Should this graduating marketing student fear for his future?

MarketingRx for January 9, 2009

Dear Marketing RX,

Hope you could help me out. Iʼm a 4th year student taking up Marketing Management. I have stumbled across your column a few months back and I was really pleased that it was helpful and clarified some questions that I had. So I took a chance and decided to ask for your expert advice on my problem.

Graduation is fast approaching and I canʼt help but feel insecure of my knowledge and skills. Although I study in a reputable university, I am unfortunate to have outdated teachers whom despite having doctorate degrees stick strictly by the books.

They lack in 1st hand experience which I think is highly instructive and crucial for their students. Our typical classroom discussions range from reading out loud the latest copy of Kotler to embarrassing situations like when they are bombarded with questions they cannot answer convincingly. Another thing I find ironic is that they cannot relate what they teach to a Philippine setting. If not for your column, I would never have heard of marketing gurus such as Kumar or the concepts of customer insighting, communitization nor debunking the age-old belief that customer loyalty is the best business model.

Coming across marketing alumni, they have all expressed the same frustration: what we learn in school does not coincide with what is expected by the employers. This discrepancy highly alarms a lot of the marketing students. We have long expressed our observation that our curriculum needs to be streamlined with what is actually happening out there but it seems that these sentiments fall on deaf ears.

My grades are quite good and they have earned me a spot to be part of a team our department sends to compete in such competitions such as PANAʼs IMC and PMAʼs STRATMark. During these times, my team mates and I take it upon ourselves to learn the whole process and figure everything out on our own since our professors are not very helpful. We try to make the best of what is available but we still feel that it is inadequate. In fact as much as possible I try to attend seminars with key speakers and read up on marketing articles and books, but having no one to direct my questions to, I often get confused.

I am now scared that in the future when I am employed I will find myself in situations where I am clueless.

In closing here are some of my questions: ·
what am I to do about my situation without offending my professors?·
could you please give me an idea of how it is to be a professional marketer and what the industry is like?·
what reading materials could you suggest to a newbie like me which could be very helpful?· what else should I do that could supplement my education and make my resume more attractive?

Thank you and I hope that you could help me by answering through your column because I feel that there is a lot of potential among us and if given a chance we could become good marketers. Sincerely, Frustrated and Fearful of the Future (FFF)

+++Next week, we'll start addressing FFF's concerns and questions one by one. But what do you, our dear readers, think? Send us your suggestions for FFF and we'll include it in our column. If you're a marketing student please write to us and share your experience. We're sure that there are professors and schools out there that are exceptions to this future marketer's lament.Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or post them at www.marketingrx.org .

We can also receive your reactions via text at 0918-3386412. (Pls include your name and co./organization/school.) Our prayers and thoughts are with our editor, Margie Quimpo-Espino who suffered a stroke while on a business trip to India last month. She's still recovering from a hospital in India and everyone who's read this column is encouraged to say a little prayer for her swift recovery. Thanks and God bless!===============