When I was 14 years old my English teacher told me that I would make a good actor. In my 2nd year of university my mathematics professor told me that I was one of the few people who had scored A+'s in both of the math courses and encouraged me to concentrate on math.

Today I am a marketing manager. And I LOVE making presentations in front of people in my job. But... and call me a snob.... I can't stand meetings which require me to generate ideas and come to consensus with people who have no business training or who are un-intuitive.

And since I have only 5 years of experience, a young face, and an academic mind, I am often the target for career sabotage and rivalry from jealous 40-something-year-old-peers.

My game plan had been to go to MBA school and focus on soft skill courses. And then work for a small company. I was just finalising the plan by deciding whether I should spend one more year at work and volunteer for lots of internet projects and take some multi-media courses on the side. OR go to school right away.

But I have recently been wondering if marketing is just the wrong field all together...I don't want to be a square peg trying to force itself into a wrong hole....any help with your thoughts would be much appreciated.

-- ralph smyth (ralph_smyth@yahoo.com), January 02, 2001

Answers

In business it doesn't matter about being a good actor, what is important is the role you want to play. Do you want to be a Lawrence Olivier and perfect your craft or do you want to Keanu Reeves and get top dollars for finding the highest paying roles you can get. As for math's, at school we know why we got an A+ in math's but to get an A+ in adult life (The Positive Adult) then we have to be able to calculate the effects of our possibilities, opportunities and decisions. The fact that you cannot get 40 year olds over to your side probably means either your lacking the maturity that comes with having people skills or you are displaying immature youthful arrogance. If you can't calculate those equations in your mind, you need to brush up on your personal human math skills and tell yourself this is what I need to do to be A+. If you have the intelligence to get good grades and to be a good role player, you have the ability to change the circumstances in such a way that you don't see it as other people's jealousy but as your ability to get people on your side. For that you need both math and acting skills in the manner I have described in this paragraph.

Ultimately you have to ask one important question. Does what I do for a living define who I am? If it doesn't then the choice of a marketing career is irrelevant because it is what you can do best to hit pay dirt that counts, just like a mercenary. If it does, then you already know subconsciously what it is that you would like to do but you need to sit down and do a career inventory. The best way is to follow through some of the ideas in Richard Bolles book "What Color is Your Parachute". Very few people are in fact mercenaries who can skip from career to career and the ones that are usually are entrepreneurs who are defined by the opportunities they create rather than the career they seek. Maybe that combination of actor and math's brilliance indicates that you too are a mercenary and that your talents will be best served representing yourself as an entrepreneur rather than a career maker. That distinction boils down to whether you need to be a part of a career community or whether you want to be Lawrence Olivier and chart your own course and expertise. If it is the former, then the feelings that marketing isn't for you may be more to do with the fact that you don't relate with others in the same marketing community. The answer in that case is simple, try to find a work community that you relate to and create a plan how you will break through into such a community. A MBA is always a helpful qualification to have if you choose this route, though more important if joining the consultant community is the path you want to take. In terms of whether you should concentrate on business or education, the answer lies whether you want to be a Lawrence Olivier or a Keanu Reeves? If you are Keanu Reeves, then the MBA is going to be more important in the calculating the methodology to create the most meaningful life for yourself.

M.

M Profile at: http://www.fastcompany.com/fasttalk/replypost.html? p=9738

"To be or not to be that is the question" A quote by Willy Shakes. Mantra of M. "Life is about Private Relations not Public Relations"

-- Mark Zorro (zorromark@consultant.com), January 07, 2001.