Talk to me about jobs in marketing / project management

[GraciousPiglet]

Right 2020 is over and I desperately now need to work out how to leave my awful teaching job. I teach primary and have done for 10 years. I absolutely hate it. I have three young kids and work 3 days a week. Live in a large town with plenty of opportunities. I want a job with some flexibility but would happily work 4/5 days if I could do the odd pick up here and there.

Before teaching I did a degree in design and worked as a digital designer in London for 5 years. Gave it all up to teach.

Obviously I can't get back into design now as my portfolio is over a decade old. I can still design things OK and my digital skills are good. Am v computer literate.

I'm after a job that can utilise skills from both careers. Was thinking marketing might be good? Or something in project management? I like working with other people, I'm very organised and can plan things well. I'm not the best with numbers but I enjoy statistics and analysis. I like to problem solve.

I am very happy to retrain so long as I can do so fairly quickly full time or part time. I could afford to take 6 months off work to retrain full time but anything longer would have to be part time.

I know you can get certificates in marketing/project management. Do they lead to jobs easily enough? What is career progression like?

Any other recommendations for an ex teacher would be welcome. It feels like a lot of options aren't open to me as I did a creative main degree rather than a traditional academic one. I can't afford (time or money) to do another main degree, otherwise I would and I would probably do a social science degree.

Help! The most important thing is that I need to leave my current job. ASAP.

Many colleges/uni’s have projects departments so I’d contact them and ask what’s coming up. Projects in education get applied for 18 months before they start. Or take a less wanted job in the right area and work your way up.

You might have to start a marketing assistant role and begin your CIM (chartered institute of marketing) qualifications, you can do them a unit at a time I believe, but check their website. I did mine over two years and was working at the same time. It covered some project management units as well.

It's a great that you have a experience/interest in design, it will be a real help.
Good luck

I’ve noticed a lot of advertised client-side junior marketing jobs now seem to be looking for hybrid designer-marketers, so your historical experience should be a plus. Some employers will fund CIM study too, but I agree you’d probably be looking at an entry-level role. If the money isn’t a concern for now then go for it!

I’d advise against agency-side though - it’s much harder to find a part-time role, especially one that actually equates to working part-time hours.

York St John do a short course digital marketing, might be a good place to start before the CIM or a PM qual. I’ve done APM because my work prefers it, but you could look at Prince2 also

A lot of marketing jobs will include social media marketing, do you have any experience there? If not, brush up on this area ASAP.

Just go in at an account exec/manager role. Yea a little junior and maybe a bit less than you're on but a CIM qualification won't be useful, if you're good you'll get hired - even with little experience.

Money wise I need to make 20/30k. I'm on 35 now full time but we can survive on anything over 20 so long as I can do some school pick ups. We can't survive on less than 25 if I have to pay for after school / holiday childcare x2. But with a bit of flexibility money is much less of an issue. I'm after opportunity for progression really.

I know lots about social media etc and can do basic programming so that sounds like it would be helpful.

Lots of civil service jobs where I am too but I just don't seem to have the right skills.

@GraciousPiglet definitely try marketing/digital agencies for an account manager role. You've got great skills - ramp up your digital / social skills on your CV. They are very much sought after.

For marketing is definitely look at a CIM course to start with, will help you learn what area you're interested in too.

How about something like learning design/e-learning? Often v flexible and your skills definitely lend themselves to that area!

Try the civil service, entry level PM jobs start around £25k, and they offer structured progression and qualification, you could easily be on £33k after 2 years.

They tend to do entries in batches, so only come around once or twice a year but they'll be taking several people on more than likely.

I moved from a lecturing post to the civil service and initially started off as a Personal assistant on 30k. Gave myself 2 years to earn the same as I was when lecturing, ended up as a senior project lead. Might be an idea to find a role such as a project coordinator or project support and work your way up. Project coordinator / support roles start from 28k or 34k dependent on the band. No real need to do any project management training although I did. Majority of project managers I managed did not have project management qualifications.

The issue I have with civil service job, even the entry level ones, is that without an academic degree it doesn't look like they would be interested in me?

I look at the skills and think, yes I could do that BUT I have no proof.

Perhaps I need some help from a CV writer or careers advisor. Does such a thing exist?

I cannot tell you how much I need to get out of teaching. Like RIGHT NOW.

@GraciousPiglet

The issue I have with civil service job, even the entry level ones, is that without an academic degree it doesn't look like they would be interested in me?

I look at the skills and think, yes I could do that BUT I have no proof.

Perhaps I need some help from a CV writer or careers advisor. Does such a thing exist?

I cannot tell you how much I need to get out of teaching. Like RIGHT NOW.

I would say still go for it, look on NHS Jobs as well and apply. Most of the teaching skills are transferable to any role, it's really how you word things. When you look at the essential criteria make sure you address each one and relate to teaching. So much planning, organising and attention to detail needed in teaching which are skills adaptable to a lot of other non teaching roles. The key thing is to find your way in and then focus on moving up. A company called TopCV help with CV's. I've never used them before though but they get good reviews.

You are selling yourself short, you do have those skills and the proof was gained in teaching that is all. I did it, so can you.

Look for learning design type roles. Might be under Content Design, Digital Learning Instructional Designer, E-learning Design and Development. Your skill set is perfect match.

Thank you so much everyone.

You are right, I do have the skills. I just need to work out how to sell myself a bit better!

What part of the country are you?

I think you’ll also get some good advice from the Mums in Marketing group on Facebook. It’s very down to earth and supportive.

There are some brilliant short courses- free- on coursera or futurelearn to update your skills and how to sell yourself.
Get on LinkedIn. Recruiters sear this by keywords.
Also coding if you are good with digital- google do free courses.
Also look at the what colour is your parachute book and website

Thank you so much everyone. I'm going to get reading and use the January to lockdown to narrow down what I need to do and what I'm after.

I am in the south west, not too far from Bristol but too far to commute there regularly.

Wondering if there's anything you can do to combine your teaching skills? Maybe an online education provider in a UI/UX design role?

You could have a look at companies like The Education Company - using your teaching experience, but in a marketing or project management setting?

How about working for an independent school in marketing/admissions/admin? I think that your teaching experience would be invaluable plus your organisational and IT skill. You could possibly start in just a pure admin role and move on from there.

@MrsCat1 I've thought about that but there aren't enough schools nearby to offer me enough progression. There are only 1/2 independent schools and jobs never come up there.

Depends which area of marketing you want to get into. I work in tech and it's common for digital marketing to have design skills to so this would be highly desirable. I personally wouldn't bother doing CIM, I've worked in this industry ten years and never met anyone who had it, nor been asked about it.

I would do the Google Squared Digital Marketing course or the mini MBA with Mark Ritson alongside the Google Analytics courses and the Hubspot training academy. You need to be confident with GA, PPC, Paid Social (FB, Twitter, Instagram & LinkedIn), marketing automation such as marketo/hubspot, email platforms such as mailchimp aswell as some main Web platforms like WordPress.

If you have the energy you could offer your services to small local businesses for free or a reduced rate to build your experience.

I would also contact some marketing recruitment agencies locally and get their advice about what profile they look for in your area.

If you don't want to go digital marketing route, in London an entry level marketing exec in tech would be on £25-£27k where you'd be expected to muck in with everything.

Where are you based?