HousTon’s
10
Top-Paying Careers
busIness markeTIng
assocIaTIon sponsors
occupation
Average Entry-Level Experienced
summer InTernsHIps
Wage Wage Wage
When he researched
sales manager $44.80 $21.81 $56.29
and scHolarsHIps for
the field, Barrera talked to
marketing manager $44.56 $24.64 $54.52
local undergraduaTe
several commercial real
estate company owners
sales engineer $39.77 $24.40 $47.45 sTudenTs.
who were marketing
purchasing manager $39.08 $22.37 $47.44
majors in college. One of them told him, “You have to know how
real estate broker $38.72 $16.49 $49.83
to sell yourself before you can know how to sell anything else.”
public relations manager $34.39 $17.54 $ 42.81 Barrera heeded the advice. He studied marketing research,
advertising and promotions manager $32.83 $16.66 $40.92
which will help him figure out what customers want and need.
Experience with crafting marketing plans in college will aid in
sales rep, wholesale and manuf., Tech and
scientific products
$30.21 $15.19 $37.72
setting goals for his business and meeting them.
market research analyst $29.87 $15.98 $36.81
Pursue your Passion
appraiser and assessor of real estate $29.04 $12.68 $37.23
Research is a passion for Parish at Texas A&M. “I like statistics. I’m
This is a chart of hourly wages for 10 of the top-paying careers in the Marketing, Sales & Service cluster in
kind of crazy that way,” she jokes. “I like things that help managers
Texas. Note how entry-level wages are often much lower than pay for the average worker and experienced
workers in each profession. Source: Texas Workforce Commission.
make decisions with less uncertainty.”
Marketing is at work even in the design of retail environments
such as the local mall. “Marketing is applied psychology,”
■ Marketing managers, who figure out the demand for products
Fairweather says, to make people buy. Doesn’t that aroma
and services offered by a firm and its competitors and target
of fresh-baked cookies in the mall make you want to
potential customers. An entry-level manager can expect to earn
buy a treat at the food court? That’s applied psychology
$49,280 and an experienced manager $109,040.
thought up by a savvy marketer, Fairweather says. “All
those smells aren’t coming from the oven. They’re
Bright Prospects
coming from a mechanical atomizer.”
Demand for people in Marketing, Sales & Service is high, and Texas
Parish advises her students to find an industry
Workforce Commission projections indicate it is growing across
they’re passionate about, and pursue a Marketing,
the board. For example, the commission says that employment of
Sales & Service job in it. She remembers a college
marketing managers in Texas will increase 20 percent between 2002
swim team member who lapped up an internship
and 2012. Projected increases are 24 percent for advertising and
with Speedo. If you enjoy music, you might find a
promotions managers, 30 percent for sales managers, and 24 percent
public relations gig with a band.
for public relations managers.
Have you ever liked a product so much—
Marketing techniques are applicable to all enterprises, public
whether clothes, a CD, or a car—that you naturally
and private. Marco Barrera, who is completing studies toward a
talked someone else into buying one
bachelor’s degree in marketing at the University of Houston, plans
like it? “If you love it, you can sell it,” says Parish.
to apply his skills in a commercial real estate career.
That’s Marketing, Sales & Service.
Q
is Marketing, sales & service the right cluster for you? Take this quiz to find out.
U
Answer “yes” or “no” to the following questions.
I
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
do you like have you ever Are you do you enjoy do you like have you do you get do you do you like have you
to look at ads dreamed up outgoing and trying to speaking raised money good grades enjoy doing organizing worked on
Z
in magazines and started a a “people persuade in front of a for a club in math research? events such your high
and on Tv and business or person”? friends to see group? by selling classes? as parties? school
the internet? a band? things your cookies or newspaper or
way? candy bars? yearbook?
If you answered “yes” to five or more of the above questions, Marketing, Sales
& Service may be the right cluster for you. To get a more specific and scientific
measurement of your attitudes and abilities, ask your guidance counselor or
teacher about taking a career assessment test or interest inventory.
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