Where to find advertising, marketing and PR jobs

Are you considering a graduate career in advertising, marketing or PR? Then follow these three steps to help you find marketing graduate job opportunities in ways and places that you may not initially have considered.

1. Search outside of the marketing sector
2. Proactively find opportunities
3. Get enough experience before applying

1. Look at jobs and schemes outside of the marketing sector

There are a lot of industries that need to promote their products and services to specific audiences. Many large employers will have their own marketing departments, some even run dedicated marketing graduate schemes or more general commercial graduate schemes with marketing streams or rotations.

Each year, the UK 300 conducts a survey to find out the most popular graduate employer with students. To find out the top graduate employers where you could start your marketing career, you could start your search with the following ranking lists:

• UK 300 : top media and advertising employers
• UK 300 : top consumer goods (manufacturing and marketing) employers.

The full list of the top 300 employers can be found on The UK 300 page . Other employers in the top 300 may also advertise marketing schemes or ad hoc graduate vacancies. If you apply for a vacancy like this, it is important not only to prove your interest in marketing, but also your interest in the industry. For example, you can bet that GSK will ask: ‘So, why do you want to work in the pharmaceuticals business?’ Knowing what you’re talking about, and being enthusiastic to boot, will be a massive point in your favour.

2. Don’t wait for opportunities; go out and find them yourself

There are loads of estimates about the number of unadvertised jobs that are out there (some say as much as 50% of jobs in the marketing sector are not widely advertised). Whatever the actual number, it’s worth knowing that there are vacancies which don’t get a whole lot of publicity. It’s up to you to make speculative applications directly to employers.

The good thing about making speculative applications is that it really lets you show off your skills . You need to be bold, enticing, and willing to show off your unique selling points (USPs). Even if it doesn’t lead to an interview straight away, it can be a way to build up your contacts. They might be willing to keep your CV on record if a vacancy does come up.

• Find out more about sending speculative applications to marketing employers here .

3. Get enough experience to compete

As soon as you know you want to apply for marketing entry-level jobs, it is best to seek out experience within the industry. The good news is that this can take many forms. Obviously, a year in industry with a well-known company is the holy grail of work experience, but if that’s not an option, a couple of weeks here and there will definitely help. Some companies do run in-house internships, but you may also have to apply speculatively for work experience.

Be warned: the pay for work experience and internships can vary, including some work experience only reimbursing you for expenses. It’s important that you know your rights when it comes to unpaid internships so you can make an informed decision as to whether work experience is ‘worth it’.

Volunteering for a charity, perhaps even getting to run their social media accounts, is another popular way to gain experience.

You may also choose to study a postgraduate qualification or course , either to gain more skills and knowledge or to try and enter a more settled jobs market. As well as giving you experience and evidence of your interest in marketing, these opportunities will also provide you with industry-specific knowledge that you may not already have, especially if marketing was a fairly late-game career decision for you.