I often talk to recent marketing graduates and interns who feel somewhat lost in figuring out what they want to do with their careers. There’s so many directions you can go in the field, and students often feel like they have to choose a path now, while turning their back on the other paths.
It’s true that at some point you may specialize into a specific function, but early on, it’s worth staying flexible.
A friend of mine met a recent grad who was torn on what path to take. In their last internship, they enjoyed the creative & brand sides of marketing, but thought they “just weren’t good enough” at the more analytical and demand generation sides of marketing. It just wasn’t an area they were passionate in.
When I first started my career, I was dead set on working in social media and SEO. And here, years later, I do neither. In fact, I discovered early on that I didn’t like those aspects of marketing much. Never would I have expected I’d be in marketing technology, automation and analytics. I certainly wouldn’t have predicted I’d become an email marketer.
It’s easy to buy into the “follow your passion” advice, and get hung up on finding our true calling. But you’ve got to spend some time toiling away at work and logging the hours before you start to build the expertise and mastery that fuels passion. There’s a great read on this topic I’ve started recommending, Cal Newport’s “So Good They Can’t Ignore You”.
Before you make the call on whether you’re good enough or passionate about a role or career path – give it a try anyway. You may indeed discover it’s not for you after all, but how unfortunate to never discover your true calling simply because it didn’t reveal itself at first glance.