Fifteen

Issue date: 9/20/05 Section: Student Life

Are you looking for a challenging and rewarding career where you can directly impact customers that doesn't require you to work all night and all weekend? Marketing was the answer for me.

I had a great experience as an intern with Staples last summer and hopefully these quick tips will help get you on your way to having a similarly wonderful summer in marketing.

Timing

Because marketing jobs tend to come later in the year, you have an advantage over your peers going for consulting and banking jobs. You will have time to do more research and soul searching to decide what type of marketing job fits you best. There are many industries that require marketing expertise, including retail, technology, and consumer packaged goods. In addition, there are also many functional roles to explore within marketing, from advertising to market analytics.

The down side is that it's not unusual to be interviewing in March or April.

Do not fear; many exciting opportunities come late in the spring semester so there is a high payoff to waiting for just the right offer.

One notable exception is the bigger CPG companies such as Colgate and P&G that have more defined internship programs. These firms will have earlier resume drops, in October and November, and interviews in January.

Networking

The best use of the extra time is networking with marketing execs. First and foremost, it's a great way to research your options. Speaking to people in these roles is the best way to understand the career path and what the role requires. Also, many marketing internship opportunities are not posted through the CDO. Networking can help reveal your perfect internship.

Start with the second years. Join the Marketing Club and attend the career panel presentation. Also, sign up for the mentor program. Going to see executive speakers in marketing is also useful as well as keeping up on where marketing as an industry is headed.

If you are interested in living in New York, definitely go to the NYC Marketing Trek. Last year we hob-nobbed with executives from Pfizer, Sony, Verizon, Ann Taylor, among others.

And don't forget alumni can be a great source of information. Use the alumni database to contact them and go to the Marketing Conference in the spring.

Resumes/Cover Letters

Marketing resumes and cover letters should tell a story. In particular, highlight areas where you worked and helped customers. Be concrete as to the impacts of your work - employers are looking for results-driven people.

If you don't have any direct marketing experience, one option is to do a MarketLab project in the fall. MarketLab is the marketing strategy consulting arm of the Marketing Club where students help companies with important marketing challenges.

Also, because marketing relies on skills like leadership, strategy, and analytics, use past work experiences that will be relevant to potential employers.

Interviews

Marketing interviews are similar to consulting in that they will have "fit" and "case" components. However, the emphasis will definitely be on fit. Marketing cases are much shorter than consulting cases (~10-15 min) and more focused on generating ideas.

The Marketing Club puts out a Marketing Case Book that has questions from past recruiting seasons which is extremely helpful.

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