Q:Why would you want to leave an established career at an employment agency for an essentially entrylevel position in marketing?
A:Ive enjoyed my work at the agency and have gained many valuable skills from it. At the same time, however, I feel as if I've stopped growing. Im no longer challenged by my work. Ive thought about this for a long time, and I'm confident that it's time for a change.
As for my interest in marketing, last year my teenage children and some of the other neighborhood kids decided to design and sell Tshirts to benefit a local family whod lost their home to a fire. I pitched in by designing and distributing posters, placing advertisements in local newspapers, and selling shirts outside grocery stores and shopping malls. At first I really didn't give the project a lot of thought, but when I saw the fruits of my labor, I began to get very excited about it. I learned that you can have a great product and a great cause, but if nobody knows about it, you're dead in the water. I finally felt as if I was making a difference—and I was good at it, too. Since then I've taken two introductory marketing courses and am planning to enroll in a parttime degree program this fall.
Furthermore, I'll be able to use many of the skills and abilities I've gained at the employment agency in the marketing field. After all, working for an employment agency is marketing—marketing the agency to corporate clients and job seekers, and marketing job seekers to corporate clients.