“Hi Rich,
I joined a marketing graduate scheme at a big IT firm about 4 months ago and they are asking me what area of marketing I want to specialise in, and it will affect my next placement. But I don’t really know. I am really ambitious so I want to avoid being a generalist nobody hires later. How do I decide? What would you do in my situation?
Amelia, London, UK
Rich’s reply
Amelia, it’s great that your employers are taking an interest in your long-term career prospects and that they are asking you to shape things.
I’m going to make some assumptions before I share my view. Being on a graduate scheme means you are likely in your early twenties. Discussing placements, indicates your scheme facilitate rotations. By stating that you are unsure what to do next and have dropped me a line indicates that you are still forming your view on how your career in b2b marketing may pan out. This is helpful context.
In your situation, I would take your time to discover what you want to specialize in. 4 months is no time at all given you will likely have a career of 40+ years. What I would expect to be most useful to you at this moment in time is exposure to as many elements of the marketing mix as possible, combined with different types of marketing scenarios, other departments, geographies and stakeholders.
You should be no rush to pigeonhole yourself. Unless you are absolutely certain that you've found your dream role.
If I were you, I would embrace the rotations and go and work with different teams, and people, and budgets, and remits and find what you excel at, and enjoy, most. There are so many different facets of marketing that you can still explore within confines that you set. For example, if you are analytical by nature consider exploring the world of marketing operations, data, analysis, performance marketing or planning? If you are creative, consider exploring the brand or campaigns teams. Love interacting with customers? Consider events or product marketing. Want to touch everything straight away? consider an industry marketing role. Your marketing function may even allow you to float around working on a variety of projects, helping out across an entire team, where your extra pair of hands are needed and desired.
Most marketing leaders are generalists or forced to become them. Having exposure across many areas cannot only help you understand where you want to spend time in your career but also really enhance your understanding of marketing as a whole. If you can have a view on what good looks like across many areas of marketing, that will really serve your career well.
Talk to your current line manager and graduate scheme leaders. Proactively contact other marketing leaders across your marketing function for a coffee to increase your understanding of what type of work they do and increase their awareness of you. I am willing to bet each and every one of them would love a hungry graduate to join their team and lighten their load, especially if your costs are covered centrally!
If you are lucky enough to know what you want to do with the next 40 years of your career by the time you start your last rotation, then I think you’d be in a fantastic place and far ahead of many others.
I wish you all the best in your marketing career. I’d love to be in your shoes again. How exciting!
Onwards!
