Masters in Marketing practice in Smurfit Business school, highly regarded??

gabgab

Hi guys,

Has anyone done one of these? I am looking on advice on application and trying to find out if it made a difference to peoples career and earning potential??

I have a degree in business studies and am looking to progress my career and earning potential,

telecaster

Personally I'm all experience and no training. If you're interested in something you'll find out all you need to know yourself.

Back in the days when I worked for a big company and was responsible for hiring marketing staff I always found it better to give the job to someone with experience and genuine interest rather than jazzy qualifications. Good students don't make good marketers.

Somewhere between the lines I'm trying to say go out and work, build a reputation then my friend you will have....what did you call it...earning potential!

gabgab

Thanks a million,

Where to start is the problem, have been trying to get a foot in the door but most of the jobs are promotions etc,

telecaster

then your first job is to market yourself

d-arke

gabgab wrote:

Hi guys,

Has anyone done one of these? I am looking on advice on application and trying to find out if it made a difference to peoples career and earning potential??

I have a degree in business studies and am looking to progress my career and earning potential,

I'm in the same position as yourself, finished my Business degree in '04, thought about getting some sort of Marketing qualification like the MII one, but decided to go out and get work experience.

Though in fairness, I found it fairly tricky finding anyone to employ graduates in marketing positions unless like you said its promotions or something. So got myself a temp admin job, changed into merchandising/promotions (reps job, which came with a car Will give you details if you want)....though this would lead into a sales reps job that I didnt want, so used my admin experience and a bit of blag, and got myself a decent Data Analyst job for a big internet company which I've been in since the start of Dec and who knows from here.

What I've been told, if you want into Marketing go to the States or to London, that was the advice I was given. So I'm off to London in a couple of weeks!! The company I'm working for now don't want me to leave so asked if I would work from the London office (where the EMEA marketing dept is based), so of course, I'm going to try wriggle into there

Its definitely all about experience. Then once your in a job, touch up on certain skills, especially Microsoft Excel, you wouldn't believe how handy it is to have a good knowledge of it, and possible Access and Powerpoint.

All the best

shepthedog

EOP programme (run by IBEC) is pretty good start in marketing business if your just outta college. You also get a cert in Marketing Practise from the MII upon completion. Basically its a Graduate Programme that places marketing grads with Irish exporting companies and at least 6 months of your placement is abroad. I am currently doing it and placed in USA. Pretty sweet, you get years experience, another recognised qualification and a pretty good job out of college.

Have heard the Masters in Smurfit is top class, pretty costly though. In my opinion, you can never have too many qualifications but to combine it with real experience is the key.

leftofcentre

When I worked in an agency i could not give a flying feck what school people went too. Creative people are judged on their portfolio, client service people are judged on their personality and confidence.

The qualification will get you in the door, but its up to you to clinch the job.

ur-lord

I'm currently working as a marketing executive for a property company after getting my degree last year. It wasn't exactly pure luck though. I applied directly, continually harassed the hr people for an interview and basically told them I would do whatever it took to get a position. I prepared intensively for the interview before hand.

Basicly I sold myself as much as I could. I did a course on interview skills in the Irish Times training which helped in a big way.

aingeal

Hi,
I'm in Smurfit but not in the marketing class. From what I know from talking to people doing it, it's mostly practical work. They are employed through Smurfit to do marketing projects for companies. They do seem to do a lot of work and the hours are long usually 9am to 9 pm. Not sure what the employment prospects are though or how well regarded it is.

MarketingMan

I can tell you for fact that Unilever employ a lot of their Brand Managers directly from the Smurfit Marketing course. I have worked with 2 or 3 of them now over the years and they have all gone on to to very well. So, from a Below The Line Marketing Agency perspective, and potential employer, I would regard the course highly.

As an aside, we are currently looking for 2 X Account Executives here at the moment, I have posted this here but mods moved it to Work Forum where it was very effectively spoiled by cynical IT nerds. PM me if you want details & I will give you a call to talk through what the positions entail.

okellyc

I graduated from the course in 97. It was outstanding: I was sick of lectures and exams but had no intention of making tea in some big company because of lack of experience. The year was fairly full on, more like a job than a course, but very well structured and good exposure to contacts and situations. Too many "placement" type courses are hit and miss: you could be running the show or driving the van. This course meant you worked with 4-5 different projects for companies while having the support network of the programme. They'd let you sink, but not too far..

I reckon it gave me a three year head start into marketing, took the mystery out of the whole thing. Was probably much cheaper in my day as I'm in shock at fees for pastgrads these days, so maybe harder to justify on cost v return? Social side was excellent too: most people on campus just see the suits and think its all work. Didn't stop us...

TabulaRasa22

okellyc wrote:

I graduated from the course in 97. It was outstanding: I was sick of lectures and exams but had no intention of making tea in some big company because of lack of experience. The year was fairly full on, more like a job than a course, but very well structured and good exposure to contacts and situations. Too many "placement" type courses are hit and miss: you could be running the show or driving the van. This course meant you worked with 4-5 different projects for companies while having the support network of the programme. They'd let you sink, but not too far..

I reckon it gave me a three year head start into marketing, took the mystery out of the whole thing. Was probably much cheaper in my day as I'm in shock at fees for pastgrads these days, so maybe harder to justify on cost v return? Social side was excellent too: most people on campus just see the suits and think its all work. Didn't stop us...

How much hands - on or practical experience did you get in the course?

okellyc

Plenty, mostly research related. Wrote an entire 160 page dossier on malt whisk(e)y for a distillery (nice!), conducted research for Reuters, ran multiple focus groups, gave one-on-one advice to an inventor/entrepreneur with dreams of riches. If I was to be critical, it did always stop at the "recommendation" phase. Ultimately it was uo to the clients to decide whether to follow the advice or not, but most really took the findings on bioard because the research was so copper-fastened and evidence backed. Its the real deal of a course. You will get the exposure to marketing and the industry you require with a safety net of academia there as well. Again, I don't know what it costs nowadays but I genuinely recommend applying to anyone looking at marketing, PR, research as a career..

LegacyUser

Man I so want to do that course when I graduate. It's such a kick ass course.

Dr. Octagon

d-arke wrote:

I'm in the same position as yourself, finished my Business degree in '04, thought about getting some sort of Marketing qualification like the MII one, but decided to go out and get work experience.

Though in fairness, I found it fairly tricky finding anyone to employ graduates in marketing positions unless like you said its promotions or something. So got myself a temp admin job, changed into merchandising/promotions (reps job, which came with a car Will give you details if you want)....though this would lead into a sales reps job that I didnt want, so used my admin experience and a bit of blag, and got myself a decent Data Analyst job for a big internet company which I've been in since the start of Dec and who knows from here.

What I've been told, if you want into Marketing go to the States or to London, that was the advice I was given. So I'm off to London in a couple of weeks!! The company I'm working for now don't want me to leave so asked if I would work from the London office (where the EMEA marketing dept is based), so of course, I'm going to try wriggle into there

Its definitely all about experience. Then once your in a job, touch up on certain skills, especially Microsoft Excel, you wouldn't believe how handy it is to have a good knowledge of it, and possible Access and Powerpoint.

All the best

Is it really possible to come out of a business degree and not know how to use Excel?

LegacyUser

Dr. Octagon wrote:

Is it really possible to come out of a business degree and not know how to use Excel?

Haha i would have thought not...