Digital media is driving the marketing industry. As graduating students research the possibilities for careers in marketing agencies, they will notice a trend: jobs in social media or creative services that involve data analysis and helping clients make more informed decisions.
While Nicole Bezinski, BBA’95, was a finance student at the Fox School, her initial dream was to move to New York City and work on Wall Street. After she finished her undergraduate degree, she chose a different path and pursued her master’s degree from NYU in administration, leadership and technology. There, she realized that she did not necessarily want to work on Wall Street. Instead, she wanted to apply her business and financial skills to a more creative field.
“In roles as a CEO or Global Advisor, those finance skills are invaluable as I can understand numbers and metrics, as well as the marketing side,” says Bezinski. “I have experience running a social media agency where we work with consumer brands, athletes and influencers, creating social media campaigns from a strategic perspective. The knowledge I have in finance comes in handy because I am responsible for numbers, growth and hiring.”
Graduates that apply for junior-level positions may wonder what a typical “day in the life” looks like working at a marketing agency. Juniors will usually go into a role where they work with clients, liaising between clients and the creative team.
“At smaller agencies, you will have a bigger purview of things you are working on and will get more involved in the overall creative process. Working at larger agencies, it’s a bit more of a hierarchy, so you may only be working in a particular area and not necessarily crossing over projects as much,” says Bezinski. “For instance, if you are working for a client, then you will always be looking at the market to see what’s going on, see who’s posting about them in the news, or if there are any trends that are dropping in real time that the client wants to comment on.”
Many companies now have digital advertising components, so it is important that marketing students understand that digital marketing is such a big industry.
“Students coming out of school now have an advantage over people who have been in the industry for a long time because they have grown up in a digital age where they are steeped in both digital and social media,” says Bezinski. “This young generation has the strength of understanding how to reach an audience, create content that resonates with people and successfully build brands.”
These are important skill sets to have when breaking into the digital marketing side of business. Younger generations have the unique opportunity to advance and move this industry forward.
“Unlike people who enter a field like medicine where you build skills over time, current students grew up around digital media and have a great understanding of content creation through their daily use,” says Bezinski. “It is important that they understand the valuable skillset they have when it comes to creating the best content for a brand because that is what we look for when we hire at agencies.”