How to land a career in marketing
Whether you love to shoot video, can pitch a great idea, or are a social media gun, there’s a marketing role out there for you.
Marketers tend to be multi-skilled people. They know how to get a juicy photo of a product, understand social media inside out, and can write a killer line of copy—or know how to work with people who do.
If you’re keen on entering this dynamic field, you’ll have a lot of career options open to you. You could join a brand you really love, work with an interesting variety of clients as part of a creative agency, or even start your own freelance marketing business.
But what’s it actually like to work in marketing? Here’s what you need to know before signing up for a degree.
What kind of marketing roles exist?
There are a few common job titles within marketing—let’s take a look at some of the roles you may end up applying for.
Marketing manager or coordinator
In a general marketing position like this, you’ll draw on both your creative and strategic skills to run strong marketing campaigns. You may work with a sales team to understand customer data as well as collaborate with a range of creatives. Your day will be quite varied and include writing marketing plans, running social media accounts, writing creative briefs, or analysing data and metrics.
Account manager
Account managers work within agencies and, ultimately, make sure clients stay happy. In this role, you’ll pitch advertising campaigns and strategies, prepare reports and budgets, and, crucially, build strong relationships with your clients.
Creative
If you lean more towards to the artistic side, you may enjoy becoming a specialised creative like a copywriter, photographer/videographer or graphic designer and applying your talents in a marketing context. You can find a role in an agency, in-house at an organisation, or even work in a freelance capacity (so you can balance your own creative practice while making a living).
| Related reading: How to become an influencer |
Social media manager
If you already spend a lot of time on socials, you may like to consider a role running the accounts for a brand you respect. You’ll spend your days working with platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, writing clever copy, shooting photos and videos or briefing other creatives (and, um, getting paid to be on your phone…).
Marketing director
Once you’ve been in the industry for a while, you can work your way up to a senior marketing role—such as marketing director—where you’ll manage a team and steer the overall marketing strategy of your organisation.
What does a job in marketing look like?
Marketing roles tend to be quite versatile and you’ll likely find yourself working in a busy team environment. If you love collaborating with others, then that’s good news, because you’ll join forces with lots of other creative people.
For example, if you’re a marketing coordinator or manager, you’ll work closely with photographers, writers, and designers. It helps if you have a decent understanding of these artistic practices as you may write the creative briefs for these specialists.
In a general marketing role, your day-to-day will be quite varied. You might be coordinating or assisting on a video shoot in the morning then talking social strategy and statistics in the afternoon.
You’ll enjoy this kind of role if you can think both creatively and strategically and don’t mind a bit of multi-tasking.
How to get into marketing
While it is possible to land an entry-level role without studying in the field, most brands will require you to have a marketing degree or one that’s related to the role in question—a film degree for a video-based role, for example—before you can apply.
And it is worth studying. You’ll learn plenty in your course that will help you on the job—and you’ll graduate with a portfolio of work you can use to dazzle employers.
| Related reading: Types of digital marketing you need to know to land the role |
There are lots of marketing courses out there to choose from, and many can be done flexibly and online. You can start with an undergraduate degree like a Bachelor of Marketing and Communication or Bachelor of Business (Marketing). If you have some prior study under your belt, you may be better suited to a postgraduate course, such as a Master of Marketing.
It's also worth learning on the job through an internship during or shortly after studying. This is a very common way into the marketing industry and a great chance to gain relevant work experience for your resume. You can find out about these opportunities through your university’s career centre, Prosple or Grad Connection.
Is it hard to get a marketing job?
Luckily for you if you pursue this field of study, strong marketers are always in high demand. According to the Australian government, marketing and advertising job opportunities are expected to go up by 11.4% over the next three years. You’ll find plenty of roles to choose from after graduating—and you could even you take your skillset overseas.
Whatever path you choose, you’ll find a marketing role that matches your skills, interests, and career goals.
Ready to see where your marketing career could take you? Explore online marketing courses delivered by leading universities, available through Open Universities Australia.
