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I'd reach out directly to all the marketing agencies in your area (and any area you'd be willing to relocate to) and let them know you exist. Look at their clients and work, and tailor your message accordingly. I'd probably avoid listing everything you do, to avoid looking like a jack of all trades. Focus on what they're mostly likely to need. And make sure you've got a portfolio.
What about Business Development type roles - if you're good with people, and putting concepts across? A lot of times they need people with random backgrounds that might be relevant for engaging. I mean BD as opposed to pure sales roles.
I tried BDR before Marketing and I despised it. I did apply for a couple of marketing sales roles but the idea of doing them filled me with dread. I do need a job but I don’t see a point in pursuing a career in sales when I’m 100% certain that’s not what I want
Yea, fair enough. I hate sales, but have done more strategic BD jobs which weren't about directly bringing in contracts (especially if you're in a larger organisation) which were quite satisfying and got you out a lot.
Another obvious one would be having a good think about what you could do as a start-up type business. Paul Graham essays are really interesting in this regard: https://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html.
I don't mean something crappy like start a tiktok account and try to get ad revenue or a grift side hustle, but something you find interesting in a niche you know a problem in which you could build on.
Just a thought.
Not sure where you are based but here are some other places to look for marketing roles.
The Marketing Meetup
Otta
Marketing Week.
The Guardian
Glassdoor
CV library
Reed
Also look for Marketing specific recruitment agencies, there are lots of them.
Extend your search on Linkedin for similar job titles.
Oh, I have extended my search past LinkedIn. I generally hate LinkedIn for jobs but nothing ventured nothing gained. I’ll check all those places out too, thank you
I've worked in Marketing for a decade.
Your best bet is to specialise in one or two aspects of Marketing, for me it's Digital Marketing and SEO with a Squared certification by Google to boot.
You have to make yourself stand out from the crowd, Marketing is highly competitive.
I’m in the same boat. I’ve applied for 100s of marketing jobs , ran into a few scams unfortunately. I finished uni in May , I’m due to graduate in September.. I can’t stand this man. Day by day another ‘unfortunately ‘ or ‘ congratulations ! You’re through to the next stage’ only for it to be a scam. So whack. Then there’s those bloody door to door companies that are full of bs too. SMH. I’m pushing literally day by day tho , I’m not going to give up. I hope you keep your head up too , you’ll get what’s yours soon. We both will. It’s just the persistence ay. But man , it’s annoying.
Just keep applying I guess. What you need is an entry level position into marketing again to strengthen your profile. You won't make much being a social media person because any nitwit can post statuses on your companies FB/IG/TikTok pages. And you won't make much in graphic design because it's a low paid industry.
If you can learn about PPC/SEO to a masterful degree, you can start dictating your wages a bit more. I saw a job going in the North for £50k the other day. It was a marketing manager but the requirements didn't seem particularly scary, although there was a lot of responsibility for you being in charge of the marketing strategy.
3 years exp can be a bit of a tricky zone in a competitive market. Not appropriate for entry level, but not a fit for the companies that want someone seasoned who can hit the ground running.
Good luck.
Industry is ass now. I'm looking to retrain. It was once a lot more niche technical and lucrative (about a decade ago...), since 2018-2020 it's oversaturated with anyone who has an Instagram page thinking they're a marketer, and companies just want TikTok/Instagram traffic and a hybrid of marketing-content creation, and disproportionately more content creation at that, as opposed to a strong strategy/strategy development anymore. That's been happening the past decade and now with huge layoffs and tons of grads than jobs in the industry and a lowkey recession, the industry is gonna suffer for the next few years I feel. Even those who do have jobs are getting massive paycuts when trying to change roles etc or becoming more senior for half the salary they would have gotten a decade ago when the skills were more in demand.
I want to get into marketing after completing a course this year - just an entry role to step my foot in but it’s so hard. Had only 2 interviews since April and no luck. So I feel you :(
You wanna get in? I wanna get out lol. Marketing has become far too linked with sales these days. People think marketing = sells things. And if sales are low they seem to blame marketing over the actual sales guys, even if you are producing leads on a regular basis.
Fair enough.
in the course I just did I discovered how much I love creating content for brands and how interesting it is to create branding, enhance the brand’s visibility, etc. Maybe I should lean into graphic design but I don’t know how to use all the fancy programs.
I feel like there is a clear progress path in the marketing and I have been trying to figure out what I want to do and it gave me hope to see how much I enjoyed the course haha. We’ll see how this goes… I haven’t gotten far with applications so far 😅
>It's an evil industry anyway.
100%. Been in marketing a decade now and it's morally reprehensible the stuff that goes on. So much lies just to get a product to be sold across pretty much all sectors.
I'm sure you have transferable skills.
If not, go work in a bar or McDonald's something for a bit.
Or start some kind of monetised brainrot tiktok account, your marketing experience should give you a leg up there.
https://youtu.be/tHEOGrkhDp0?si=moXGJz56GEV6NEdm
Remove all the irrelevant experience and qualifications beyond A levels - employers get thrown by the 1st class degree and assume anyone getting such a classification should be aiming higher and hence pass you over.
I feel you, I have similar experiences (1st in psychology, 2 years working in digital content) and I've been trying to find a job in the UK. If that's not difficult enough, I'm an immigrant and looking from overseas (I haven't left my current job yet, that's why I'm not in UK at the moment). Literally sent hundreds of applications and didn't even get 1 interview. I went from selecting jobs I'm interested in to applying to almost every generic job. I will go to the UK soon and maybe that helps, but I really don't know what else to do other than "keep trying" :(
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I work in marketing. What kind of experience do you have?
Social Media mainly but also digital, email, and graphics design through Canva. Also a lot of experience with content writing
I'd reach out directly to all the marketing agencies in your area (and any area you'd be willing to relocate to) and let them know you exist. Look at their clients and work, and tailor your message accordingly. I'd probably avoid listing everything you do, to avoid looking like a jack of all trades. Focus on what they're mostly likely to need. And make sure you've got a portfolio.
What about Business Development type roles - if you're good with people, and putting concepts across? A lot of times they need people with random backgrounds that might be relevant for engaging. I mean BD as opposed to pure sales roles.
I tried BDR before Marketing and I despised it. I did apply for a couple of marketing sales roles but the idea of doing them filled me with dread. I do need a job but I don’t see a point in pursuing a career in sales when I’m 100% certain that’s not what I want
Yea, fair enough. I hate sales, but have done more strategic BD jobs which weren't about directly bringing in contracts (especially if you're in a larger organisation) which were quite satisfying and got you out a lot. Another obvious one would be having a good think about what you could do as a start-up type business. Paul Graham essays are really interesting in this regard: https://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html. I don't mean something crappy like start a tiktok account and try to get ad revenue or a grift side hustle, but something you find interesting in a niche you know a problem in which you could build on. Just a thought.
Not sure where you are based but here are some other places to look for marketing roles. The Marketing Meetup Otta Marketing Week. The Guardian Glassdoor CV library Reed Also look for Marketing specific recruitment agencies, there are lots of them. Extend your search on Linkedin for similar job titles.
Oh, I have extended my search past LinkedIn. I generally hate LinkedIn for jobs but nothing ventured nothing gained. I’ll check all those places out too, thank you
I've worked in Marketing for a decade. Your best bet is to specialise in one or two aspects of Marketing, for me it's Digital Marketing and SEO with a Squared certification by Google to boot. You have to make yourself stand out from the crowd, Marketing is highly competitive.
Yeah, I’m a digital marketing person. I’ll have to get the certification to make it even stronger then. Thank you
I’m in the same boat. I’ve applied for 100s of marketing jobs , ran into a few scams unfortunately. I finished uni in May , I’m due to graduate in September.. I can’t stand this man. Day by day another ‘unfortunately ‘ or ‘ congratulations ! You’re through to the next stage’ only for it to be a scam. So whack. Then there’s those bloody door to door companies that are full of bs too. SMH. I’m pushing literally day by day tho , I’m not going to give up. I hope you keep your head up too , you’ll get what’s yours soon. We both will. It’s just the persistence ay. But man , it’s annoying.
Just keep applying I guess. What you need is an entry level position into marketing again to strengthen your profile. You won't make much being a social media person because any nitwit can post statuses on your companies FB/IG/TikTok pages. And you won't make much in graphic design because it's a low paid industry. If you can learn about PPC/SEO to a masterful degree, you can start dictating your wages a bit more. I saw a job going in the North for £50k the other day. It was a marketing manager but the requirements didn't seem particularly scary, although there was a lot of responsibility for you being in charge of the marketing strategy.
What alternatives are there to transition?
3 years exp can be a bit of a tricky zone in a competitive market. Not appropriate for entry level, but not a fit for the companies that want someone seasoned who can hit the ground running. Good luck.
Industry is ass now. I'm looking to retrain. It was once a lot more niche technical and lucrative (about a decade ago...), since 2018-2020 it's oversaturated with anyone who has an Instagram page thinking they're a marketer, and companies just want TikTok/Instagram traffic and a hybrid of marketing-content creation, and disproportionately more content creation at that, as opposed to a strong strategy/strategy development anymore. That's been happening the past decade and now with huge layoffs and tons of grads than jobs in the industry and a lowkey recession, the industry is gonna suffer for the next few years I feel. Even those who do have jobs are getting massive paycuts when trying to change roles etc or becoming more senior for half the salary they would have gotten a decade ago when the skills were more in demand.
I want to get into marketing after completing a course this year - just an entry role to step my foot in but it’s so hard. Had only 2 interviews since April and no luck. So I feel you :(
Trying to get that entry job is so difficult. I only got this job through family
You wanna get in? I wanna get out lol. Marketing has become far too linked with sales these days. People think marketing = sells things. And if sales are low they seem to blame marketing over the actual sales guys, even if you are producing leads on a regular basis.
Fair enough. in the course I just did I discovered how much I love creating content for brands and how interesting it is to create branding, enhance the brand’s visibility, etc. Maybe I should lean into graphic design but I don’t know how to use all the fancy programs. I feel like there is a clear progress path in the marketing and I have been trying to figure out what I want to do and it gave me hope to see how much I enjoyed the course haha. We’ll see how this goes… I haven’t gotten far with applications so far 😅
Get a job that's not in marketing? It's an evil industry anyway.
>It's an evil industry anyway. 100%. Been in marketing a decade now and it's morally reprehensible the stuff that goes on. So much lies just to get a product to be sold across pretty much all sectors.
How do I do that when my only skill set is in marketing and every other industry requires you to have 3+ years of experience just for £25,000 salary?
I'm sure you have transferable skills. If not, go work in a bar or McDonald's something for a bit. Or start some kind of monetised brainrot tiktok account, your marketing experience should give you a leg up there. https://youtu.be/tHEOGrkhDp0?si=moXGJz56GEV6NEdm
Lmao, I tried to bar and McDonald’s route. Immediate rejection as I’m “overqualified”
Remove all the irrelevant experience and qualifications beyond A levels - employers get thrown by the 1st class degree and assume anyone getting such a classification should be aiming higher and hence pass you over.
Change your CV so you don't seem overqualified. Apply for some shitty office jobs, recruiter, admin, AP, customer service.
I feel you, I have similar experiences (1st in psychology, 2 years working in digital content) and I've been trying to find a job in the UK. If that's not difficult enough, I'm an immigrant and looking from overseas (I haven't left my current job yet, that's why I'm not in UK at the moment). Literally sent hundreds of applications and didn't even get 1 interview. I went from selecting jobs I'm interested in to applying to almost every generic job. I will go to the UK soon and maybe that helps, but I really don't know what else to do other than "keep trying" :(