August in Reno is the pits… it’s hot, smoky and the sun is almost oppressive. The bright side is that Fall is just around the corner. My favorite season for a number of reasons:
1) You wont burn off a layer of skin if you go outside without a turban or SPF 50.
2) It’s okay to eat candy for a month straight.
3) Bathing suit season is over.
And best of all, Halloween is around the corner… time for scary movies, ghost stories and costumes. I must have Halloween on the mind, because when I read this post by Maggie Fox (which prompted me to read this post by Bill Lee), a shiver went down my spine. Marketing is dead? Well shit..why didn’t anyone tell me?
For a split second, my life flashed before my eyes…
Me sitting in the guidance office in high school during career week, flipping through books on college majors. The page read “Marketing Manager: Starting salary $45,000+” $45,000… That’s a small fortune to a kid wearing her sister’s hand-me-down jeans and a shirt off the sale rack from JCPenney. Sold.
Next flash: Taking a quiz in an undergrad Consumer Behavior course on popular ad slogans, thinking “Could this really be my job one day? Where IS the beef?”
Next flash: My first full-time gig as an Office Administrator, later turned Marketing Assistant. I got to write proposals and transcribe notes for engineers, but hell, it was a form of marketing.
Flash forward 5 years and about 500 job interviews: I’m working my dream job as Marketing Manager for training firm with a super awesome boss that lets me consult with companies on the side.
Flash forward 6 months: The worst recession of all time hits… Solution? I take on more marketing jobs on the side.
Flash forward 3 years (circa present day): I’m a full-time Marketing Manager and part-time consultant who has created a high quality of work life-balance for myself and those who work for me.
If Marketing is dead then I must be Frankenstein. I must be a goddam zombie. I must be a walking dead miracle because I managed to make a highly successful career out of it (and for at least 4 of my friends) during the worst recession many of us will see in our lifetimes.
If you think Marketing (in ANY sense of the word) is dead, then you obviously don’t understand Marketing.
