In this article I will share Why and How you can opt for Digital Marketing as a career to land in your dream company with or without a degree in Marketing.

Learning‌ ‌basics‌ ‌of‌ ‌digital‌ ‌marketing‌ ‌while‌ ‌working‌ ‌on‌ ‌a‌ ‌startup.‌

Let’s start, I was studying Mechanical Engineering in a college at Jaipur. One fine day (in 2009) I was just lurking around the campus and got a call from a respected event manager to freelance with them for a big launch event of a German automobile giant (Audi) in Jaipur. I accepted the offer and joined them for 8 days to assist car company’s management team and PR agency to prepare and execute the event.

In this brief encounter I was exposed to the world of interactive marketing and social media. I was certain that I don’t want to work in a factory in remote areas and would follow social media as a career path. What made me decide this : -

1. Most mechanical jobs were mundane, mostly in manufacturing facilities, power plants etc.
2. Quality of life in cities as Digital Marketing Jobs will certainly be in corporate Head Offices of companies.
3. Lack of courses/degrees in digital marketing which made the eligibility criteria free of degrees & diplomas.
4. My interest in how people were excited about facebook/twitter and cool-factor of getting paid to spend whole day on social media.
5. It was part of a road-map for me to land a job at Sony Electronics the fortune company I mentioned.

How I started making money : -

1. Early 2012 - I freelanced as a social media creator for Lootspot.com (now Dailyobjects.com)
2. Mid 2012 - Moved to New Delhi and joined Dailyobjects.com as a full time digital brand manager

Yes, my first job was a start-up company, by working directly with founding team members I developed many skills of digital marketing including Email Marketing, Blogging, Search Engine Marketing, Paid Marketing using Facebook and CRM. This was in way my MBA while getting paid and without going school.

After spending two years in start-up I was looking for bigger set up and more marketing budget with any established brand and luckily in 2014 a Chinese smart-phone company (OPPO) hired me to launch and manage their digital marketing operations in India from Gurgaon.

Here comes the turning point - Learning basics of digital marketing and understanding electronics market now made me confident that I can look forward to apply for a job at Sony as soon as there is any vacancy. Within a year I got a call from a consultant authorized to shortlist candidates for interview at Sony in digital marketing team.

I got selected. I couldn't believe this until my first day of the office. It was a great day for me and for everything I was doing to learn digital marketing on job. In interview I rated my Digital marketing skills 6/10 and left a 4 points buffer for my recruiting manager to guide me and teach. This worked for me as mostly the great companies prioritize ability to learn over current skills in hand simply because digital is one of the fastest growing space with a lot of changes happening everyday.

Moving‌ ‌to‌ ‌China‌ ‌for‌ ‌an‌ ‌AI‌ ‌camera‌ ‌company.

One more thing - The manager who hired me at OPPO, he hired me again for a new role based in world’s electronics capital - city of Shenzhen. I moved to China in 2018 and joined OBSBOT an AI camera company.

There are no short cuts to success but if you want to cut short the path a little then choose the right career. Digital Marketing could be your choice of career because :

1. Internet is rapidly growing
2. Smart-phones are adding more and more internet users
3. Social media is surpassing time spent on TV
4. Management schools are still not mass producing ‘digital marketers’
5. There are a lot of jobs

Happy job hunting, in case you need any help or further guidance contact the team of CareerNaksha to hear from the industry experts.