At the end of my freshman year of college, I began feeling anxious about still not having any idea about what career I wanted to pursue. I’ve always been a more creative person who loved to tell stories through writing and poetry, but I feared a career as a poet wouldn’t be exactly reliable for the long haul. One day as I was sifting through emails, I saw that my college was offering a new minor program in Digital Marketing which was designed for Fine Arts students who wanted a taste of the business academic world. I don’t exactly love trying new things and marketing was a foreign concept to me and sounded way too ‘business-y’, but I figured I had little to lose so I signed up for a couple of courses. Surprisingly enough, I shortly fell in love with the concepts of marketing and found that I could use my creative drive to help companies succeed in growing their brand’s reputation and building relationships with customers. Let me share with you three reasons why marketing can be a satisfying and rewarding career not only for the business brains but also for those with a passion for creativity and personal interaction.
Creativity and engagement are essentials in the field
I always pictured any business-related job to consist of little more than sitting behind a desk by yourself calculating numbers and writing financial reports. While some are built for that type of work, there are few things in life I dread more. With marketing, however, a day in the office is much less rigid and instead involves a variety of creative exercises including writing slogans, creating engaging web content, and designing graphics. There is also a lot more interactivity involved as marketers can dialogue directly with clients and consumers to figure out what their needs are and how their marketing techniques can be better utilized to meet those specific needs.
No two days will be the same
If you’re like me, just the idea of being cramped at a desk for 10 hours a day doing the same task might make you feel restless. Because it is such a creative field, a career in marketing often brings new tasks every day as consumers’ desires and needs are constantly changing and it is the marketer’s job to figure out how to continue providing satisfactory content. Although regularly having to adapt with the changing times can be challenging, it also provides excitement and ensures that new seasons will bring fresh experiences and new opportunities for growth.
You can benefit the field and the field can benefit you
Marketing is unique in that it combines smart business strategy with creative writing and people skills. If you are someone who is naturally more creativity-driven than numbers-oriented, don’t think that you have nothing to offer businesses or consumers. Just like a machine needs all sorts of different parts to perform their own functions and work together for the machine to run, a business consists of people with various sorts of talents. A company needs someone who can come up with creative slogans and interact with customers just as much as it needs an accountant to oversee financial records. Additionally, you will be benefited in your development as a versatile worker when you expose yourself to business and financial concepts that may not already be your area of expertise. A career in marketing allows you to expand your skills in creative writing while also learning new skills as you observe the inner workings of how a business operates.
If you have any questions about navigating the marketing field as a college student, feel free to email me at niko@whitewateragency.com.
Niko Tomc