Consumer Behavior CAREERS.docVIP

Careers in Marketing So you have to get real! Whether you are an undergraduate with no idea of what type of job you want or an older nontraditional student well established in an exciting job, career planning is critical to your current and future satisfaction. Just think, not only does your career provide you with that very important benefit, an income, but you will spend eight (or more) hours a day, five days a week, fifty weeks a year (about 40 percent of your waking hours), for forty or more years working in that career. Yet many people spend more time planning a weekend ski trip than they do their careers. And many undergraduate college students dont even consider a career until that last semester when they realize that their college career (and the free ride at Mom and dads expense) is about to end. In this appendix, we will look at a career from a marketing perspective: that is, we will consider how you can use the marketing planning process to sell yourself to prospective employers. And whether you are a marketing major, an accounting major, an interior design major, or a theater major, it is never too early to start getting yourself to market. By suggesting that you use the marketing planning process for career planning, we mean that you can follow the same steps you would consider in marketing a box of laundry detergent or a new sports car. You begin by assessing your strengths and weaknesses, then you develop career objectives and strategies, and finally, you carefully implement those strategiesand keep your fingers crossed! Assess Yourself What does it mean to assess yourself? Well, think about how a marketer assesses a product situation. Marketers identify the strengths and weaknesses of the product and the firm. You should do the same. In a disciplined, systematic way, consider what your strengths and weaknesses are. You might want to ask (and answer) questions such as the following: 1. What are my greatest strengths? (Am I thorough, organized, a goo