Job Opportunities Abound with a Marketing MBA

An MBA (Master of Business Administration) is considered by many to be one the most valuable and prestigious degrees. When a person gets an MBA, he is generally looking to further his career in a current job-or get a better job. The career opportunities that result from obtaining a marketing MBA are seemingly endless.

Mandee Adler, founder of International College Counselors has a Harvard MBA. She makes the general, personal observation that more women look for marketing jobs, versus the primarily male-dominated finance jobs. Adler says that, in general, marketing positions do not pay as well as finance and consulting for MBAs who are right out of school.

Kofi Kankam, co-founder and director of Admit Advantage, holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard and an MBA from Wharton. He has shared the following insight with me on some of the job opportunities that are available to a person with a marketing MBA. He also gives food for thought for those considering a marketing focus in an MBA program.

Potential Opportunities for those who have earned a marketing MBA:

New product development: Lead the roll-out of a new product with start-up or established companies.

Brand manager: This common marketing job focuses on managing the profit and loss of a brand such as Oil of Olay soap at Procter and Gamble. This position includes focusing on marketing strategy, brand profitability, and brand-spend. Kankam says that most MBAs usually go into a junior role before taking a real brand-management role. This is the traditional business-to-consumer marketing role that comes to mind for many people when they think of marketing-for example, they relate to consumer product companies like Proctor and Gamble and Unilever.

New marketing opportunities: This focus involves interactive media and managing the social media aspects of companies. There are lots of new opportunities in this space to take advantage of in social media. There are openings with both established companies and smaller, start-up companies. This will increasingly be a larger and larger part of the marketing world, according to Kankam.

Sports and entertainment marketing: This opportunity is centered on the marketing of potential teams, leagues, and artists who will be packaged as a particular product and associated with specific positive characteristics. The four major sports' leagues, representative teams, and music industry labels have long been a hallowed ground for marketing majors at business schools.

Adjacent marketing roles

Sales/originations: This involves the sale of products to customers, and that is the basis of the marketing major in business school.

Public relations: This position utilizes a significant amount of the marketing skill set, including customer outreach, customer service, market segmentation, and customer awareness.

Advertising: This is one of the four "P's" in marketing-promotion.

Think about the following when considering a marketing focus in an MBA program:

Kankam says that all rankings are not created equal. The large marketing companies know where to recruit for marketing MBAs. The top 15 programs don't always have great MBA programs. For instance, large consumer products' companies certainly go to schools like Kellogg and Wharton to recruit for marketing, but also may go to Goizueta (Emory) or Kelly (Indiana) over some higher-ranked business schools, given the formers' strong focus in marketing.

He advises starting with the end in mind. If a candidate knows she wants to work in a certain area, she should spend as much time as she can with school alumni to get a feel for the job. Informational interviews can be a good way to achieve in-roads with an organization. Start early.

Interview Sources, August, 2010:

Kofi Kankam, Co-Founder and Director, Admit Advantage
Mandee Adler, Founder and Principal, International College Counselors