Getting started in a job search in Advertising and MarComm.
As a matter of course in my teaching, I have gotten a number of questions from my students about how to get started in a career in advertising, communications or marketing.
To that end, I have developed this white paper with my thoughts and suggestions on the topic.
The beauty of an advertising, communications or marketing degree is that it gives you flexibility in a career to head in several professional directions and what you might want to do:
https://www.coursera.org/articles/what-can-you-do-with-a-communication-degree
https://businessdegreesonline.net/what-can-you-do-with-an-advertising-degree/
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/advertising-degrees
I recommend students need to think through what they enjoyed about their classes, what interests them now, and decide a field or two to pursue.
Social/digital is about as hot a career field as there is going right now. If one doesn’t have much experience in this, they might consider getting a certificate or two in social/digital to put on their resume and Linkedin profile.
Hootsuite has some great, inexpensive, and well recognized certificates. I use these certificates as assignments in my social media course and have gotten great student feedback on them:
https://education.hootsuite.com/pages/certifications/
As does Google that I use as well:
And Google has a certificate in project management. This, too, is a hot field:
https://grow.google/certificates/project-management/#?modal_active=none
Many colleges and universities have a certified digital marketing program as well. For example:
The next step is a good resume, that is built to get past the AI computers that do many initial scans.
Use key words that an AI/computer will pick up on as many companies now use a machine to prescreen resumes looking for key words. Here is some great info on that: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/resume-keywords-and-phrases
Advice on creating a resume with little experience:
https://resumegenius.com/blog/resume-help/college-graduate-resume
Build a Linkedin profile that is based on the resume.
With it, follow Linkedin influencers in appropriate marcomm fields. Begin to network with them by reaching out and asking questions. This is a great article:
https://careersidekick.com/use-linkedin-to-find-job/
Take advantage of university career centers to seek out internships and career advice.
The Univ of Fla College of Journalism and Communication has a good site too. (You don’t have to be a student there to review the jobs/internships and then reach out on your own):
https://www.jou.ufl.edu/current-students/current-undergraduate/career-prep-jobs/career-resources/
University of South Carolina has a pretty robust career center as well:
https://sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/career_center/alumni_services/index.php
Use your friend Google to seek out other university and college career centers.
Seek out internships to gain experience in the marcomm field. This adds to the resume and Linkedin profile.
Both UF and USC have internship openings on their websites. Again, use Google to seek out others.
Sign up for www.joinhandshake.com a great resource for both internships and jobs to launch a career.
Too, begin to network using Linkedin and local professional organizations. Think about joining your local AMA and AAF chapters. You might qualify still as a student member to engage with other members. Both have job/internship sites as well. Some examples:
https://amabaltimore.org/ama-baltimore-careers/current-openings/
https://baltimoreadvertising.com/classifieds.php
https://www.amasfl.org
https://www.ama.org/collegiate-hub/
To that end, for use when you attend and start to meet professionals at these events, develop an elevator speech:
https://careerdevelopment.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf1041/files/media/elevator_pitch.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb0Yz_5ZYzI
Another hot area that several of my students have landed careers in is logistics and supply chain management. If you like this sort of thing, you might consider it. Amazon, UPS, FedEx etc. are always looking for smart people. It may not be the sexiest thing going, but… (I worked with a former mentee of mine who suffered from depression and ADD and had to quit advertising; he ended up at FedEx doing logistics. And from there moved into their comms department. It’s an amazing story.)
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/what-are-logistic-jobs
And, of course, pick up and read the old standby to help in career decisions and job searches: What Color is your Parachute?
I hope this paper helps in your search. Bottom line: network, network, network.