My area of expertise includes more than 20 years of combined experience in marketing communications, business education and business management. I have experience in 12 industries including entertainment, nonprofit, professional services, academia and STEAM. My customer base includes individuals and organizations in the U.S., the Caribbean, Africa and the U.K.

1. The business of marketing varies by industry, e.g., CPG marketing is completely different from entertainment or even nonprofit marketing. Therefore, select opportunities by industry.

2. Since you want to "climb the ladder of success," and you already have a master's degree in marketing, decide what company recruits for marketers with your expertise and education. Compare company job descriptions with your resume. If the two don't match, compensate with relevant or transferable experience via voluntarism or contract and part-time work.

3. There is marketing strategy and then there are marketing tactics and tools. These days, employers expect marketers (I include publicists, salespeople, creatives, communications pros and strategists) to be versed in marketing tactics as well as popular marketing tools. Top marketers know HubSpot or a similar CRM, HTML/basic website coding, the difference between UI/UX design, social media (all), Google analytics and even photo, video and print production. Decide which tech skills you'll add-on or strengthen then refer back to #2. Why? It's better to add-on the skills that you will enjoy learning/doing so that if a skill dictates assignment completion, which most marketing tech skills do, you'll still be able to excel in your position.

4. You mentioned wanting to succeed in the marketing field “as fast as possible.” Being a marketing consultant within a company like Deloitte, working for an agency or being an entrepreneur who creates/does something memorable (a viral ad/video; a sensational product, book/article, SaaS, etc.) will a. brand you AND b. put you on the hot list ASAP, everywhere!

Let’s brainstorm ways that you can excel: https://clarity.fm/ishaedwards