Overview: this career map report describes what my targeted career will be, what requirements are needed for this job position, the skills and gaps I currently have, and how to develop them.
Career Target:
My targeted goal is to become a Marketing Manager within the next five years. My preferred industry is banking, but I am comfortable working in any other industry where I will get a job. The position of a marketing manager requires one to have the right skills that can be beneficial in aligning the company’s mission objectives to realize goals pertaining to marketability and profitability.
The primary benefit of targeting the position of a marketing manager is that I enjoy managing people, and I love to be in control and giving strategic directions and guidance to work groups. Besides, the position of a marketing manager comes with generous benefits including a higher salary and allowances. All these have rekindled a desire in me to become a marketing manager as soon as possible. Ever since I was young, I have had the desire to venture into my own business and therefore being a marketing manager will be an excellent stepping-stone into becoming a business manager.
Description of Requirements for a Marketing Manager
Job Duties and Responsibilities
Accomplish all marketing objectives as outlined in the organization mission and performance contract by recruiting, training and assigning the sales team. The marketing manager is also responsible for appraising the marketing team to ensure high levels of performance.
Achieve specified marketing and sales targets by contributing necessary marketing and sales information and making recommendations regarding implementation of strategic marketing plans and reviews.
Identify potential marketing opportunities by constantly reviewing customer needs, analyzing competitor moves and exploring new market opportunities. This may involve developing working plan for exploring new markets in specified geographic regions.
Collaborate with the sourcing and sales departments to develop strategic partnerships and to help in implementing a robust framework for executing strategic plans for capitalizing on identified opportunities.
Develop and lead a dedicated marketing team that will develop and implement new business concepts, marketing channels, business models, and strategic partners to develop the company as a market leader in innovative processes.
Take calculated marketing and business risks based on market performance and data-driven analytics.
Drive the overall customer relationship management process based on direct marketing philosophy.
Lead appropriate areas of concept and generation across different media platforms.
Enrich and nurture the external perception of the company and grow its market share. This will be achieved designing creative print adverts and publications, collecting and analyzing customer insights and ensuring that brand messages are consistent and timely.
Job Qualifications and Skills:
Marketing managers are drawn from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds including communication, marketing, business and other related fields. Most companies require that marketing managers have a minimum of a Master’s degree in a relevant field. It is, however, common for some companies to hire individual with a bachelor’s degree combined with notable progress in professional qualifications. A proven track record is significantly more important than formal academic education. As such, most marketing managers have at least seven years in sales and marketing before achieving their current positions. I have already completed two years of experience gained in a busy marketing environment.
Marketing managers are also required to have good communication and interpersonal skills. They should be good in negotiating and making presentations to a variety of audiences including senior business executives.
The last major skill is the ability to gather information, conduct market research and make quick decisions.
Analytic skills and ability to identify and forecast trends in business performance and market moves.
Familiarity with latest technologies, processes, trends and methodologies in business research, graphic design and production among others.
Current Skill Inventory:
I am pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing. I have taken various course units at Oregon State University. These include introduction to financial and managerial accounting, entrepreneurship, business laws, calculus for management, micro and macroeconomics, and marketing classes. During the period of studying at the college, I have attained good academic standing without any form of academic dishonesty (Shawn & Rebecca, 23-24).
I have strong leadership skills and have succeeded in a number of leadership experiences. For instance, I was the leader of the BA 390 Group Project during which I led the team in making a marketing plan. We also created a new brand and sold sausages at Oregon. Based on every member’s schedule, I arranged meetings, allocated tasks for each member, helped members who had difficulties, and resolved conflicts. At the end of the term, our group was recognized as one of the top ten outstanding groups in the class.
I have good time management skills. I studied an introductory course in the Japanese language while I was taking 20 credits class on campus at the same time. I had got to manage my time to study, and I finished these courses with good grades.
I have a good communication and interpersonal skills. I was a volunteer to help Chinese students, especially new comers, at Oregon State University by introducing U.S culture and campus life, explaining what courses they need to take in order to graduate from university successfully (Hooley, 18).
Excellent research skills and a good command of written and oral communication skills. I am capable of designing and implementing key event programs for my schedules. I have also developed the ability to keep several projects moving simultaneously while ensuring that all parameters are met as required.
Gaps Summary:
Since I intend to live and work in China when I finish college, my career gaps can be categorized into three parts: lack of work experience; lack of a strong social network; and lack of organizational know-how in matters related to marketing.
I intend to enhance my organizational know-how and knowledge base by volunteering to lead various projects and become a critical contributor in various departmental initiatives during the year. I will work closely with supervisors to identify appropriate opportunities for serving as a project team member during each year. This will give me the necessary exposure to become adept in managerial functions in accordance with my plans to become a Marketing Manager (Kostelnick, 34).
I will also leverage on experience and knowledge gained from my part-time jobs and internships to develop a critical learning approach as I look forward to assuming challenging leadership positions in my career.
Development Plan:
Where are you heading?
I intend to gain enough experience and knowledge to work for companies as a senior marketing manager. My long-term goal is to rise into the position of a Chief Executive Officer one day. Thereafter, I will start my own business and grow it into a reputable company.
What do you need to get there?
To make my dream come true, I need to develop competencies in areas of critical thinking, oral and written expressions, critical judgment, as well as making decisions. Besides these basics, being an effective leader requires the ability to foresee situations, take proactive control of situations and motivate followers.
What do you already have?
I have developed close working relationships with some professionals in various industries. I have also cultivated strong friendships with my college mates Oregon State University, and I work hard in my studies. In addition, I have developed good leadership skills since my I have led many group projects successfully. During most of these projects, I was responsible for coordinating meetings, and I helped members to solve problems. I believe that by the time I complete my studies, I will have gained enough exposure in the areas of business communication, leadership and financial management.
What do you need to develop?
Although I have made good progress in my academic and professional endeavors, there are still a lot of skills and extensive knowledge required for the position. First, I need to improve my writing skills especially for English as my second language because it takes time to develop good and professional writing skills. I was born and raised in China and did not get an opportunity to learn English language until after high school. Although learning English has proved difficult, I believe I will eventually master the language. Second, as a marketer I should be more creative in developing product ideas and have insight into business activities happening around us. Third, I need to develop the ability to negotiate because this is an important skill for marketers and it will determine business success (Kostelnick, 52).
I also need to build up my social networks with as many people as possible. As we all know, China is an enormous country and social norms are chiefly based on Confucianism; hence, compared with any other people in the world, the people of China pay more attention to social networks. Social networking can be advantageous in two main ways. The primary thing is taking advantage of it to help me get involved in career growth. The second thing is to get some professional recommendations from workplace, as not everyone is willing to share these tips. Therefore, utilizing social network could help me step forward faster (Hooley, 54).
Another thing that strikes me most is work experience. Work experience is important in my career. So far, I have not attained any work experience but am optimistic that in with time, I will gain some. My friend encountered difficulties securing a job because he lacked work experience. I believe that volunteering and participating in internships and pre-work training can help me gain some experience as I set out to start my career (Brandenburg, 597).
The last thing I need to do is to learn to use technologies and computer programs. During my period of stay in the United States, I have gained valuable skills in using a number of professional software, which I believe will be vital for my future career success. The only thing I can do now is to do more practice and simulations, and ask for help from professors if it is needed. The next step I need to take is gaining some useful information from other students so that I can be an expert in using these programs. I also need to pursue more professional courses such as financial management and leadership training so as to become more conversant with emerging issues in my career. If possible, I will enroll for a Masters program here in the United States before I relocate to China. Better still, I can enroll for a Masters degree in one of the prestigious universities in China. I believe that my country has made big strides in revamping the higher education sector, making it competitive according to global standards. I will also seek to complete several professional courses in not only marketing but also management, information technology and leadership. These courses will enhance my ability to work as a competent marketing manager.
Works Cited
Brandenburg Carly. The Newest way to Screen Job Applicants: A Social Networker’s Nightmare. Federal Communications Law Journal, 60, 597-614.
Hooley Tristram. How the internet changed career: framing the relationship between career development and online technologies. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling (NICEC) 29: 3.
Kostelnick Charles. Designing Visual Language. New York, NY: Longman, 2004.
Shawn A. Smith & Rebecca A. Mazin. Training and Development. The HR Answer Book. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2004.
