Where would it be best to start my career transition into Marketing?
Friday, February 5th, 2010 - 8:20 pm - Marketing & Sales
I’ve been in finance for about 5 years and realized it’s not for me. I am making a transition into marketing and two opportunities have come up: one at an agency for extremely low pay and one at a corporation for pay close to what I was making but it’s specifically in Event marketing. I’m not sure what would be better in the long run to begin a new career path in marketing. Can anyone with experience provide any advice or things I should think about? I would appreciate it. Thanks!
E-mail_marketing – wiki
First, you need to think about what you like to do. I’d recommend taking a Meyers-Briggs personality type test, then doing a Google search for “good jobs for ____ personality type.” Also think about what you did and did not like most about the jobs you’ve had in the past.
I’m working on a career change too, and one thing I’ve learned about recently is informational interviewing. Basically that means you sit down with someone and ask him or her some questions about what they like about their job, what they don’t like, what it took to get there, exc. The best way to get informational interviews is to start asking the people you know at work, church, clubs, or professional associations if they know anyone in the fields you are considering. Then when you call , you can say “I’m interested in learning about a career in X and so-and-so suggested I call you. I was wondering if you could give me a half hour of your time to talk to me about your field.” Make it clear you want information, not a job. Being able to name-drop like this gets you past the first hurdle, because if they have a good relationship with whoever said to call them, then you have a good rapport with them just by osmosis.
Good luck. Also try going to the library and finding “Changing Careers for Dummies” or any other books on recareering. The days of staying with one company from college to retirement are over and there are a lot of books out there on how change careers.