Marketing Week revealed earlier this month that marketing has slipped down the list of aspirational careers for young people and they are attributing it to a lack of awareness and poor socio-economic diversity. This got me thinking about how I was attracted to the industry back in 1998 when I was choosing what to do as a career.

I actually ‘fell’ into marketing in a way. I had always had ideas about becoming a writer of some sort, but an epic timetable clash for A-Levels meant that I couldn’t do the subjects that I wanted. I ended up picking up Business Studies and was really interested in the marketing element of the subject. In the Marketing Week survey; more than half of students (51%) say marketing was ‘never’ or ‘hardly ever’ mentioned at their school. I can’t remember any mention of it before my A-Levels although at that time I thought advertising was marketing; misunderstanding just how much marketing encompasses.

When I made my choices for university I ended up at De Montfort in Leicester which at the time was a leader in Business Studies and had some fantastic opportunities for a placement year. I found this placement year was what gave me the edge in my final year and also in gaining employment when I graduated. I secured a marketing role, so that’s where my skills were developed. Working in an organisation and applying my knowledge meant that when I returned to finish my degree; I had real life examples to draw from. I was taught by a mix of traditional academics and some industry experts who had qualified as lecturers. Most of the case studies were about ‘big’ businesses and I couldn’t visualise where I would end up working in the end – although I did try and get a job in New York for my placement; I imagined myself in my own real life episode of Friends.

After my degree I headed out travelling the world and hoped to come up with the sort of company I wanted to work for, but came back none the wiser and ended up in temping. That role turned into me setting up a marketing department from scratch with the help of a business mentor. I loved being responsible for starting something and when I did move onto a role in a bigger organisation with a marketing team, I found that I was craving more autonomy. That’s when I had my lightbulb moment that the most important thing for me was to believe in what I was marketing; so I just looked at organisations that inspired me. This led me to be in tourism marketing for 3 years. I loved museums and culture and every day was exciting and stimulating.

I still had some travelling bug in me so I went off again around the world and came back with the clear intention of working in not-for-profit marketing and again ended up setting up a marketing department from scratch (sensing a theme emerging here!)  It was only a matter of time before I struck out on my own to provide marketing services to organisations that were working for the greater good.

Quoted in the report Dr Eleftherios Alamanos from Newcastle University says that “Every company will have a marketing department regardless of what the company does, what products or services they are delivering. There is a demand for marketing professionals out there.” Interestingly enough; my clients commonly don’t have a marketing department. Social Entrepreneurs tend to wear many hats and marketing becomes one of those hats. Much of the time, their marketing ideas are self-taught and based on their own experiences. There comes a tipping point for most social enterprises and charities however, where they need to up their game in terms of marketing strategy and that’s where I come in.

When I started out in my career 17 years ago, I tried to imagine where I would be – I couldn’t have in my wildest dreams predicted how passionately I would feel about using my skills for social good. Quite the journey from someone who aged 7 was adamant she was going to be a vet! But then you can doing anything you put you mind to… even abseiling down the big rocks on Ilkley moor (See picture!)