Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

Depends on the nature of the agency, many are salary based and account executive can also be termed a sales engineer who assists in sales pursuits, business cases, modeling, and demos.

Conversely I would also be interested in analysis type positions that leverage customer data to determine strategic decision making. (Agencies with a Direct/Data Marketing practice such as Wunderman)

Conrad, as far as transparency at a time when my firm has cut 1/5 of their work force due to economic downsizing, public transparency may not be prudent. I would be happy though to share my info with you as you suggested. I appreciate your advice.

I have done my due dilligence here and have spoken with numerous individuals across the firm. We are unfortunately weak in customer-centric business analysis (for example our CRM group only has 8 people of which 6 are working on other opportunities as we don't have enough related work!) For what I can ascertain we simply do not have the related projects or knowledge capital I am looking for.

I looked at agencies because their business environment seems closest to consulting. i.e. multidisciplinary project teams, cross-industry
I want somewhere I can leverage my technical background, business analysis skills, and consulting and client facing experience.

Unfortunately I have not had success getting a position with any of the major agencies (unless I take a 20k pay cut and accept a junior/internship role)

I thought perhaps an MBA would allow me the opportunity to break into the marketing field. My preference is to break in first and than decide if an MBA would help. I was not convinced of the ROI of an MBA with my consulting firm, and I can not be sure of its relevancy within marketing.

Any advice around possible career paths, companies to apply to, or educational opportunities would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

I have looked at a few Digital Marketing firms. My reservation with them is that I don't feel I will be able to pick up the marketing fundamentals that govern all channels. I think it might be a great stretch opportunity in terms of being thrown in deep water and swimming, but I would prefer to have some knowledge capital that I can leverage from within the company.

Would love some insight into this in terms of marketing fundamentals and how they apply to Digital...

Otherwise I might as well hang up my own shingle. That being said, I actually have tried going it my self. I took 6 months off work ot play around with Internet Marketing and start my own business. I learned a heck of a lot and completed a bunch of projects. Unfortuantely I didn't feel I had enough knowledge to support a full-time consulting job, nor was I able to find a niche to build enough income online that I wouldn't need a full-time job. I feel it would be possible at some point, but I would like to get into the fundamentals of the beast in order to find growth areas I can tap into. Hence my search for a job within marketing to build those competencies.

I appreciate the visioning experience. I have tried it, but I feel with only four years experience my vision is still fuzzy and I need more varied experience in order to better cement my path and ultimate destination.

In any case, thank you YenDieu for your response.

Thanks mgoodman I have been reaching out to my network as much as possible. Have had some great talks, and a few 'almost' job offers. Perhaps I just need to pound the pavement in this regard some more.

Does anyone have any thoughts in terms of best positions to apply to within the marketing space considering my background?

I assume that BA and strategy type positions would be closest to what I currently do. Altho I have noticed strategy positions tend to be alot more senior.

Appreciate any and all insights.

A big thank you to Conrad for sending me a large and very insightful reponse to my CV.

Thanks everyone and look forward to your replies.