Students often ask instructors what kind of jobs they can get with an associate degree in marketing management.
“That’s a difficult question to answer because the skills and knowledge lead to multiple job titles, positions and possibilities,” said Karen Howard, marketing instructor at DeKalb Technical College. “A lot of our students take this major because they want to start their own business. Others want to go into or advance in jobs in marketing, sales, retail, customer service, banking, sports management, business management or nonprofit development.”
“It really should be branded as a ‘doing business’ degree,” said Perry Hidalgo, director of the marketing management and sports management programs at Gwinnett Technical College. “It gives you the tools you need to start, plan, run, sell, market and manage a business.”
Howard and Hidalgo are part of a statewide team that recently reviewed the marketing management curriculum for the Technical College System of Georgia. As part of a two-year effort to revamp the curriculum to fit current industry standards and needs, the system added new marketing research, consumer behavior courses and more information about logistics and supply-chain management.
“The one thing we can say is that this is a degree that leads to jobs,” Howard said. “When our graduates explain how the technical college system not only teaches the concepts and principles of business and marketing, but jumps almost immediately to applications, our students compete very well in the job market.”
In her entrepreneurship capstone class, for example, Howard’s students have 10 weeks to create a concept and draft a business plan that meets state, investor and her own standards.
“In other words, it has to have some reality and depth to it,” she said. “The person who does that is in a much better position to appreciate what it takes to run a small business, and if they don’t want to run their own, it makes them one great employee.”
Marketing management students at Gwinnett Tech, DeKalb Tech and other technical colleges can hone their skills by competing in Collegiate DECA (Distributed Education Clubs of America) state and international competitions.
“They’re tested on their knowledge, given scenarios and asked to solve problems,” said Hidalgo, who was named Collegiate DECA advisor of the year for 2011. “They must practically apply what they know under pressure against top talent from around the state or country, and our students do very well.”
Eleven Gwinnett Tech and four DeKalb Tech students took top honors in state competition, which allowed them to compete internationally.
Students in the program can concentrate their studies in entrepreneurship, small business management, salesmanship, sports marketing, general marketing administration, e-business management or retail management.
Businesses, sports teams, nonprofits and government agencies need people who can market and sell their products and services in person and electronically, Hidalgo said. Starting salaries range from $20,000 to $30,000, depending on the business, geographic location and experience, Howard said.
To learn more about Gwinnett Tech’s marketing management program, call Hidalgo at 678-226-6715. For DeKalb Tech, call Howard at 404-297-9522 (ext. 1194). To learn which other technical colleges offer marketing management, go to www.tcsg.edu.
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