The 5 Key Steps for a Successful Transition into a Marketing Role

By jfuchs@hubspot.com (Jay Fuchs)

Nowadays, significant career shifts are as prevalent as they’ve ever been. Some people want to assume a different degree of responsibility. Some want to pursue a passion they’ve put on hold for too long. And some flat-out need a change of pace.

It’s a popular course that comes with a host of challenges, several potential pitfalls, plenty of barriers of entry, and a lot of requisite hard work — especially when it comes to transitioning to a role in marketing.

And if you’re making that leap, you’ll need all the help and insight you can get, so we’ve provided some tips and tricks to consider if you want to shift your career trajectory and become a marketer.

1. Study, study, and study some more on your own time.

This one might go without saying, but you can’t expect to smoothly transition into a marketing role if you have no concept of what marketing entails. One of the best ways to make your job search and ultimate career shift more viable and straightforward is to study marketing on your own.

Learn as much as possible on your time. Check out some books on the subject. Follow marketing influencers. Conduct independent research, and if you have the necessary time and motivation, complete some online courses to help bolster your marketing knowledge and relevant skillset.

Employers are rarely interested in new marketing candidates who haven’t demonstrated the interest and initiative to understand the field. Plus, training new hires who are building their marketing knowledge from scratch is often a waste of time and resources.

If you want to transition to a marketing role, you need to show that you’re familiar with and enthusiastic about the practice. Learning about the field on your own time is one of the best ways to do both.

2. Try to assume more marketing-oriented responsibilities

within your current role.

While using external resources like books and online courses to step up your marketing game is always a good call, accruing real marketing experience can help you stand out from other candidates and make your transition between fields even more seamless.

See if you can help with some marketing responsibilities at your current company, and make a point of legitimately pursuing and fulfilling them. That might mean helping out with tasks related to social media, email outreach, company newsletters, or any other aspects of your organization’s marketing strategy that the department might need help with.

In doing so, you can string together some legitimate experience that shows potential employers (or your current company) that your interest in and aptitude for marketing isn’t all talk. That kind of clout can go a long way when transitioning to a marketing role.