Communications - Same Job, Different World

I find it amazing how returning to school at 50 changes your perspectives. I feel like Marty in Back to the Future, where the names are the same, but the course content is vastly different. The purpose of this blog will be to journalize these perspectives in my journey to aspire to the present day expectations of my profession.

When I began my Marketing Management certificate program in 1980 at BCIT, the course selection was confined to Advertising, Business Writing, Salesmanship, Marketing, Management in Industry, Retailing and Public Speaking.  These courses were compiled by polling industry's needs and at the time seemed very appropriate. My 5 year career goal was to work myself up from customer service into outside sales, and eventually to sales management. A simple plan for simpler times. In the early 1980's when computer screens were monochrome, and DOS was king, lecture rooms where not digitized but used film projectors or overhead slides, the term "marketing" was very regional and involved a lot of energy and creativity to expand a company's brand or sphere of influence.

Today that same certificate program allows so many career options and boundless opportunities; Professional Real Estate Marketing, Marketing Communications, Professional Sales & Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Tourism Management to name a few. Each option path is drastically different and relies on entirely different abilities and skill sets. My impression is that the rapid evolution of communication is the major contributing factor.  Today we scan and text documents where 30 years ago it was type and fax. Instead of researching a company in Dunn and Bradstreet, a trade magazine, newspaper article or collecting literature at a trade show, we can view its annual report on its own webpage, collecting valuable and relevant information in less than 5 minutes. The old reliance on media to get the message out to the masses is now supplanted with technology that can target specific audiences. And gone are the days of constructing campaigns to create national brand exposure. The internet has leveled the playing field of all businesses so they are globally exposed and accessible.  Indeed, it is the job of the Marketing specialists now to protect a company's brand and sphere of influence. Where a large company, such as BC Tel (now Telus) in the '80's would have a marketing department with one or two specialists, that same company today requires a department of many marketing specialists. Its not that surprising.  After all, who would have been more affected by and understand the importance of the technological change in communications, and its marketing, than Telus. As Doc said in Back to the Future Part 2, "Its a new world out there, Marty."