Are you a digital marketer looking for a career change? If yes, you’re in luck. There are many great career options available to you.
In this article, I discuss seven practical steps you can take to help you successfully transition from a digital marketing career.
The steps are:
- Research alternate careers for an actuary and select one
- Speak to other professionals with a similar background
- Acquire foundational knowledge and get qualified
- Identify and package your transferrable skills
- Evaluate and reframe your work experience
- Acquire new work experience
- Update your professional assets
- Research Alternate Careers for A Digital Marketer and Select One.
If you’ve decided that you want to change careers, the first thing you need to do is look for other career opportunities that you may be interested in.
But before looking at other career options, it’s essential to ask yourself what it is you would really like to do. A helpful way to answer this question is by asking yourself why you want to leave digital marketing.
Are you feeling burnt out? Do you hate having to hit targets constantly? Your answer will help you figure out what you’re looking for in a new career.
Highlighting your interests wants, and needs will help you narrow your list when researching other career paths. You can even take a career quiz or personality test to help narrow your options.
I did a little internet search and came up with a list of common jobs for former digital marketers. Here are some of them;
- Recruitment: People, relationship building and project management are at the core of recruitment, meaning the knowledge and networks most marketers already have makes it a great career choice.
- Campaign Management: These professionals are responsible for supervising the execution of marketing campaigns to ensure their success.
- Copywriting: Copywriters use text to advertise the products or services of an organization.
- Consultant: Consultants use their experience to provide expert opinions, strategies, analysis, and recommendations to organizations or individuals.
- Social Media Manager: Social media managers are in charge of a company’s social media marketing and advertising. Many social media managers already utilize digital marketing when planning and executing campaigns, meaning this is yet another role an experienced digital marketer can thrive in.
- Marketing Analyst: These researchers use market data to help businesses make informed decisions about the market
- Brand Strategist: They analyze market trends data and help develop marketing plans and enhance a brand’s message.
- Speak to Other Professionals With Similar Backgrounds.
When changing careers, it’s crucial to take advantage of any networking opportunities available to you. Speaking to other professionals with a similar background to yours is a great way to network.
Learning about how other professionals in the industry you’re hoping to work in were able to get in will help you to know what the proper steps to take are.
Finding other previous marketers who have successfully transitioned to entirely new careers will also be very helpful.
Finding these professionals may not be easy for everybody, but here are some good places to start;
- Facebook groups: You can use Facebooks search function to find groups of people in your industry. Once you’ve joined one of the groups, begin participating by asking questions. Group members are usually willing to share advice.
- LinkedIn: Millions of professionals use LinkedIn and just like Facebook the platform has a search option that makes it easier to find said professionals effortlessly. You can search according to job titles, positions, industries and even particular companies. Once you’ve found a professional with a similar background to yours you can try connecting with them and politely sending them a message explaining your intentions.
- Forums: Many professional communities on forums like Quora and Reddit are filled with people willing to answer any questions you may have. Try posting a question and reaching out to anyone that replies.
- Build Foundational Knowledge and Get Qualified
Building foundational knowledge on the skills and traits you’ll need to be successful in your new career should be the next step in your action plan. For example, working as a campaign manager requires a lot of research and trend analysis.
A person interested in pursuing that career should ask themselves if they are any good at either of those things and if they’re not, they need to learn these skills fast.
How does this apply to you and a career change?
The odds that you’ll find a new career with requirements and experiences that match those you’re bringing from marketing is low. This is where building your foundational knowledge and getting qualified comes in.
This may be through acquiring more work experience in that particular field, enrolling for classes or by taking professional certification courses.
Building your foundational knowledge on the field, you hope to get into and aligning your skills, experience and qualification with what is required will bring you up to date for your new career.
- Identify and Package your Transferrable Skills
My next tip for you is to take a moment to identify the transferrable skills you have and can quickly bring with you to a new career.
These transferrable skills will show you as a fully rounded individual who will add value to an organization apart from just carrying out your job description.
Your talents and skills can efficiently act as selling points for other careers and can easily increase your value to potential employers as well.
Let’s look at easily transferrable skills that marketers of all kind can use in other professions.
- Communication skills: Marketers use verbal instructions and persuasiveness to network. Communication is a core skill that is needed in every industry and will give you a good foundation for your new career.
- Problem-Solving Skills: A big part of marketing also involves handling the complaints and queries that customers may have in line with products, quality, or even delivery. Problem-solving is a skill that can be transferred to any other profession.
- Negotiation Skills: Marketers always use their negotiation skills to close deals. An example of another profession that will value this skill is real estate.
- Teamwork, creativity, innovation, relationship building, thinking on your feet, and interpersonal skills are also transferrable skills that can be utilized in a lot of other professions.
- Evaluate and Reframe Your Work Experience
Evaluating and reframing your work experience is the next step in transitioning out of your marketing career.
Evaluating your work experience makes it easier to reframe your experience to present yourself as the perfect candidate for a job.
Try asking yourself what particular technical and interpersonal skills you have developed through your job. Will these skills benefit you in the new position you’re looking for?
However, even if you feel your work experience doesn’t really relate to the new role you’re looking towards, you can easily reframe you work experience to help justify and amplify your skills to make you look like a good fit for the position.
For example, if an employer is looking for a real estate agent, you may never have worked as one, but as a marketer, you will have had experience negotiating with people in order to close deals. You can point out how your experience is similar to that of a real estate agent and show how valuable this experience will be for the role.
- Acquire New Work Experience.
In tip 3, I talked about building on your foundational knowledge and how it is indispensable when transitioning to a new career.
A great way to build on your foundational knowledge is by acquiring new work experience in the new field you hope to work in.
After reframing, your work experience can only do so much without having any relevant work experience to reframe.
Some ways to acquire new work experience include;
- Volunteering: You can ask for permission to shadow professionals and help with any minor tasks they may have. You can build your network, pad up your resume, and shadowing a professional in your chosen field will give you an inside look into the industry.
- Working on other company projects: For example, if you’re hoping to transition to a human resource role, you can volunteer to assist in projects the HR department of your organization may have. This will help you develop your skills and may even open an opportunity for you in the company you already work at.
- Work on side projects: Working on side projects can help you pad up your work portfolio. You can even try attending local networking events, professional conferences, job fairs or community events.
- Update Your Professional Brand Assets.
Personal branding is about marketing yourself and attracting recruiters and more job opportunities for you.
Some good places to start are;
- Your CV: Using a functional CV that lists your relevant skills can really help you stand out among competitors because your CV is an effective way to show employers how you will be a great asset for the position you’re applying for.
- LinkedIn: It is vital to match the information on your CV to your LinkedIn profile. When updating your CV with any new work experience or certifications you may have gotten, do not forget to update the same information to your LinkedIn profile. Most employers will check!
- Your Personal Websites: A personal website will give you a competitive advantage. It will allow you to show others what you’re good at, not just inform them about it. Think of it like a portfolio where you can showcase samples of your work, your creativity, experience and skills.
- Bonus Tip: Take Action.
Now that you’ve drafted out an amazing action plan and gotten the planning part out of the way, the only thing left for you to do is to actually start putting in the action in action plan.
Put your plan into motion, but also be patient with yourself. It’s important to know that no shortcuts exist, take small steps even if imperfect.
And although talking to other professionals with similar backgrounds may yield a lot of help and advice, remember that your journey is unique to you and does not need to go exactly like it went for other people.
Changing careers can be difficult, but with the right tools and attitude, you can make it happen! The eight tips in this article are tested and proven when making the action plan you’ll need to make this career change successful.
Research what careers best fit your experience, skills, personal needs and wants. Network with professionals who have a similar background with you, build on your foundational knowledge by acquiring more work experience, skills and qualifications you’ll need for your new role.
Update your professional brand assets to align with the new career you’ve decided to pursue and market yourself as a perfect candidate for roles in your new career path.
There are many opportunities out there open to people with backgrounds in marketing, the key is finding these opportunities and equipping yourself with all the experience, skills and qualifications that are sure to make you a perfect “shoe in” for the role