<p>I started off college as an English major, but I am absolutely terrified of ending up as a high school teacher so I wanted to make myself more marketable. I am a first semester sophomore in college and have a good amount of English courses already under my belt so I'm thinking about a double major- English w/ a concentration in Creative Writing and Business w/ a concentration in Marketing. </p>
<p>Is this a good idea? Because I was sold on it until I started googling what jobs I could gets with these degrees and people were saying that Marketing is as useless as English. I just really want to work at a Publishing Company or something along those lines. Am I on the right track? Obviously I'm going to go talk to a counselor, I'm just doing as much research as I can before I decide on anything. </p>
<p><em>Side note</em> I could also do my double major in English w/ concentration in Creative Writing and Public Relations, but I'm hesitant to do that because while I've always been interested in PR, I want options.</p>
<p>Marketing is a vitally important profession. No one has probably defined marketing to you very well and most people don’t understand. I work at a huge, global fortune 10 company. It is in an industry and does many things but marketing runs the entire company.</p>
<p>Look at Apple. Is Apple a tech company - 99% of people will say yes but the answer is yes and no. Do people by iPhones and iPads because of all the technical features of it? How many people buy it because they understand the engineering and technogical advancements vs the idea that is cool, easy to use, the thing to have now. They buy because it’s been effectively marketed to them. Apple is a marketing company built around a technological innovation. Why do some people buy a Nissan, others a Toyota and others a Hyundai when manufacturers are churning out these products at the same assembly lines? The brand was marketed to them.</p>
<p>A marketing program that doesn’t go into analytics (statistics) is useless. Old marketers may lack this new skill and find themselves being pushed overboard to make room for younger analytical marketers. There is big money and tons of jobs in marketing and analytics when you combine the two.</p>
<p>I meant to say this but forgot. Since you are school, you have access to Harvard Business Review and other scholarly articles - look up terms like data scientist or data engineer. They highlight the importance of analytics. A future job and necessary skill set that is emerging. A lot of advice is old, for jobs becoming obsolete. It’s one reason why asking kids to choose majors may be the only way to do it but it’s totally disconnected from the work that will be around and skill sets in demand when you need them most which 20 years after college graduation.</p>
<p>The kids that studied computer science when I was in college were really different. There were so few of them and computers were rare-we used typewriters and word processors. Today, they are millionaires.</p>
<p>No degree alone can get you a job. You need to open yourself up and go for it. Network effectively, get solid internships, and market your skills. No college degree is useless, and marketing is a broad and ever-changing field with many opportunities. But it takes baby steps to build your resume and land your dream job. Don’t think that just earning good grades will earn you a recruiter’s eye. </p>
<p>Talk to your professors, your academic counselor, and your career services department. Develop a plan - and then develop one or two back-up plans. Re-evaluate your plans every semester or so to make sure you’re on the right path. As you learn more about your potential career paths you will adjust your plans to get you where you want to be. </p>
<p>Develop your public speaking skills - this is your first impression to recruiters and hiring managers. Take note of your accomplishments and look for opportunities to stand out. Write and practice (out loud) an elevator speech. Get very comfortable and confident (but not arrogant) talking about yourself, your goals, and your accomplishments.</p>
<p>Really, marketing is not a bad major, the problem with it is that you are fighting against psychology majors and other liberal arts majors for the jobs that marketing has. If what you are asking is what a good backup career would be I would say to go into accounting or healthcare of some sort. Reason being is that accounting will prepare you for many fields inside of business and there will always be a need for healthcare workers.</p>
<p>I don’t think that psychology undergrad or liberal arts offer the analytics skills that are now necessary in marketing. Someone savvy could take those majors and the analytics courses but the competition is shrinking and a marketing degree that is behind in the analytics revolution will soon be out out of the running, at least for higher paying, corporate marketing jobs.</p>
<p>I was a psychology major and I haven’t seen any of my peers go into marketing. Not sure if it’s because of the competition or for other reasons - many return for higher education, others go into various teaching, HR or healthcare positions. My guess is that many of the marketing positions for entry-level, inexperienced individuals are low paying and are often more commissioned/sales oriented (under the guise of "marketing), which is unappealing to a lot of people. I perused those options a few years ago and there really wasn’t much available in my geographic area.</p>
<p>If English is really what you want to do, the key is to pick up transferrable skills. Many people end up happy in career paths they did not major in, and the more options you explore and the more experience you gain, the more adaptable you will be. And you can always make lateral moves into different positions. Not many people work for one company, or within one capacity for the duration of their lives anymore.</p>