Question

Topic: Career/Training

How Should I Break Into A Marketing Career?

Posted by Anonymous on 9/28/2011 at 8:56 PM ET 250 Points
So, I'm at a bit of a cross roads in my young career.

Let me start out by saying, I've always wanted to be a Brand Manager at a CPG firm. Now I find myself in and IT Security/DBA role...

Background

BSBA Marketing in 07 - While in college I was an E-Marketing manager at a small Inn...

Once I graduated, I just didn't have luck finding a good Marketing job. Instead, I fell back on my programming and quantitative skills and finance minor.

My work experience
1.5 years as a Market Analyst (Large International Financial institute)
.5 a year as a Strategy Analyst at an internet startup
spent 6 or 7 months unemployed
2 years as an Analyst/DBA for IT Security (Large Discount Retail company)...


Anyway, so I figured the best thing for me to do now is get my MBA. I figure if I can get into a top 15 or top 10 program with a strong marketing reputation, I should have an open door into brand management, or at least market research.

Or am I better off going after an entry level Market Research job now?

If I do pursue an MBA, it wouldn't be until fall of 2013, so I have a good year before applications need to be sent out. Would it make sense for me to get whatever marketing job I could land now (market research most likely) so its clear I'm focused on this track?

Or is this all a pipe dream, and should I continue on my current track and just treat my career as a job?


To summarize...
Should I
1 Get an MBA to get into Brand Management/Market Research
2 Forget about an MBA, and just take an entry level job(my Fiancée wouldn't like this one)
3 Keep the current career track, and deal.

Just confused, and need a new direction, any guidance is greatly appreciated!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 9/28/2011 at 9:30 PM Accepted
    You're facing a very serious decision, and you are the only one who can really make it. We can all give you our biases, but you need to do what's right for YOU -- not for any of us, or for the average of our opinions.

    If you are set on brand management and believe you can get into a top MBA program, then that's the route that will give you the best shot at the brand management career you want. But that will take time and money. And there may be other approaches.

    And market research is not the same thing as brand management. They draw on different skills and generally appeal to different kinds of people. Most brand managers do NOT have hands-on experience in market research, and vice versa. So you really need to figure out what's right for you.

    The one piece of advice I will offer is that you only get to go around once. If you spend your life regretting an important decision, you'll never forgive yourself. So do some soul-searching and figure out what you really want to do. And once you do, go for it.
  • Posted on 9/29/2011 at 11:00 AM Author
    Thank you for the response. I am aware of the difference between brand management and Market research. To be honest, I wouldn't be interested in the hands on aspect at all. I feel my strength is more on the quantitative aspect of market research.I guess I meant more of the market research analysis side. Meaning, I'd simply fall back on my quantitative skills if needed.


    Either way, I agree, I do need to really figure out the best track to get me to a place where I'm intellectually and financially satisfied. I've known from a young age that the aspect of business in general that interest me most was consumer behavior, and how every aspect of marketing is used to effect it. I used to look forward to case studies, writing marketing plans, and using marketing research software in my undergrad, and I was always towards the top of my class in all of it. Unfortunately for me, I was a bit too good at the research side, and followed a career that was purely analytic, an soul sucking...


    I really feel I know where I want to end up, now its just figuring out how to get there.

    One more quick question though, do you feel it makes more sense for me to stick it out in my current job, take on more responsibility to make myself more attractive to MBA programs, or would it make more sense to get into the vendor side of market research and take a pay cut to build up any sort of relevant experience?
  • Posted on 9/30/2011 at 9:42 AM Moderator
    You don't need another job on your resume as much as you need to get into an MBA program quickly. The sooner you apply, the sooner you'll get accepted. The school doesn't care if you have market research experience or not.
  • Posted on 9/30/2011 at 10:06 AM Author
    Alright, thanks! You've been super helpful
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