Interview with Juan Ignacio Coria - Argentina
Tell us about your background
Between 2004 and 2011 I worked as director of communications and marketing at AFS Programas Interculturales, an international organization dedicated to cultural exchange programs for kids from 16 to 18 years old who travel to live and attend schools in another country for between 6 and 12 months.
I am currently admissions and marketing manager at Universidad Austral, I am in charge of a team of 16 people who help and support hundreds of future students and their families in the difficult task of choosing their professional future, a degree and a university that will surely shape their future.
What motivated you to study Marketing?
I studied marketing because I was lucky to be very close to the career since I was a kid thanks to my family background and that allowed me to understand it well, something that became natural over time and that made me very sure that I would enjoy it and be happy working in it when I graduated.
What advice could you give to someone who is considering studying Marketing?
It is important to try to put yourself in a professional's shoes to know what their daily challenges are (having to increase a company's sales, think up new products, launch advertising campaigns and make them successful), if that suits you, the career will probably suit you.
Do you think the Marketing degree will last over time?
Without a doubt, luckily for me, my colleagues and the next generations of marketing professionals, there will always be products and services that will need to connect with future buyers, I would even say that more and more products are being born with new industries, especially those associated with technology, whose growth will be exponential in the near future.
How do you think the Internet has influenced the Marketing degree?
The marketing professionals who are currently working have witnessed a total change in the way marketing is managed and done from how it was done before the internet to how it is done now, where each year we have to learn to live with new communication channels, social networks and technology that allow us to get the brand's message to future or current clients. A point in favor of the new generations is that they will have been born with the internet, tablets and smartphones already working and current professionals had to adapt and learn to use them.
Are languages important in this degree?
It depends on the scope of the position you hold or the brands you manage, knowing only Spanish will limit you to working in our country or at most the Spanish-speaking countries of the region, if the professional's goal is to grow beyond borders they will have to acquire an almost bilingual level of English to work in a multinational or manage brands with intercontinental reach. Many marketing terms are still in English and there is a lot of good literature in English, so the more English you know the better you can take advantage of it in your career.
Would you say you chose a career that lets you travel the world?
It depends on the workplace you have, what marketing has in its favor in that sense is that a marketing campaign uses the same tools here as anywhere else, the message and the forms adapted to the environment and cultural behavior of the local client will change but ultimately the structure and processes should be similar, so a good marketing professional could work in their field in any country in the world.
Young people ask us about job opportunities. Did it take you long to get a job after graduating? How did you manage it?
It is not that hard since there are marketing teams and areas in almost every company in any industry, so there is room, you have to prepare well beyond what the University gives you to try to stand out among all the professionals looking for work at the same time and the more passion they have about the career the more naturally it will come to them.
About salaries and annual compensation, in what range would a Marketing professional with 5 years of experience be?
A senior marketing analyst position must be earning 2000-3000 Dollars per month.
A marketing manager between 5000-6000 Dollars per month.
