What has your postgraduate degree in Marketing done for you?

[UndeterminedUsername]

Doing my MA after a few years in a different career. Original degree in Marketing also. Using the MA to reenter the industry but wondering if it will actually make a difference to my earnings ceiling etc.

Don't know. I'm mid-senior in marketing and don't have a marketing qualification to my name!

Experience will get you back on the career ladder....I dabble in recruitment and I rarely look at the qualifications when I first scan a cv if at all, always the experience and work history. Try and get some exposure and use contacts! Where are you based?

All 6 people I recently interviewed for an entry-level position had masters qualifications. Really common now, it appears to be the new degree. It makes no difference to earnings, IME, just gets your foot in the door.

I work in marketing, I don’t have an MA but have done CIM up to level 6. I found a lot of companies ask for higher qualifications as standard when you search jobs, which is why I did CIM, so my CV would even get looked at, but as someone else said, experience always trumps qualifications.

Can you volunteer/do work experience?

Not a sausage. My ability to speak German and talk to techie types about internet concepts I only really half understand? Quite a lot.

Joking aside it depends on your age and the roles - if people are still looking at my 90s and early 00s qualifications now I'd worry. The y may get you past a gatekeeper algorithm (ie underpaid HR intern) but really it's giving you the language and hopefully the confidence to blag. Which as a fully qualified marketing type I can confirm is all it boils down to - the ability to blag.

Pwrsonally I don't think it will do anything. I have completed CIM which gets me noticed but the experience is what gets me the job.

I don't know many people in marketing who have a degree in it. I am a marketing manager with just over 10 years experience and I get interviews based on my experience. I have just done the Marketing Week Mini MBA in Marketing and I loved it, getting actual theory and learning on my subject was amazing

Your degree isn't going to be meaningless- I think you should bring your Marketing masters to the top of your CV and write about how it means that you have valuable, cutting-edge, marketing expertise... But you might find that people don't give it the value it deserves.

The 'problem' with marketing is that most people don't quite understand what it is or how much it encompasses ('no it isn't just advertising, mum!'. Therefore people who aren't qualified or experienced still feel they can 'do' marketing.

ANY experience you can get in business will help. good luck!

I'm doing the MA part-time over 2 years so hoping that I can get a placement while studying that I can utilise by choosing a placement that is somewhere I would like to end up working. I always seem to have done a good job of working my way in to places like this before! I'm based in north east England an hour away from cities. I didn't originally pursue marketing after my degree as I thought there would be less opportunities in my area. My dream is to work in media.

@Dorris83 did you find the Mini MBA good? I’ve got 15 years Marketing experience but my degree is in an unrelated field so no actual Marketing theory qualification. Work have mentioned they will pay for CIM but from speaking to colleagues they didn’t find it useful as a “top up” qualification.

@sarahdiscoballs it was BRILLIANT
It is designed for busy, mid level to senior people, marketers and related (so there were CEOs and people from creative agencies etc on it too)
I spent a lot of time nodding along, Mark Ritson is very engaging and the format of the course was really easy to follow. It is only 3 months and to be honest I would have preferred it to be longer as it coincided with a busy period for me at work and I was pretty tired doing studying in the evenings whilst travelling with work. It was all online, 12 modules, about 1 hour of lecture then another 2-3 hours of reading per module.
It was really excellent, I highly recommend it. My work paid for my course, it's £1500 incl VAT i believe so a drop in the ocean for many marketing budgets ;-) mba.marketingweek.com/

@Dorris83 thanks for sharing, I've been looking for something like this as CIM doesn't seem worth the effort for the pay off.

@sara - I would say the CIM is a good qualification to have on your cv but isn’t hugely of any practical use (have level 6 too)

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