College is an important time to start thinking about your passion and aspirations, but it can be overwhelming to think about working in a field you may not have much experience in. Reaching out to experts who work in your desired field can be a great way to gain insight and advice on your career. This month, I reached out to my marketing professor, Professor Matthew Glennon (He/Him), to ask for his advice on obtaining a fulfilling and successful marketing career. I am incredibly grateful for Professor Glennon’s willingness to provide me with guidance on working in this field. Here’s what he had to say:
1. Can you give me a brief overview of your experience working in marketing, and how you got started in this field?
Back when I graduated from college, I thought I was going to go on to become an attorney; I wanted to go to law school. I moved to Washington D.C., started working at Capitol Hill and I had plans to go to law school. But I decided after a couple of years that going to law school wasn’t really for me and I thought I wanted to be in a position where I could work with customers and solve problems. I liked really spending time helping people accomplish things. So I got a job with Castrol — which, at the time, was one of the top three brands in the world, not so much in the US, but globally. I started off in a sales position in my twenties. I ended up having a lot of success financially and then I got promoted to a product manager in the marketing department. Working for one of the most valuable brands in the world was almost like a crash course in marketing because I really got a chance to learn “this is how you do it.” I actually loved my job at Castrol. I loved the role of product manager, it’s such a great job. You get a chance to work with lots of folks in the organization and you get a little work with salespeople and external customers. It was a wonderful job, and that was sort of my intro to the marketing field.
2. What do you consider to be the most important skills and qualities for success in a marketing career?
I think what stands out to me is you need to listen to other people and then sort of take that information and creatively try to meet the objectives of the company. You should have high standards, and keep those standards high. Whether it’s putting something on social media or its some content that you’re developing, or whether it’s how you price a product, you always want to be sort of aligned with the company’s mission and vision. For me at least, it starts with being a really good listener and then being able to work with others and try to reach that creative vision.
3. How do you stay up-to-date with the latest marketing trends and technologies?
One of the ways that I do this is I am actively a marketing consultant. Part of it is marketing, some of it is sales, and some of it is management consulting. But I’m still actively working in the workforce during the summer and during breaks. I’m constantly getting exposure to brands, new ways of promoting, and different technologies. There are so many different ways to reach customers now, even if you look back five years ago and try to see how companies through omnichannel marketing are reaching customers. So for me, I would have a hard time personally staying up to date if I wasn’t working in the field so much. Also, I am always looking online and trying to take in what’s new. Yesterday on my train ride home I wrote an article for Wallet Hub and it got published this morning. I am always just trying to stay connected. For me, it’s like a mixture of writing, a little research, and also industry work.
4. Do you have any advice on creating a strong marketing resume that will stand out to potential employers?
One of the things that I’ve been committed to since I joined Isenberg was that before I took this position, I learned a lot about resume writing on my own. I actually loved working for Castrol, and I thought I would be there forever; it was a great company. But we got bought by British Petroleum and BP had different ideas for the company. They were a very smart company, but they didn’t align with what I wanted to do, so I had to leave. And all of a sudden I saw myself having to write a resume and I spent a lot of time reading and researching. I didn’t want to pay someone else to do it, I wanted to learn how to do it. So I took what I learned and that method and I actually spent a lot of time with students advising them, saying, “Hey, here’s a different way to look at a resume.” A resume to me is a marketing document — you’re marketing yourself. So it’s got to look good, it’s got to position properly, and it’s got to catch a reader’s attention. I actually personally spent a lot of time consulting students, and I think it’s still a tremendously important document even in the era of everything being online now.
5. Do you have any advice on creating a strong marketing portfolio that will stand out to potential employers?
Part of my approach to consulting with students is that I believe every student should have a portfolio of their work that they’ve done. I encourage students to take pictures of work they’ve done, take pictures of themselves, and internships if they’ve got a project that they’ve done that they want to point attention to, especially if it’s creative. So I am a big believer in having a portfolio. I do think it’s maybe a little more important if you’re going to go into that creative, advertising side, you should definitely have something to show someone. Even if you don’t, I am still a believer that a picture is worth a thousand words. If you can take a couple and have a link in your resume to an online portfolio, it’s a wonderful way to promote yourself.
6. What are some of the most important ethical considerations for marketers concerned about green business practices, and what do you think marketers can do to act in a more ethical and responsible manner in work?
I mean certainly, I try to bring a lot of that content to my Marketing 301 course I teach, and that’s one thing I’m a big believer in: showing examples of how business and sustainability can support each other, and they don’t have to be at odds. One of the things I always point to is I’m a big believer in mission statements and making sure that your mission statement includes some component of green business practices or sustainability or however you want to capture that. It’s the marketer’s job to make sure that how you produce the products, whether it’s waste, whether it’s how employees are treated that make your product at your company, and at companies that supply you, it really needs to run throughout the organization. For me, the marketer’s biggest challenge is to make sure they get the support of upper management and that messaging is consistent. Like with a visionary organization, it doesn’t just end up in an echo chamber in the marketing department.
7. How have you tackled the conflict of balancing staying consistent with a brand’s established identity while also adapting to marketing trends and consumer preferences?
One of the tools that I teach in my Marketing 301 course that I always tell students I think is the most practical tool that there is, and I still use it all the time, are perceptual maps. You have to ask yourself as a company, “Where do we wanna win,” because we can’t win everywhere. What I love about perceptual maps is that they take into account competitors that are constantly pushing you, and changing, so you’re never really done with perceptual mapping. Certainly, when you start to see the strain on profits or sales, and you start to see a decrease in market share, it’s a good idea to break out that perceptual map and start to look at where you thought of yourself as winning and how you compare to other competitors on that map. You might find you need to shift. I believe that the big talk now is experienced data gathering, which I teach in my course. I also think historical data is important and if you notice sales and profits going down, that’s like a light going on in your car. Then you think, “Okay, I need to look at how we’re positioning the marketplace and if we need to make any changes.”
8. If you could go back to when you were in college, would you do anything differently given the opportunity?
There would be a lot of things I would have done differently but the good news is that I’ve taken all the things I wish I had done in college and I’ve tried to bring those to students here in Isenberg. I didn’t have anyone consulting me on jobs as an undergrad and I had no one asking me, “Hey, what do you wanna do next?” or “Where do you see your career going?” or sort of reminding me that most people change careers seven or eight times. I had none of that, so when I graduated, it was completely by luck that I ended up finding what I like to do, so I am always trying to give students what I was lacking back then. I’ll talk to students about career planning, what they’re interested in, about what’s important to them, whether it’s in terms of work-life balance or where they would like to live someday. These are the kind of things that are great to think about because even though you’re still in college, this is a great time to really start thinking about it because one little change in the path could end up in a different destination.
Finally, a word of advice from myself: while many people can feel locked in when declaring a major, life after university is open-ended and filled with countless opportunities. Success comes in various forms, and even some of our greatest mentors started off on a completely different path than where they are now. While it’s easy to focus on what comes next in life, passions and interests evolve and change. Exploring your current passions and working hard toward your current aspirations is important in not neglecting the present moment.
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