One career path that is often overlooked is marketing. There are always lots of jobs in marketing. If the economy is slowing down, companies work to get more sales. When the economy is moving forward, companies are expanding and they need marketing, and it gets hard to find marketing experienced professionals when job markets are tight.
A student that wants a job in marketing won’t have to look far for an entry level marketing job. Companies are always hiring telemarketing – both, out bound and inbound telemarketers. Retailing companies always need help with their online marketing.
One great job a high school senior might find as a paid summer internship would be working on a political campaign, either for a candidate for office or for an initiative or even a petition drive. And, talk about a wonderful way to learn about marketing? Think about it. There are calling trees, word-of-mouth campaigns, bumper stickers, flyers, meetings, yard signs, direct mail, speeches, and media relations attempting to keep the issue or person running for office in the news.
Let’s face it, if you work on a campaign for a candidate or serious issue and you put that on your marketing resume, you can bet a business owner or corporation HR department would take notice.
How does a high school student with no experience secure such a summer internship? It’s really easy, just ask, beg if you have to, or find someone you know who is close to the campaign or heavy into politics to walk in with you and introduce you to the campaign manager. Trust me, there is always a shortage of people on big campaigns, and money is tight usually, so they need you more than you need them.
What will you learn from a political campaign internship? Well, you will learn how the world works, how perception turns into reality and how marketing done right can change people’s opinions and make them loyal supporters. You will learn how people think, and vote. There isn’t much difference between marketing a person for office or an initiative for the ballot box than marketing a product or service or building a personal brand for a celebrity. In one instance the voter at the ballot box, in the other the customer votes with their dollar.
Is it hard work? Yes, very and it’s hectic and busy, everything is time sensitive in a campaign and there is a final date, meaning a huge sense of urgency. In fact, you’ll learn so much so fast that when it’s all over you’ll have to stop and regroup just to reflect on it all. You want an exciting career in marketing and a meaningful internship – this is it, think about it. Welcome to the world of marketing!