Another marketing careers webcast related question. Actually, in its entirety, the question went like this: "Given the downturn in the economy, combined with the marketing dept. being the 1st to be cut/reduced, do you expect an increase in project-based opportunities?"
Yes, as a matter of fact, I do believe that marketers will see an increase in project-based opportunities and here's why.
First of all, it appeals to the organizations that hire marketers. Certainly, parsing tasks into clearly defined projects can help with budgeting and cost-control, but even more importantly it represents a more efficient and effective way of actually doing marketing.
"Operationalizing" marketing, as I discussed, involves separating planning from execution. With the advent of increased automation on the execution side, the planning component, a marketing plan for a new product, for example, becomes a discrete input that can be generated by someone who then moves on to do something else.
At the same time, project-based work should appeal to marketers as well. On the one hand, it offers flexibility so that you can focus on doing the things you want to do without getting locked into a particular role or stagnating within a particular organization.
On the other hand, it allows you to consciously construct your career path around targeted learning experiences involving new markets, new companies, and new technologies.
One downside to this trend is job instability, because you have to spend more time thinking about your next gig. The other downside is, paradoxically, missed learning opportunities. In the course of a project-based career, you might get to try a lot of new things, but you may not have the chance to see a plan through to fruition and thus discover what worked best and what doesn't work at all.
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