Marketing students and potential job seekers have been advised to brand themselves by developing unique selling propositions (USP) and self-confidence in order to launch good careers after their education.
"Remember for each course or subject, thousands of students would graduate from different institutions every year with the same knowledge base and no differentiating factor. What employers are looking for therefore is your unique selling proposition or that added value that they cannot get from your colleagues."
Mr. Kwasi Kyere, Vice Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM, UK) Ghana Branch, gave the advice at a one-day seminar organized at Accra Polytechnic dubbed "Putting your Marketing Career in Gear".
He said self-confident people were always successful in marketing, not only because they were smarter, had money or were just lucky, but also because they understood the impact of believing in themselves and relying on their abilities.
Mr Kyere noted that graduate unemployment was on the increase where the public sector employed less than one million adding that competition had become inevitable as about 300,000 to 350,000 entered the job market every year.
He also called on the students to venture into entrepreneurship to curb the existing unemployment menace.
Mr Kyere also advised the students to continually pursue self-development by participating in non-academic programs, seminars, distance learning, sandwich programs, writing, driving, music, fashion and public speaking, among others.
Mr. Robertson Torgbor, Chairman of the CIM Ghana Branch, in a background statement said the CIM started in 1911 as the Incorporated Sales Managers Association (ISMA) and in 1968 the name was changed to Institute of Marketing.
He advised the students to endeavour to go through all the examination levels of the Institute to enable them to acquire the Chartered Marketer status, which is the peak of the marketing profession.
Mr. Cyracus Bapuuroh, Head of the Marketing Department of the Polytechnic, urged the students to be time conscious, adding, "as professionals you need to be disciplined and respect time so that you can keep and maintain appointments on time".