This blog post is what I feel to be sort of an honest and what may be rather upfront post. It was inspired by a resource I read by Matt Hearnden on ’18 ignored and unusual ways to get a graduate job’ with the title of this post being one suggestion in tip number four – start a blog about the industry. Though my blog is part of my portfolio, therefore specifically about career development rather than the marketing or media sectors, I was still inspired to write this piece of content.
The post is a way of me asking more advanced and experienced marketers to give me a foot in the door in the most assertive way possible (at least for me). I hate being blunt but hopefully this works and, if it doesn’t, then it’ll at least be a good thing to look back on later in my professional life. In other words, this is me ‘doing my best to express my hopes and ambitions without apology or diffidence’ (Mishal Hussain The Skills).
So, without further ado, here are ten reasons why I personally want to work in the world of marketing.
Reason Number 1: To make the industry more neurodiverse
“Everyone’s brains are wired differently. It’s marketing as a whole that needs to be whole-brained.” Mark Evans
I wrote about this in my blog post on neurodiversity (which you can read here) but wanted to talk about it again as it’s my number one reason at the moment for why I want to want to work in the world of marketing. I recently watched an interview with Seth Godin who stated that ‘marketers make change but who for? What for?’ I really resonated with this point with the belief that, although I do not yet know who for, I know what for – to help organisations communicate and market in more neurodiverse ways.
As I noted in my post on Neurodiversity, I believe that marketing, advertising and public relations are still very neurotypical. It has begun to represent people with disabilities but only certain types, is done by very few companies and still stereotypes according to each form’s better known characteristics. It is only ever inspirational, very rarely or even not at all helpful. That is why I want to help companies and organisations make their marketing more neurodiverse – yet this may be a tall order with me being so early on in my career and the problem that I keep being so easily swayed by the big shiny companies.
On the other hand, I would be making the marketing trade more neurodiverse by getting to work in the industry in the first place. As someone who has direct experience of negotiating the hurdles of living with disability, I appreciate all who have supported me to become more confident and empowered and would like to help companies become more neurodiverse by being employed. However, just because I want to be the change does not mean that I am the spokesperson for ALL neurodiverse or disabled women – I don’t know everything and we’re all different to one another.
Reason Number 2: To use what I’ve learnt in real life professional work
Thinking back on it, advertising and marketing took up half of my undergraduate degree in terms of the modules I chose to do and the theory I learnt. I’ll always be grateful for getting to be taught by lecturers who previously worked in the media and communications sectors, particularly one in advertising and public relations who taught the advertising modules. I may have only learnt the basics and theory, but it was the beginning of discovering what I wanted to work in within the very wide discipline of the media.
This has been updated and furthered recently with the addition of completing the Google Digital Garage online course on digital marketing. On the course, I learnt all about search, websites, social media, mobile sites and applications, content, advertising, video, analytics, e-commerce and how to gain an audience both local and global. Although I won’t be using everything I have learnt automatically, it helps to have the knowledge for future work.
Though I have done this learning, as well as my master’s in gender studies and my other completed online course, I still have a lot to learn in the real professional world of work.
Reason Number 3: Because I want to keep on learning about marketing
Although I have already learnt a bit about the industry, my love of learning and my want to get into the industry makes me want to keep gaining knowledge. As I’ve discovered through my avid following of the Amazing If company and the Squiggly Career podcast, curiosity IS a career super skill and I want to keep teaching myself and learning from others with more experience than me.
Reason Number 4: Because of my love of social media
There is going to be another blog post on my passion for this topic in the future, but I would like to briefly touch on it here as one of my reasons for wanting to get into this industry. As someone I know said to me once, you can either do something you love for fun or do something you love for a career. I’m constantly found scrolling on my phone on either the Facebook, Twitter or Instagram apps and also have knowledge of other past and present social networks.
Whilst this is the case, as with my blog, I’m not very reliable at regularly posting content. My Twitter account used to be a lot of retweets and, due to that, I now try to only have three to four between original tweets so that my account looks a little more me. I still appear though to be better at stalking and observing rather than actually contributing which is interesting given that I find it easier to talk online and hold the belief that making friends through social media is beneficial and can be similar to real world friendships.
There are two solutions to this - the first is being more proactive and the second is better planning. Though I do have ideas of what to post, I never have specific time frames of when to post and sometimes I just get social media block. I would like to start using a content calendar but I'm not sure how so recommendations would be wonderful! However, I also know that creating any type of content takes time and effort - whilst I'd like to be better at posting content, the fact that I keep active on the platforms is enough right now.
Reason Number 5: To normalise accessibility
Going hand in hand with neurodiversity/diversity and inclusion, accessibility is something which I always put on the backburner but is something I’m now becoming more interested in and am learning about. That’s not to say that I didn’t not think about it at all – I myself used accessible technology during my degrees. I don’t have much to say about this yet due to the fact that I’m still teaching myself about it so this may progress into another post at a later date.
Reason Number 6: To write (and read) more
Since starting this portfolio, and especially the blog page of the website, I’ve re-established myself with my love of the written word. Although I’ve always loved it – both the reading of others’ work and my own – I like being able to put my thoughts onto paper when I can’t put it into verbal language. My reading habits and favourites has shifted over the years and I would argue that the same has happened with my writing (in relation to the practise and the topics I write about). I want to try and get better at doing both more often so I hope that can happen but I’m not going to stress about it too much.
Reason Number 7: Because of my enthusiasm for popular culture
This has been a significant part of my life experience. As I say on the homepage of this very site, the media is the thing that I am most passionate about. Again, my favourites within the discipline and how I use it have changed over time - I was born in the mid-nineties where there were still only five channels on TV, video cassettes, CDs and tapes, magazines and books and the internet was still in its VERY early days. During the collation of my master’s dissertation I wrote down all the things I used to be a fan of and the things I am a fan of now which I found really insightful and fun to do.
However, the changes in quickness, ease and preferences has never diminished my love for the media. Although I have made the decision that I want to work in marketing, mostly in the form of social media and writing, I know that the practice seeps into all the various mediums and is needed within all other industries. This is helpful for me as I begin to enter the business but I know that I will need to and want to specialise in certain sectors and formats in the not too distant future.
Reason Number 8: Because it’s all about relationships
I went to The Marketing Meetup event in Bristol recently and the talks were all about agency and client relationships but the whole evening got me thinking about relationships in both the social setting and the backdrop of business. This is even more prevalent in relation to marketing – as Phillip Kotler and Guy Armstrong argue in their 2010 book Principles of Marketing, it’s all about ‘managing profitable customer relationships’.
As an autistic woman, I’ve had issues with forming and maintaining relationships on a social level throughout the years and fear that this is and may in the future harming professional ones as well. I try my best to ‘camouflage’ or hide my difficulties with great eye contact and ok chit-chat but as an adult no longer in education forming adult social relationships is hard and maintaining old social connections and new professional contacts is even tougher. I acknowledge that I need to get better and become more proactive with all of this but I also need to remember to be kind to myself. It would also be helpful though if others were kind to me and recognise that it takes time for me.
Reason Number 9: To become more business savvy
Business is another topic that I’m starting to become interested in and that I’ve begun to do some research into and learning about. The things I’ve already learnt are that no business can survive without sales or commerce and that it links to the last reason – business is all about relationships. I’m starting to read, watch and listen to a lot more business news and features, but, again, as this is only just beginning to formulate this will also probably develop into being further written pieces in the future when I have more knowledge.
Reason Number 10: To be a leader one day
I’ve toyed with the idea of starting my own business and becoming an entrepreneur or going freelance, but feel that this is a too much of a leap to make at this current moment. However, as Mary Portas notes in her Work Like a Woman book, ‘competency doesn’t mean that you have to be the most senior person on the team to lead’. Over the years, I’ve come to like leading but still have very few experiences of doing it. That is not to say that, if I were given the chance, I would relish leadership in the future.
So, there’s my ten reasons why I want to work in marketing. At this point, I would usually say ‘I hope I haven’t been too blunt’ but, to be honest, this is me trying to push myself out of my comfort zone and trying not to be apologetic for what I want to do. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this whoever you are and whatever you do.
Beth x