I am a business marketing major in college, but I don't know what to do when I get out, any suggestions?

[Profoundsea996]

I am a little indecisive and any helpful suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[Kelly Mouse]

Talk to your college's career center and look at the companies recruiting marketing majors. See what positions they are trying to fill.

To give you a big generalized answer:
Most companies that see a marketing graduate see a sales trainee.

If you don't want to go into sales, change your major. Otherwise, try to find some people you know who are in sales. Talk to them about their jobs. The earlier you explore job opportunities the sooner you can see that sales is worth a try or you can change directions.

Some sales positions are:
- Route sales: Like someone who travels from grocery store to grocery store and takes care of the Frito-Lay displays. You work with the store managers on this.
- Inside Sales: You do telemarketing. There are various levels of this: Business to business, and Business to households.
- Outside Sales: You travel to client sites and try to get them to buy your products/services.
- Retail Sales: You work in a retail store setting like your local Macy's or Ford dealer.

[Erik Nostin]

Network, network, network. Even with as high demand as accounting majors are, they still have to network like crazy to get big 4. Marketing is even harder, since your field has a harder time getting those contacts and landing those jobs. A career center at your college should be good, but even better is a professional organization on your campus. Find the most prestigious business organization in your school and join it. Attend every meeting, get very involved, and eventually you'll catch a professional's eye in a networking session. It's about what you do with those organizations, not just whether you are a member.

[Pat]

A business marketing major can actually feed into just about anything along the business route. The great thing is even if you pick something, it'd be very easy for you to jump around to a different path altogether.

Most companies have marketing positions open because, let's face it, marketing and innovation are the only two things that help a business progress; everything else is just a cost. Many companies have extensive marketing teams that have analyst positions (made for entry-level college grads) that might be in charge of market research, social media, blogging, ad agency relations, PR, media buying, creative production, etc. These are all possible in a corporate position right out of college.

Other companies that are consulting firms offer college grads who have accumulated a substantial business acumen to become associate consultants or business analysts. These people will get to work on individual project teams for a specific client that will pay the teams to solve a business problem. Often times, a strong background in marketing helps these roles a lot.

An important note is that marketing and sales are two completely different things. Marketing specialists are not always good at sales and vice versa. Companies generally have separate tracks for these two fields because they're vastly different in nature. I like to think of it as this: if you are effective in your "marketing" initiatives, you should never have to do the "sales" part.

The marketing route is very broad. It takes a certain type of person to excel in marketing and these people typically do very well in a corporate environment. Also, many Fortune 500 CEO's have marketing backgrounds. Know that you'll definitely have options and a chance to grow in this path. Be proactive in networking with industry professionals, as they will definitely be a good way to find the perfect opportunity to what you want once you figure that out.

Good luck!