Tips For Young Marketers

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I met a college senior this week who was just finishing up her marketing degree, and she asked me what advice I might have for someone who is just starting in the field. (You have to love when new folks actually *ask* you to pontificate, honestly.) So here's what I know now, that I wish I knew then...

1) Your network is everything -- even if you stay at the same place.

Everyone in marketing knows, on some level, that job security is a poor joke at best... but when you get into the day to day of a gig, it's easy to forget that, especially if management lulls you into a false sense of security. Even if you are blessed enough to stay with the same employer for a good and profitable arc, your peer group probably won't be, so don't shirk on that work. LinkedIn, Facebook, face to face; you put yourself at risk when you don't do it.

2) Be ruthless about the work that you do.

I've known any number of pros who don't particularly enjoy coding, analytics, traffic management, legal compliance, crafting PR releases or working phones to drum up coverage, but do it anyway, because, well, someone had to. The trouble with that kind of team spirit is that it's real easy to have it define you, and for many years of your working life to be something that you don't really enjoy... and when you do work that you don't enjoy, that's a very good way to have your career go sideways.

3) First reads can be very, very wrong.

Especially at the start of your career, you can feel that some of your colleagues aren't going to continue in the field, and that you might not need to give them your best service or time. The trouble with that mindset is that people will change dramatically over the course of a career, and even if they don't actually get much better at what they do... well, to be blunt about it, good fortune at meeting people with life-changing money can overwhelm, at least in the short term. so just give everyone your best, because...

4) You don't know who is watching you.

I've had job opportunities come up from people who, to be blunt, remembered me better than I remembered them... and lobbied for me accordingly. So resist the temptation to go for office gossip and/or talking about someone behind their back, because that kind of thing also resonates.

5) Keep your eyes open for dying channels... and clients, and categories.

When I went to college, there was nothing that I wanted more than to work for a daily newspaper. The day-in day-out of having to make deadline, the job security of my heroes who were synonymous with their papers, the quasi-celebrity nature of being recognized for your byline... all of that was what I wanted, even if the salaries weren't good. Lucky for me in the long term, if not the short, was that my graduation coincided with a recession that was pre-Web, which has been, of course, replicated by many subsequent downturns. But by then, I was well clear of the field, having pivoted to marketing.

During my career, I've seen Flash ads go from dominant to non-existent, throwing any number of coding and design pros into fever states to learn the next new thing. Something similar may be happening to SEO, given that much of the field seems to be something you can do with automation. DRTV might have serious problems if and when programmatic goes offline, and print ads in many consumer categories are also, at best, stasis.

Your loyalties, as a marketer, need to be to what works to solve the problem, not what's in your personal comfort zone. Making sure you aren't continuing to sell horseshoes while cars make in-roads isn't exactly a new career challenge, but with tech's growing influence, it's also one that comes with far greater speed.

6) School is eternal, and everything changes.

Getting a degree from a quality institution, and the connections that you make with your classmates and teachers, is merely the first step in a lifelong education. What's really happening there is that you are learning how to learn, and how to question what you are being taught. (And oh, by the way? Asking questions of senior marketers, rather than thinking that just because someone didn't grow up with an iPhone on their pocket, they can't really understand the way the world works now? A good way to continue your education.)

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