Question

Topic: Career/Training

How Is It Possible For Non-business Educated Executives To Have Marketing/business Positions?

Posted by Anonymous on 6/7/2004 at 5:06 AM ET 125 Points
This perplexes me to no end.How is it possible for an executive such as lets say a person with an engineering degree to have a VP of marketing or product manager position?

Or a person with a degree in philosophy have an top management position?Or a guy with a marketing degree having a technical position like leading enginneering systems?


I study the biographies of executives on a lot of company website(especially microsoft) and I dont understand how they qualify for their positions when their training is in something else.

Take Peter Moore of microsoft who used to work for SEGA.He was vice president of marketing for sega and is now an marketing executive for the XBOX but his background is a masters degree in physical education????

Jeff Raikes a very high ranking executive(probably # 3 after gates and ballmer) of microsoft and used to be the top sales and marketing executive and is now in charge of office has a degree in engineering systems????

Judy Gibbons an executive in charge of marketing for MSN has a degree in engineering???

Whats up with all this?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Blaine Wilkerson on 6/7/2004 at 9:40 AM Accepted
    It's a mixture of cross training, knowing the right person, and natural talent.

    Don't confuse school with "training". The words are far from synonymous.

    My father has a Masters in Ancient History, yet has been a marketing consultant for over 25 years. I have 2 degrees in BioChem and Forensic Science and own a successful Marketing coporation.

    In my case, talent and interest took charge. But I can't say my schooling didn't help. Science and math are all about solving problems in a systematic fashion. Sound familiar...say....maybe something like....MARKETING??!?!?

    These people may have received degrees in other fields but you don't really get a chance to "shine" and bring out your best untill you are out there working and seeing all the other interests you have come to life. I would imagine a lot of them took courses at night, read a lot of books, tutorials etc...and attended seminar after seminar.

    If you realy want to be freaked out and even more confused...look into the undergrad degrees of most physicians! You will find English majors, liberal arts, history, mathematics, communications, even business. So how and whay are they doctors? Because of the thought provoking subject matter they previously challenged themselves with. The same goes for marketing ,law, etc.

    Again, your degree does not dictate your career. Rather, it prepares you for the challenges you will face and broadens your mind enough to accept any challenge.

    I hope this helps!
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 6/7/2004 at 11:54 AM Accepted
    What was said about marketing being a skill which can be learned is true. Also added to this is that there are no required licensing for marketing positions (as compared to account or law positions), so there is nothing codifying an academic requirement.

    I live in Silicon Valley (CA), and it is very common to see tech companies requiring engineering degrees for new marketing hires. They believe that it is easier to teach someone the marketing skills than to teach a marketer to handle the technical aspects of their products.

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