My Career Progression

I have mentioned a few times on my site that creating content is not my full-time career. Even my freelance writing isn’t my main vocation. In my day-to-day job, I am a marketing director at a healthcare company. I fell into a career in marketing over 10 years ago and I absolutely adore my job.

 

 

Don’t get me wrong, it is not always smooth sailing, but I do love my job. Because of that, I thought that I would write you a post all about it. In this post I am going to share information about my job, what I do, my career progression and how I got into it. Plus, I will then answer any questions that you may have about marketing and how you too can get into a career in this domain.

 

My education and degree.

I have mentioned before that I have been very fortunate in my life. For me, education was a doddle. While I was in comprehensive school, I completed a degree in history. I was pretty advanced at school and to be honest, I found school, college and university incredibly easy. As soon as I am told or shown information, I will retain it. Which meant that studying was next to nothing for me and I was able to pass my degree with a first within a number of months. From there, I didn’t know what to do with myself or what kind of career I wanted to get into.

 

My first role.

I got my first ever job after I finished my degree. Because I was so young, I could either go to college and do the whole education thing again, or jump into work. With the prospect of girls holidays in mind, I opted for work. I can remember scrolling through Indeed one Sunday evening and I applied for as many clerical jobs as I possibly could. The following morning when I was in the gym, I got a phone call. It was one of the companies and they wanted to see me within the next hour if I could get to their office. I was hired on the spot and started the following day. It was a job working in a service department. My sole job was to answer the phone and log jobs.

 

My overview of all departments.

One amazing thing about the company that I started out at was that they gave me an amazing opportunity. After starting out in the service department and flexing my admin skills, the MD saw something in me. He pulled me to one side and asked me what I wanted from my career and how I envisaged my career progression. At the time, I didn’t know what to say. The only reason I took the job was to fund a girls holiday to Ibiza. But he saw something in me. Because of that, he helped me find a role that I could have a future in. He then allowed me a year to work my way around each department within the business. I spent 3 months in service, 3 months in finance, 3 months in sales and then finally 3 months in marketing.

 

The move into marketing.

After moving around different departments, I realised that marketing was where I wanted to be. I had enjoyed the tasks that I was set. It made me excited that there was so much to do. Plus, it allowed me chance to be creative. Not to mention that the marketing team where I was working were amazing and I wanted to be part of their little family. My dad did also give me some good advice before I made my decision that I wanted to go down a route that offered career progression. Not just to go for something that would suit me in the here and now. To look ahead to my future.

 

My progression within marketing.

Once I decided that marketing was the career path for me, my career progression began. I started out as a marketing assistant. While I was in that role, I accepted all training and even funded some of my own courses. With as much under my belt as possible, I pushed to be made Marketing Executive. It was hard work and I had to shoulder a lot of work, but I proved my worth. The main thing that I believe set me apart from my competition in terms of my career progression is my determination. I didn’t just tick through tasks as I was asked to do. I always found ways to improve things, be more strategic and look ahead. Then when a more senior position became available, it was the natural thing for the company to offer the position to me.

 

Why I love marketing.

Before I want to go onto the difficulties, I want to talk about the positives of marketing. The first thing is that days are always incredibly different. Since I started in marketing almost 10 years ago, I have learnt so much and two days are never the same. Being fully trained to a highly professional degree ensures that I have very transferable skills. No matter where I work, I would be able to turn my hand at all marketing tasks and it is an amazing feeling. Plus, when you see something that you have thought of, created, distributed and then creating conversions is the most satisfying thing in the world.

 

Why marketing can be difficult.

Finally, I want to be honest about the things that I find difficult about a career in marketing. Things change quickly in the marketing arena and it can be hard to stay on top. Plus, because marketing is very subjective, two people do not often agree on the same thing. What I think is right, my colleague will completely disagree with. Plus, sometimes when you have an idea, it can move incredibly slowly because processes take so long. Plus, it is hell of a lot of time sat in front of a computer screen, which I think surprises some people because they think it is all about being out there and engaging. A big thing is that hell of a lot of people do not understand what marketing is.

 

As always, I hope you guys enjoyed this post about my career progression. Marketing is an exciting job because no two days are the same. However, I do want to be honest and show you the very unglamorous side of things. The side of things where you are slogging it to set events up. Carry out so much analysis and spreadsheets that your eyes begin to glaze over. Not to mention you essentially live on a computer all day long. Things have changed so much in marketing. Even in the 10 years since I started, things have shifted massively, and I think that it always will. It is one of the things that makes this career exciting. If you do have any questions, please leave them below and I will get back to you!