Introduction

According to the American Marketing Association, marketing consists of activities and “processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” Accomplishing these objectives requires collaboration between teams with diverse expertise, including data analytics, content development, consumer insights, business planning, negotiations, information technology, and creative messaging. Societal changes and technological advances have profoundly revolutionized marketing practices in recent years, leading to a growing number of emerging career opportunities for marketers.

This report offers a holistic overview of the diverse career paths within the field of marketing. The research for the second edition of the Careers in Marketing project comprised a national study of marketing careers through a ground-up approach by monitoring job postings on major online job boards in the United States from September 2023 to June 2024. Posted job titles and descriptions were synthesized and categorized. This process was carried out in multiple waves of data collection, and new job postings were added or synthesized into existing job titles and descriptions. In addition, the research team utilized various resources and sought input from industry experts, as listed on the last page of this report.

Nine primary and two emerging domains are identified, and the most prevalent job positions within each domain are presented along with an overview of the positions. Leadership roles and duties are listed at the top of each category, followed by positions that require less experience. The typical educational requirements and the required years of experience are noted as an approximation, which may vary across different firms and positions. There are overlaps between some of the roles in different domains, as can be expected, and we did our best to identify the domains that would be most helpful in informing the audience and achieving the goals of this project.

Several groups will find this report helpful. Marketing students would benefit from learning about the diverse career paths that they can pursue. Educators and educational institutions may use this report as a guidebook in advising their students. The report may offer non-marketing business professionals a clearer understanding of marketing domains and the activities of marketing professionals. Finally, this report can help recruiters and human resources departments identify and recruit new talent based on their companies’ unique needs.

The publication of the first edition of this report in 2021 was well-received by industry and academia. This second edition of the report reveals the fast-paced industry changes identified through recently updated national data. Career paths in Business Intelligence, Data Science/Analytics, and Digital Marketing have evolved significantly, and employees’ roles in these areas are becoming highly specialized. Job postings in Sustainability have also become more prevalent. As companies explore new approaches to employing Artificial Intelligence (especially Generative-AI) to achieve their marketing goals, jobs in this area are proliferating. As such, a new section has been added to this edition to reflect these emerging roles.

I hope that you find the report informative and welcome your thoughts. Please contact me ([email protected]) or Aida Lahood ([email protected]) with any feedback or suggestions.

Mohammad G. Nejad, PhD
Chair, Marketing Area
Fordham University | Gabelli School of Business