Marketing and Sales Internships and Vacation Programs

Marketing and Sales Internships and Vacation Program

Marketing is an essential part of business, relevant across all industries. As such, there is a range of opportunities available to marketing students who wish to gain some industry experience before they graduate. Participating in an internship or vacation program is advisable for anyone wishing to get ahead in today’s competitive jobs market.

Vacation Programs

Vacation programs provide a superior internship experience. Unlike regular internships, which often are ill-paid and/or require the intern to do lots of boring menial work, vacation programs provide successful applicants with a plethora of exciting, interesting and challenging experiences. In addition, they are usually well paid, with social activities, team building, mentoring, client interaction and even travel making each day a valuable experience for the student, while giving them the chance to take responsibility and shine in a workplace environment.

It is important to recognise that “marketing” is a broad umbrella term used to describe a huge variety of company activities. While “marketing” is often thought of as interchangeable with “advertising”, in reality marketing involves a much wider array of processes, and is integral to the entire business. Marketers may be involved in market research and analysis, product development, direct sales, public relations, promotions, business analysis, internal marketing to employees, managing partner channels (intermediaries), advertising and brand management. As a result, vacation work for a marketing intern may include work across a variety of company departments, and will likely not just be “advertising”. While creativity is a very important aspect of marketing so too is research and analysis - therefore it’s likely that a marketing summer vacation program will include at least some number-crunching. 

A variety of organisations may offer vacation programs in sales/marketing, including massive FMCG companies (like Proctor & Gamble and Unilever, each of which manages a “house of brands”), telecommunications companies like Telstra and Optus, energy companies like BP, financial services companies like the “Big Four” (Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG), mining companies, services companies, non-profit organisations, government – and many more. Vacation programs are only offered by large organisations, since the programs are costly. For these companies, vacation programs act as recruitment initiatives, and most vacationers are offered graduate jobs at the conclusion of their work.

Vacation programs are targeted towards students currently completing their penultimate year. Most of them take place from late November to early March (with public holidays free). “Open season” for vacation program applications takes places in the period from June to August, however some companies do practice “rolling recruitment” (in which interns are hired whenever the company has a vacancy).

For more information on the differences between internships and vacation programs, and for tips on how to successfully apply to these programs, check out our general internships and vacation programs guide.