotiation, presentation, writing and managing people, for example. I'm seeing a lot of senior people move into psychological and personal profiling and coaching as a result.
Junior marketers still need a strong CV: At a junior level, a degree in marketing is less relevant than a great CV. It should be full of get up and go; 'president of the students' union or sports club, work placements in marketing, organised a fashion show, organised a club night in Manchester,' all that sort of thing. It is especially valuable to have ventures that show an income; ticket sales and sponsorships, for example.
If any good graduates have that sort of CV I am interviewing now for some of our members' agencies. There aren't many junior roles around, so get a move on and email us.
Claire Scaramanga, director of Scaramanga — a marketing and sales company
Claire said:
Gain digital marketing experience to get ahead of the competition: Digital is simply another medium, the same rules of good marketing practice still apply. However, you will need to demonstrate to employers that you understand the dynamics of digital and have used this medium to good effect. If you don't have much direct work experience presently, you could look at getting involved in some online projects outside work to showcase your skills. You may want to consider joining a company on the traditional marketing communications side with a view to a move, once you have demonstrated your worth, to their digital department.
Melissa Littler, marketing director of online fashion retailer BrandAlley UK
Melissa said:
Show how your strategies made a difference to clients in your CV: Most executive roles in marketing require good project management skills and a level of media knowledge. Look for executive roles in marketing agencies; there are some really good recruitment agencies that will be able to help you (check out the back of Marketing Week). Also, think carefully how you position your experience in your CV. When I recruit at executive level, I'm looking for someone who is organised, prepared to roll-up their sleeves, can work as part of a team and who is passionate about making a difference — so try and show how your strategies made a difference to your clients.
Being organised, interested in data and an ability to see the bigger picture are essential marketing skills: The skills that took me to my current post were being organised and delivering on what you've promised, a strong appreciation of how marketing fits into the bigger picture (its too easy to feel that your department is the centre of the world and you miss the bigger ideas that can really transform a company's performance) and a fascination with data and results. Marketing can be quite subjective, particularly the creative side of things. You need hard and fast performance numbers to prove your strategies. The greater your insight into your audience, the greater results you will see.
