While it’s been tough to find a job graduating in today’s economy, I have had several opportunities to engage with senior leadership during my search ranging from CMO’s, PR and Marketing Directors and CEO’s. These opportunities collectively resulted great career advice but it was somewhat fragmented. Reviewing the past companies I have worked for it’s easy to see why - although they are all under the umbrella of marketing they are in various practices. Paul Rand, CEO & founder of Zocalo Group, was able to bring this advice together as it applies to the current state of the industry and offer his advice based on his projection for the future of the industry.
When I met with Paul, I laid out my career path based on the advice I had received. It looked something along the lines of spend two to three years in a certain practice then jump to another specialization and so on. To my surprise he recommended I focus on one specialty and hone the skills needed for strategy development and execution. He explained the marketing industry is moving towards integrated communications and the silos of traditional PR, social media and word of mouth marketing, advertising etc. are being broken down. He also gave a great example of this. One of his major CPG clients recently embraced integrated marketing communications through changing their job title from PR Director to Integrated Marketing Director. This may not seem very important but working with clients who can be slower to adapt, for valid reasons, this is a big step forward in our industry. These companies are also looking for their agencies to do the same.
I also mentioned to Paul I had been advised that in the communications world, an MBA isn’t necessary. Paul disagreed highlighting the changing role of senior leadership in marketing as a person who needs to have an understanding of business practices beyond marketing strategy, and an MBA would further this understanding. A Business Week interview with Susanne Lyons, former chief marketing officer of Visa and Charles Schwab, gives a great explanation as to why business understanding is fundamental to the role.
“The CMO needs to be a businessperson first, and a marketer second. They need to demonstrate greater accountability and show how they are having a real impact on the bottom line… the key is for marketers to understand and speak the quantitative and financial language of business.”
As I mentioned, graduating in this economy has been tough but it has allowed me to discover these key learnings and fostered the need to stay ahead of the trend - a few things I may not have picked up otherwise.
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