Introduction
The excitement and hope that accompanied college graduation many years ago have slowly but surely faded; giving way to despair and dread. New college graduates face a bleak future riddled with unemployment, underemployment, and huge student loans on their shoulders. Success in this type of environment requires “self branding” and excellence in almost all spheres.
Many jobs were lost during the economic depression of 2008/2009. Today, many countries are yet to find a balance between existing jobs and the influx of new graduates into the job market. In reality, new graduates face the most daunting and competitive job environment ever witnessed in the world. This situation is the same in all fields.
Graduate Trends in Marketing
Over the years, marketing job market has changed significantly. Virtually all business spheres demand marketing skills and knowledge. The roles of marketing have equally broadened to encompass product research and market analysis. Traditionally, marketing has been viewed to be principally concerned with product and company image promotion.
However, these new roles have made it integral to the business environment. Whereas many people consider marketing field too crowded with few opportunities, the reality is that it is a fast expanding filed not yet fully filled. In fact, the field has continued to open up new opportunities for job seekers, and the possibilities of its exhaustion are minimal.
Marketing graduates have a lot to offer to both employers and the society. A marketing course gives a broader view of the business environment, which makes marketing professionals stand out in the business environment.
This is because the course covers not only product promotion aspects, but also business image and the environment within which a business operates. These three aspects are the cornerstones in any business line. In this “ever-changing world of work,” marketing is very important (Andreanoff 2012, Mentoring Scheme).
What a Marketing Degree Offers
A marketing degree offers numerous opportunities to graduates. According to Pride & Ferrell (2011, p. 472) because marketing is so diverse, “it offers numerous career opportunities for people with a wide range of qualifications.” The world is dynamic and new media emerge almost daily.
Excellent marketers cannot look far for available opportunities to exercise their knowledge and skills, as opportunities are everywhere. Marketing offers a wide range of career paths. Some of the major paths are discussed below.
Advertising Sales
Marketing professionals who venture into advertising sales work for media outlets like TV, newspapers, and radio. Their job is seeking out other companies and businesses to buy advertising space from the company they are attached.
Media Planning
Are professional who help advertisers identify the best media that will ensure the highest numbers of targeted customers are reached by an advertisement. At times, media planners buy media spaces in anticipation of selling at a later higher price.
Market Research Analysts
Product development stages and final launch all involve researching. Once a product is launched, researchers are expected to establish what worked and what did not do well. This is where market research analysts come in.
Additional roles
Marketing professionals take active roles in survey research. They also have relevant skills to carryout public relations tasks for their companies. These tasks make marketing indispensable.
What Employers Expect From Graduates
Most graduate programs are modeled to provide up-to-date information skills to enable graduates face the job market. In reality, however, these skills are not sufficient when it comes to a difficult and volatile job market (Burgess 1996, p. 294). In fact, most graduates who fail to secure jobs are victims of overreliance on knowledge and skills acquired in lecture halls. What exactly do employers what?
What can set a new graduate aside from the rest in the crowded job market? According to Shontz & Murray (2012, p. 3), employers “typically want to hire someone who will mesh well with the other people in their organization.”
They further claim that “personality traits and soft skills such as enthusiasm, initiative, innovation, communication, flexibility, and collaboration” matter to employers than academic performance (Shontz & Murray 2012, p. 3).
Employers prefer employing college graduates to other categories of job seekers. According to Hall, 2012 (Emma Hall’s masterclasses), there are many attributes employers expect from college graduates. Even though all graduates are unique, these attributes are considered paramount for anyone who has gone through the college education system.
In her opinion, at the time graduates collect their degree certificates, the attributes are automatically included as achievements and students should, therefore do their best to justify that they possess these attributes (Hall 2012, Emma Hall’s masterclasses). First among these skills are transferable skills.
The learning methods and assessment techniques employed by lecturers in college, as well as experiences students gain while in college, play a significant role in instilling transferable skills in college graduates. According to Peacock (1841, p. 155), the experiences a student gain in college are invaluable, hence the need for formal education, but not private tutoring.
Another advantage college education bestows on graduates is “an open mind” (Hall 2012, Emma Hall’s masterclasses). College learning is modeled to encourage inquiry and deeper analysis of situations, as well as evaluation of possibilities surrounding available options. This process of inquiring gives students the power to see alternatives even where choices are limited.
Additionally, college life promotes cultural awareness in students. College courses promote cultural awareness (Sirianni 2011, p. 11). Moreover, most colleges have students from diverse cultural backgrounds, and as students interact, they begin to appreciate each other’s cultural practices, beliefs, and even taboos.
This situation is even better in situations where staff is diversified, thereby creating a cream of cultural diversification necessary for learners to gain cultural awareness. Today, “Cultural competence becomes increasingly important given the diversity of…work force and consumers” (Roussel, Swansburg & Swansburg 2006, p.199). As such, employers are justified in seeking graduates to fill in their work force gaps.
Finally yet importantly, college creates work readiness among students. During long vacations, students often take jobs to gain experience and to earn. These job opportunities prepare them for the job market.
When employers set out to hire graduates, they consider two main factors. The first thing is if the potential employee can complete the task now, or if they can be trained or developed with ease to complete the task later. Graduates who can do the job now without training must possess necessary skills, knowledge, and experience to do the job.
Most of these are gained from coursework, industrial attachment, part-time jobs, and vocational jobs. Ultimately, students who do not get the opportunity to partake to the same while in college have slimmer chances of being hired based on the first criterion. The second criterion requires students who can be taught and are ready to learn fast. Here, motivation is key.
Students who are highly motivated and who can demonstrate ability to pursue their targets with both commitment and dedication, stand a chance of employment even if they do not have any relevant job experience.
This is because motivated people are ready to learn from their mistakes and to make significant progress. Sessa & London (2006, p. 62) support this by claiming, “People who are high in pre-training motivation enter into the training with heightened attention and increased receptivity to new ideas.”
Determining if a graduate has skills, knowledge, and experience necessary to complete a task involves analyzing course content covered for any relevant applications or package, establishing if the experience gained in attachments and part time jobs, in years, is sufficient, and examining any relevant skills possessed.
Hall, 2012 (Emma Hall’s masterclasses) outlines numerous general skills expected of graduates in the job market. These skills include:
- The ability to work under pressure
- Initiative skills
- Analytical ability
- Creativity
- Interpersonal and communication skills
- Teamwork
- Numeracy
- Negotiation and influencing skills
- Written and oral skills
- Information Technology awareness
- Understanding of business practices
Claiming to posses these skills is one thing, providing evidence is another. Employers need evidence of knowledge and skills before committing to employ. What resources do graduates have to prove they possess these skills? Hall, 2012 (Emma Hall’s masterclasses) outlines an exhaustive list of the resources at graduates disposal to meet this need.
These include; experiences gained while working as a group to complete course assignments, business awareness gained from case studies given in class, meeting and working with other students of different cultures, researching skills gained in writing dissertation, presentation skills gained in class when covering course content, and time management.
Apart from knowledge and skills gained in college, employers may require evidence of involvement in extracurricular activities. It is claimed, “Extracurricular activities can help you develop useful skills and enhance your marketability” (Kuther & Morgan 2013, p. 15). This idea is also asserted by Veruki (1999, p. 166) who claims, “Employers like candidates who are well rounded and have interests outside of work.”
He goes further to assert that “If you didn’t participate in formal extracurricular activities in college,” your chances of passing an interview and landing a job can only to enhanced by talking “about some of your interests, such as reading or exercising,” (Veruki 1999, p. 166). Some of the extracurricular activities graduates can involve in while in college include sports, society activities, voluntary work, and fund-raising.
The changes in employment selection method
Employee selection is the process of “putting the right persons on the right job” (Farr & Tippins 2010, p. 36). Employment selection methods have undergone radical changes over the last few years. To secure a job placement, it is advisable to “initiate and build brand you” (Francis 2012, Andrew Francis on R AND S).
By carrying out thorough screening during the selection process, organizations enhance their chances of hiring only the most qualified candidates. This reduces cases of underperformance and absenteeism associated with hiring the wrong candidates. The selection process has traditionally begun with a recruitment drive where employers attract a number of qualified persons to choose from.
Today, there are many new selection tools. These tools, if used accurately, can yield great results. The accuracy and effectiveness of these tools vary (Francis 2012, Andrew Francis on R AND S).
Assessment centers, structured interviews, aptitude tests, and biodata forms are considered more accurate as compared to references and interviews. As such, organizations must consider all possible factors before choosing a selection tool to use.
In the past selection only emphasized a potential employee’s skills, experiences, and knowledge. Today, however, the ability of an employee to fit in an organization’s team matters a lot. Employers seek employees with excellent teamwork abilities because organizational success is dependent on what employees can achieve as a team (Hayes 2001, p. 32).
The changes in communication technology have revolutionized the ways of employee selection and placement. Today, recruitment is not a one-day activity, but “an open-all year round” process (Francis 2012, Andrew Francis on R AND S). Additionally, the use of modern communication platforms such as online application has become standard and commonplace in the selection process.
Social sites such as FaceBook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have become essential tools for communicating selection requirements (Ross & Beggs 2011, p. 67). These sites are especially useful when selecting marketing graduates. This is because as future potential marketers, they must have used social media to promote themselves, their ideals, and share their opinions. A career in marketing furthers these skills and aspects of one’s life.
To be successfully recruited, one needs to develop his/her personal brand (Francis 2012, Andrew Francis on R AND S). Volunteer programs, freelancing, and participation in conferences can help marketing student greatly in developing a personal brand.
Conclusion
In conclusion, marketing is central to any business’ success. Students who possess the right skills and knowledge and are committed to marketing themselves as the most important products, stand a chance of succeeding in the cooperate world.
However, marketing ones’ self is not an easy task. It requires a deep understanding of one’s’ personality and strengths, and developing an impressive image to sell to the world. With a good image, selling organizations and products become easy. Most importantly, securing a job becomes a walk in the park.
Reflection
From the discussion, a course in marketing can be seen as a wonderful opportunity for those who possess the right skills and knowledge. The field is diverse and leads to several career paths. With such versatility, landing a job becomes simple.
However, it is evident that success in the field is pegged on having the right skills such as negotiation, communication, interpersonal, numeracy, teambuilding, analytical, and innovative skills. Additionally, success in marketing requires starting early while in college, by involving in extracurricular activities, which builds personality and interpersonal skills.
Extracurricular activities such as fundraising, sports, and attending of conferences not only build personality and interpersonal skills, but also enhance cultural awareness, which is very important to graduates desiring to work in large corporations with people of diverse cultures. Given the aforementioned advantages of joining marketing as a career, with the right information, it is probable that many students could desire joining it.
Today, thousands of people involved in marketing earn decent salaries, have stable jobs, and draw a lot of satisfaction from their jobs. These are the most important things about careers. Additionally, considering the dynamics of marketing, those who enjoy challenges can find it very interesting. This is because it presents new challenges almost on a daily basis, which require innovative solutions.
References
Andreanoff, 2012(mentoring scheme)
Burgess, M 1996, Rebuilding downtrodden job market and madhouse society, Kroshka Books, Commack, N.Y.
Farr, J & Tippins, N 2010, Handbook of employee selection, Routledge, New York.
Francis, 2012(Andrew Francis on R$S)
Hall, 2012(Emma Hall’s master classes)
Hayes, N 2001, Managing teamsba strategy for success, 2nd edn, Thomson Learning, Australia.
Kuther, T & Morgan, R 2013, Careers in psychology: opportunities in a changing world, 4th edn, Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, Belmont, CA.
Peacock, G 1841, Observations on the statutes of the University of Cambridge, J.W. Parker, London.
Pride, W & Ferrell, O 2011, Foundations of marketing, 4th edn, South Western Cengage Learning, Mason, OH.
Ross, C & Beggs, B 2011, Mastering the job search process in recreation and leisure services, 2nd edn, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Sudbury, Mass.
Roussel, L, Swansburg, R & Swansburg, R 2006, Management and leadership for nurse administrators, 4th edn, Sudbury, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Mass.
Sessa, V & London, M 2006, Continuous learning in organizations: individual, group, and organizational perspectives, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, N.J.
Shontz, P & Murray, R 2012, What do employers want?: a guide for library science students, ABC-CLIO, New York, NY.
Sirianni, J 2011, The Effects of College Diversity Experiences on Student Academic and Democracy Outcomes, Stanford University, Stanford.
Veruki, P 1999, The 250 job interview questions you’ll most likely be asked: and the answers that will get you hired, Adams Media Corp, Avon, Mass.