Marketing and Sales Graduate Jobs and Graduate Programs

Although marketing and sales are often associated and aligned with each other, they are not the same and are two complete different roles. The sales role commonly requires someone who is driven, focused and persistent and has a desire to work in an environment that is generally highly commission-based. The marketing role utilises a different approach that is mostly based on messaged direct to a targeted market via various media outlets. There are also other ways in marketing that are less direct, however, the results have equal importance to the various other forms of marketing.

Roles of marketing and sales correlate with one another, operating within organisations. The roles of marketing in an organisation include:

• Generating brand awareness
• Creative adverts
• Initiating direct marketing campaigns 

These marketing roles are all to build and develop an engaging profile within a potential market. The sales role in an organisation will utilise the work of marketing to:

• Promote products
• Gauge customer interests and feedback
• Drive direct sales results 

Marketing and sales can be found in a number of sectors in various types of industries. The objective of this career is to market and sell its products or services while earning profit. The scope of the marketing and sales sector industry have a range of key activities to operate an organisation in medium or large firms that offer various products and services both nationally and worldwide are¹:

• Pricing
• Customer support
• Social responsibility/community awareness
• Market research
Analyses the behaviour and response patterns of the buyer to find out what makes consumers desire a good or service, and to find ways to increase the desire

• Advertising
Creates or touch into a need to attract public attention to a product, service or business

• Public relations (PR)
A range of activities used to establish and promote relationships with the public, media, business and other organisations

• Sales strategy/promotion (Relationship marketing)
Targets existing customers or those who have chosen and preferred the product, service or business to make it easier for them to use the supplier more. (e.g frequent flyers, fly buys, and store loyalty cards)

• Sponsorships
Partners of an organisation who partially or wholly fund an event, cause or activity

• Events marketing
Selling products through specific events (e.g concerts, sports contests or art exhibits, etc.)

• Direct/digital marketing
Direct marketing occurs through telephone sales, emails, catalogues, leaflets, and are now increasingly via the internet, leading to digital marketing, which is to attract customers through internet media.

Requirements

Candidates of becoming an employee to marketing and sales require a degree in marketing, however those that have a degree in business or commerce with a major in marketing will have an advantage over other applicants and be accepted. In addition, sales representative roles also welcome generalist degrees.

Candidates should also acquire a set of personal skills that could benefit them in the career path such as:

• Ability to work under pressure
• Creativity
• Great interpersonal skills.
• High emotional intelligence
• Organisation skills
• Strong team player
• Understanding human behaviour

What to Expect

You’ll find that having a job as an assistant, you will be expected to be involved in all aspects of the marketing campaigns for products and services, including writing press releases, communicating and updating clients and arranging promotional events. You also have an array of tasks to perform which may include the tasks previously mentioned as well as²:

• Assessing the results of a marketing campaign
• Assisting the manager in writing reports and analysing data
• Helping to drive online traffic with web-related campaigns
• Organising market research
• Writing online content etc.

Employment and Careers

Working in marketing and sales can offer you a whole selection of career paths and positions. Typical graduate occupations include³:

• Marketing assistance
• Sales representative
• Business development coordinator
• Market research assistant
• Publicity officer

The main employing industries for sales and marketing are Wholesale Trade (17.9%), Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (17.7%), Manufacturing (17.0%) and Retail Trade (10.4%). With NSW (38.9%), VIC (24.9%) and QLD (16.5%) to be the top three regions for employment⁴.

As a graduate working in sales and marketing and as an assistant, the median annual salary is $42,681. Most people in this career move on to other positions after having ten years experience of the field. Common career paths for this specific career are becoming a Marketing & Business Development Manager, Regional Marketing Manager, or a Brand-Marketing Manager⁵.

¹ Graduate Careers, Careers for Marketing Graduates. 2015
² Total Jobs, Marketing assistant job description. 2015
³ Graduate Opportunities, Sales & Marketing. 2015
⁴ Job Outlook, Advertising and Sales Manager. 2015
⁵ PayScale, Sales & Marketing Assistant Salary. 2015