We at the India Business Club get lots of questions from prospective students, especially during admissions season. We love to answer these, but in order to ensure that everyone benefits from these, we have started this initiative.

We have selected some of these questions and every week, we approach one current student to answer it from his/her experience. Efforts have been made to get the most relevant profile for answering these. If you have other questions, check out the prospective students page.

What are the opportunities for Indian students looking for a career in marketing?

As a prospective international student exploring marketing jobs at Kellogg, you will most likely be thinking technology or brand marketing. While these two areas are most familiar to those looking from the outside in, the school also offers a number of opportunities in other areas such as healthcare and financial services marketing. Based on the 2007 statistics, 17% of graduating students accepted a position in a marketing function.


Given Kellogg's strong reputation in marketing, there are plenty of opportunities on campus for traditional marketing roles like brand and product management. Most technology companies hire international students for jobs located in the US. Opportunities for international students in brand do exist but are more limited. However, if you expand your location criteria to outside the US, there are many more brand management opportunities. Others sector that regularly hire international students for marketing are healthcare and medical devices.

While it does help to have a background in the specific industry you are looking for, many students have transitioned both industries and functional areas in the past. A little advance planning can go a long way. For example, if you are interested in healthcare marketing in the long term but have a background in finance within the technology industry, try to look for summer internships in the field of technology marketing and use your summer in marketing to transition to healthcare for a full time position.

The Career Management Center at Kellogg provides multiple resources to help you in your job search, from access to websites and job boards, mock interviews to career counseling. The various career related clubs at Kellogg also offer wikis, interview preparation help and organize company events for you to learn more about marketing in whichever industry you are looking at.Finally, second years are a great resource for you to bounce ideas off, get help with tailoring your resume and preparing for interviews. Use them, they are here to help!


Meghana Patwardhan (KSM'10) is a Vice President of the India Business Club. She worked as a consultant with Deloitte before school and spent the summer of 2009 in a marketing role at Dell Corporation. She can be reached at mpatwardhan2010@kellogg.northwestern.edu
__________________________________________________________________________