Terri Ramsey Beavers College graduation is approaching fast, and when you are studying, you are given a brief overview of what to expect in your field once you leave college and the world of formal education behind once and for all. The thing is, colleges don’t like to frighten their graduates. They want to send them off into the world, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and sometimes totally not ready for work!
When you’re studying a field as broad as marketing, you know that there is a lot out there to be learned even beyond your degree at college. You could see yourself boosting your marketing communications degree with a further education course later on so that you are more attractive to employers in the marketing industry. When it comes to a heavy dose of reality, you’re going to get that the moment you start a new career. To soften the blow, we’ve put together some of the things that you will definitely need to know before you set out on job interviews and even your first day.
Experience.
An internship is an impressive thing to have on a college resume, but it’s not ‘impressive’ to employers. The fact that you had an internship isn’t what is impressive to people, but what you did when you had one. You need to be able to tell people what type of benefit you provided to the company that you interned for, otherwise what value do you really have to employers of a real job paying you real cash? None.
Extracurriculars.
Having a long list of societies that you were involved in on your resume isn’t as good as you think. Recruiters don’t need to read that you’re a jack of all trades. They need to see that you honed in on something that you’re good at and you excelled at it, even if that happens to be debate team. Employers want something unique from their candidates, and you can do that by cutting back on that long list of things you did at college. Boost your marketing degree CV with a graduate diploma in project management, which guarantees greater pay and a higher chance of getting hired.
Resume.
You could be riding on the coattails of a recruiter for your first job, and that recruiter may well give you a resume template to follow. You need to ignore that template in favor of creating your own. You are emerging into an evolving industry, and you need to be different. Three hundred other people could be applying for the same job that you are applying for, be bold and stand out from the crowd with a resume template by you. It’ll showcase your skills and show them that you know what it takes to grab the attention of others.
Your Skin.
Marketing is a cutthroat industry filled with customer complaints, frustrating clients, and sales reps that don’t answer the phone. You have to make sure that you have thick skin before you get started; emotions do not have a place here!
Your marketing career can get off to a great start if you have your head screwed on right and you look at the world as a whole. It’s not all sunshine and roses – yet.