Marketing

Marketing involves identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably. Marketing creates the conditions for the sale to take place. Activities carried out by marketing teams include:

  • Carrying out research to understand the needs of the customer and/or competitors.
  • Developing and maintaining the brand for a product/service.
  • Creating the vision for promotional campaigns to raise awareness of goods and services.
  • Devising marketing strategies.
  • Social media and digital marketing.
  • Planning distribution strategies.

Explore job roles

Marketing roles tend to be based either in dedicated marketing or communications agencies or in the marketing departments of large or medium-sized organisations. As marketing is considered a core business function, many small organisations will employ someone in a dedicated marketing role.

Many graduate roles advertised as a mixture of marketing and sales are in fact sales focused. If you are looking for a marketing focused role, is it important to analyse job specifications carefully and ask questions at interviews to ensure the job will help you gain skills and grow experience in the area you are interested in.

Use the job profiles below to find out about, skills, entry routes and experience

Building skills and experience

Marketing is a competitive field, so it is usually necessary to gain relevant work experience.

Gain relevant skills and experience while you study

Use the job profiles above to check which skills are normally needed for the roles you are interested in.

Use our transferable skills pages to explore ways to gain the top skills employers are looking for

  • Look for placements advertised on CareerConnect or make targeted speculative applications to local marketing agencies.
  • Volunteer for a local charity to help with their marketing and communication needs for example managing their social media, writing newsletters or marketing their events.
  • Part time jobs like Student Brand Ambassador (commonly advertised on CareerConnect at the start of the academic year) give you the opportunity to run campaigns on campus.
  • Planning, organising and promoting events for a student society will develop transferable skills required in marketing job roles and give you examples to use in future applications.
  • Network to build contacts and to learn about the industry. LinkedIn can be a great tool to help with this.
  • Build your brand on social media and develop your skills using different platforms. You can include links to your social media platforms on your CV to provide evidence of your abilities.
  • Joining a professional association such as The Institute of Data and Marketing can be impressive to an employer and these often have insider news and job vacancies, as well as providing networking opportunities.

Finding and applying for jobs

The majority of positions will be advertised as immediate start vacancies and can occur at any time of year. Check jobs page on websites of companies that interest you as well as job boards. Some large companies offer graduate schemes in marketing, often with closing dates in October to December. Marketing related roles are often offered as part of Manchester Graduate Talent (MGT).

Find vacancies

Further resources

Next steps

When planning your next steps you may have additional questions or want to explore certain aspects in more detail: