The future looks bright for young marketers

Fledgling marketers can kick-start their careers with a new hands-on insider initiative, reports Josh Jennings.

Advancement for those starting out in marketing generally stems from academic and on-the-job experience. The Victorian branch of the Australian Marketing Institute has created the Bright Sparks program to provide new ways to pursue professional education, feedback and development. Whether the objective is to get started in a career, make a transition, stand out in the graduate recruitment process or navigate the hidden job market, Bright Sparks aims to prepare people for the commercial world.

Bright Sparks runs events and industry nights designed to equip participants with the tools required for a marketing career. For example, former AFL great Paul Salmon will speak at a "How to Get That Job" event on August 29, discussing the hidden tricks of career progression in marketing.
 
"The events we've had have usually had speakers from companies that are quite familiar to them," says institute executive Lin Windram. "It's usually speakers from companies where the students know the product and they are able to identify with it."

The networking opportunities Bright Sparks offers are more important for participants' professional development than many of them realise, Ms Windram says.

Members include undergraduates and marketing professionals and there is plenty of scope to become involved with the various program committees.

Committee members receive feedback for their contributions, and the more involved they become, the more rewards there are to reap, she says "People putting on events might not have done that before. They might have had involvement at university, but they might not have had any responsibility for budgets and things like that. They're finding out a lot of things that university can't teach them - such as event management. They learn about putting a function together. Each person they meet within Bright Sparks brings with them a different area of expertise and experience, and they listen and grow from that."

Whether their interest is in brand management, strategic planning or advertising production, members become involved in Bright Sparks for a variety of reasons. They include gaining experience, sharing experiences with peers and broadening their career prospects. Ms Windram says members particularly value the opportunities to develop relationships with senior marketers.

"Talking to these people and getting out there really opens up their eyes. And it's different from what university is telling them because they're getting exposure to what happens in the real world," she says.

Networking opportunities are also made available through the program's mentoring scheme.

The program seeks to educate emerging marketers about opportunities in the industry and provide them with a support system to make early decisions about their professional development.

"The mentors are from various industries and various different types of marketing," says Ms Windram. "And each of the mentees are either towards the end of their marketing degree or they are new to marketing careers."

The Bright Sparks membership is an asset to any emerging marketer's resume, says Ms Windram. "Most professions have an association, and joining an association as an emerging marketer indicates a commitment to the profession. And marketing needs that," she says.

"The AMI is considered the voice of marketing and we need to be there because marketing is greatly misunderstood.

"And for students and emerging marketers to belong to that profession and to be receiving the information that senior professional marketers are receiving can only be beneficial for them," she says.

"I believe that employers seeing this type of commitment on the resume would value that student or emerging marketer as somebody who's very serious about the profession, and understand that marketing is a profession and not just about promotions and telemarketing and all the other things that people think marketing is. It's about being connected to the profession."

Published: 19 August 2006