Marketing jobs - Australia

mooshoepork

Hey, I'm 19 and currently studying a bachelor of international business. I'm fairly certain I want to major in the field of marketing, but from what I can tell, it's pretty tough to get jobs in that field. Well, any field at the moment.

I'm meant to have a year of work experience next year, but haven't been able to find anything. I don't really have any experience other than retail, and part time office experience doing administrative work. My parents said marketing is hard to get into and you have to be an "up" person, and since that I'm not one, I won't be able to do it.

So, the GFC and my parents kinda have me down. This is something I want to do, but I don't know how feasible it is.

Any tips for getting work? Even work over the summer. All I can really do is apply? Is there something I should add to my resume that could help? Anyone in the field of marketing here?

All I have really going for me is my degree, office experience and I volunteered at a charity concert. Any ideas to make me stand out?

bsjezz

one of my good mates is working in marketing/advertising in a pretty big name company in sydney; i always had thought about it, but after seeing the shit he goes through pretty much daily i am happy i never followed through. long, long days with no adequate compensation, stressful work environments and huge amounts of pressure from clients

that said, if you know you want to do it, you gotta do it. find a big company (they don't even have to have a huge marketing department, but it'd help), start in the mailroom, and work up. make sure your higher-uppers know what it is you ultimately want to do and just work hard to get there. other than the small boutique agencies that you'd never get into without experience anyway, marketing is just like any other mainly office-oriented hierarchical environment - it's less about what you know as about just getting into the workplace so you're in the right place when the positions come up.

(alternatively, if you enjoy retail work more than two-bit office work, keep your ears open in your job because most reasonable sized chains have marketing departments, and more often than not it's well-respected retail staff who move into lower-tier positions. but it's the same idea in the long run: you're going to have to do a lot of not-marketing before you can get into marketing)

(alternatively 2, you could always just hit up a temp agency and hope like hell they send you to a marketing place, in which case you've got an instant in, if you take advantage of it and impress your colleagues. but it's more likely you'll be making cold calls to potential credit card customers)

mooshoepork

Thanks for the info. What type of marketing does your friend do out of interest?

I hear mixed things. I haven't spoken to any people that work in the field here , but in the US, most of the people I spoke to said they enjoyed their work.

edit: also, if there is anyone here actually in the field, I'd really love to talk to someone over pm's if they had the time.

bsjezz

he's an account manager in an agency; he deals directly with clients, organizes their campaigns and customer strategies, and liases their needs to his company's creatives

edit: i guess his experience is from the client relations / account management side of things, which may be why my best suggestion is 'get a generic office job and work up.' if you're thinking more about creative work, i guess it depends on what particular creative abilities you have.

mooshoepork

Ah okay, so do marketing degrees and things generally not mean much in this industry? I was going to finish this degree and do straight up marketing. More so out of interest. I want to learn more, but if what you're saying is true, it's probably not worth it in the long run.

MagicToaster

I work in advertising. What attracts you about advertising? Is there a particular role you find appealing?

In your typical advertising agency or marketing dpartmnt you have:

• Designers - They are responsible for creating the graphical look of everything. They work with the Copywriter as a team.
• Copy writers - They are responsible for writing the text (copy) that the ad/campaign will use. They work with the Designer, between both of them they come up with campaign ideas.
• Account mannagers - They are the link between the Designer/Copywriter and the client. A sort of middleman that meets with clients and discusses their needs to the designer/copywriter.
• Interns - To be used and abused.

Let me know what you're interested in and I'll give you my recommendation and what kind of preparation is best suited to that role.

mooshoepork

Thanks a lot, I was more interested in product management and development or brand management. Are their specific jobs in these fields?

MagicToaster

Well, Account Manager and Creative Director (the person who leads the copy writer and graphic designer) is the closest you'll come. I say closest because product management and brand development is not the responsibility of a single individual, such as the Account Manager or Creative Director. Rather, it is the collaboration of a team.

You have two ways you could go about doing things:

You could work at an advertising agency
...and become an Account Manager or Creative Director. You have some say as to how the product develops, but ultimately it is the client who has the last word. They green light or red light projects.

If you wish to be a Creative Director, you have to have good judgment for written communication to mannage the copy aspects and have good design sense to oversee the graphical aspect. A degree in Communications, Graphic Design, Literature or Journalism is highly desirable.

If you wish to be an Account manager, you need to have good market sense. That is, you need to know what's going around you all the time. Find links between events that can benefit or harm you and take proper action by guiding (not command) the Designer and CopyWriter. A degree in Marketing or Advertising is best suited for this... though your degree in International Relations could work, if you spin it correctly.

You could work in a company's marketing department
...and become marketing manager. There you basically command where the brand goes. You're the boss! But you have to be even MORE aware of your surroundings. You'd be responsible for not only managing a team in your company, but to guide the advertising agency. This is a huge responsability. A nothing short of an M.A. will get you that position, it can be in Advertising or Marketing.

On the subject of degrees
... you don't need an advertising degree to work in advertising. But, if you wanna be in a position where you develop the brand, you won't reach that goal without it. You need to learn the ins and outs, and you do it by getting educated on how to use the tools at your disposal effectively.

I'd suggest looking into what it takes to be an Account Manager, that's your best shot at reaching your goal. I would finish that degree on International Relations and then make an M.A. in Marketing or Advertising... preferably Marketing.

The road you've chosen is ambitious. Expect to be on it for a good 5-10 years before you get to a position where you actually have a say on the subject that is "brand management"

mooshoepork

Well, the degree I'm in now is in international BUSINESS. So, basically, I've done some accounting, economics, international studies, logistics, marketing, law, IT, statistics. Pretty much a whole slab of stuff.

I'm not really sure what many of these jobs do day to day, so maybe I'm off when I'm telling you I want to become "x,y,z"

I've just always enjoyed my marketing courses and I'm pretty good at it. I could see myself doing it, but not sure what direction I should go in exactly. Something more on the business side in terms of positioning products/improving etc... sounds good. I wish there was an easy way to see what a variety of jobs do on a day to day basis.

Thanks for your input. Much appreciated!

Szechuanosaurus

I don't know about Australia but I know in Edinburgh there are quite a few product manager jobs being advertised. Mostly in the financial sector and I guess from the descriptions it's predominantly working for inhouse marketing departments of the large financial institutions located here rather than within marketing consultancies. So in one form or another product manager can exist as a unique role.

MagicToaster

You could always become an intern and see the inner workings for yourself. Then you'd get first hand experience as to what they do.