What does a job in Marketing involve?

Help me help my roommate find her ideal job in the wine industry of New York.

• What resources could I point my roommate towards to find strategic marketing/marketing research/marketing analyst jobs in the wine industry of New York City? My current roommate hails from one of the many wine regions of France and has a set of degrees (international business, wine, marketing, etc.) that places her in a great position to integrating into the wine industry of New York City, where we live. Her current sales job in wine is great for providing connections and getting the lay of the retail point of the industry in the city, but it's less than fulfilling for her long term goals. She has the chance to stay in the city beyond her initial contract, but because of the cost of the visa renewal, her boss doesn't want to take incur the expense if she doesn't commit for at least a few years. She doesn't want to keep this position that long and doesn't want to lie since the industry is still relatively small and burning that bridge could have serious consequences. Thus, I turn to you, Metafilter, to help me help her find resources for her dream job in the wine industry. (I don't want to find another roommate, our living situation is great!) Her ideal job would basically be a market analyst to find/create new venues and/or new wine products itself. One example would be pushing wine that uses a type of grape grown outside of its typical region of France to circumnavigate federal growing restrictions, thereby driving down cost of the grapes and thus the final product. This ideal job would therefore entail finding/creating these kinds of new wine products and/or identifying distribution channels and retail sale points. The way it has been explained to me is that marketing analyst/research jobs - while obviously well developed in many industries - does not really exist yet in wine, at least not at a macro level. Most wine is pushed to retailers through salespeople who represent distributors, and does not necessarily directly involve marketers. Ergo, any advice you fine MeFites might be able to offer in finding specific companies that might have such positions available or would be willing to create such a position for the right person would be great. As an FYI - my roommate speaks perfect French, English and Italian, so language is definitely not a problem. The major issue is finding a good fit job that is not mostly commissioned based and could provide a visa!

• Answer:

  I agree with COD that her current position in wine sales (I assume she works for an importer) is far better suited toward answering this question than just about anyone. The few people I know who work in wine here are managers at higher-end wine shops and restaurants; has she considered those options? I knew a guy who worked for an importer (which it sounds like your friend is doing), and from what I understand it's a total Ol' Boys Club. If she's interested in working specifically for a wine producer, I don't know how much opportunity there is here as opposed to California or the Northwest.