How does a mid twenties female BA grad get a job in marketing?

I hire and train junior marketing people, both agency and in-house, with an emphasis on content. Here's what I look for. First, I look for excellent communication skills, written, verbal or visual. Second, for an entry-level person, I look for enthusiasm, interest in building new skills, and some sort of achievement, even in extracurriculars or an unrelated job, that suggests a strong work ethic. Third, I look for signs of creativity, intellectual curiosity, or willingness to take risks that suggest the candidate could have interesting ideas several years down the road. I'm not sure if resumes or CVs are the norm in Montreal (if that's still where you are), but Google or your college career center should be able to point you to appropriate formats. (Even if you are several years out of school, your college career center may still be able to help you.) Follow the format, and write a clear and short cover letter that pulls out the 2 or 3 pieces of experience you have that demonstrate you have the skills and attributes requested in the job ad. Use the same words that are used in the ad, e.g. if the ad says "self-starter with excellent attention to detail", write "My experience doing X at position Y demonstrates that I am a self-starter. I also exceeded expectations doing A at job B due to my excellent attention to detail." Your resume and cover letter should be either a word document or PDF, and a plain text version should also be in the email or online application. The best way to present work samples is a very simple website with a brief bio and links to your samples, but email attachments will also work, so long as the files are small (i.e. under 1 MB). Bringing printed samples to your interview is nice, but not necessary, as you aren't a graphic designer. Be sure to take screenshots of any work samples on a client website, as that site will inevitably be updated and your work lost when it's least convenient for this to happen. Do not worry too much about what to wear, as there's a pretty large range of acceptable. But generally speaking, a neutral skirt and blazer (not necessarily a suit) with a more colorful or patterned blouse or shell would be a good balance between professional and creative for a marketing interview. Check your memail, there's a bit more there.

You need to maximize your exposure to the places that need a person with your skills. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304732804579421193598598888 might be helpful. If you can quantify what you did for that year that you call 'did everything' - what traffic did you drive, by what % did revenue grow, metrics of stuff that you were involved with all will help. A marketing person has as skills a knowledge of customer behavior and the ability to use that knowledge to influence a buying decision. So if you are an expert at content creation then show what kind of revenue growth was associated with that effort, what kind of traffic or pageviews, you have the opportunity to show how measurable this new world of marketing is. Ruthless Bunny hit is right on regarding what to wear - just slightly better than what everyone else is wearing. The goal of the cover letter / resume is to get the interview. The goal of the interview is to get a second one (if part of their process) or an offer. You will want several people with experience to give you feedback on your resume's effectiveness. If you did any social media work in your professional life be sure to include that - very useful skill. However the advice to leave personal life out of work life is also right on.

OK. As a junior, you don't want a placement firm - that's for later in your career. Look at ad agencies, brand agencies and marketing departments of larger companies. Have a content strategist/writer version of your resume (emphasizing your experience there) and a portfolio/blog of work you've done (that's not BSDM - but you can say in general skills that you've run hobbist blogs and social media, giving you experience in WordPress, SEO, etc, etc. in the skills section of your resume). Apply for those type of jobs with a catchy, friendly cover letter that demonstrates that you get your target audience (the reader of the letter) and you can write compelling copy that gets you an invitation to talk to them. If you don't have a strong book, pick up the Copy Workshop Workbook and do the exercises - they're good for building a junior portfolio. Read industry and trade blogs. Make sure you know what the Chicago and AP manuals of style are. These days, most portfolios I've seen are WordPress or web sites - you can always put a printout of your best work mounted on thin black board or just put into a clear sleeve portfolio case. I have no problem if someone brings in a laptop or tablet and show their work with me digitally. If I were you, I'd also have a strategy version of your resume. After all, you're a strategist except for that dash of copywriting. Your degree is perfect for the research/insights department, your experience is perfect for the media department, your well-roundedness is great for the account department. Traffic coordinator (if you're good with details and calendars), account coordinator (if you're good with saying no in a nice way), media planning associate (if you're good at math, understand online advertising and can hold your liquor) are the kind of jobs you're looking for in that case. You've got the analytical skills and being a strong writer is critical in the more functional business writing these folks need. Either way, use Indeed and LinkedIn to look for jobs and tailor your pitch to the job specifically. You may be a generalist, but you're responding to their job and in that moment, it's the only job you'd ever want and you're the perfect person for it. The best advice I ever got: Network - find anyone you know who knows someone anywhere you want to work. Or send notes on LinkedIn. Then, ask to do informational interviews with people who work in firms that you're interested in. Yes, this is uncomfortable and weird, but awesome, because you get to practice being nervous without having a job on the line and you can ask real people who will some day have real jobs and have real connections these same questions (minus the BSDM). Informational interviews usually get set up "I'm trying to get my foot in the door in the industry. Can I buy you coffee and ask you for some general advice?" is a good starter. I've done them for juniors via Google+ ('cause there's no good coffee around my work. Important: If you get an informational interview, ask a lot of questions and listen well. Ask about how they got their start, how they got their first job, what mistakes they made trying to get into marketing, how they determined that (their department/title) was the right career direction for them when there are so many avenues to pursue in marketing. Ask them what their day is like, what they spend most of their time doing, what the most fun part of their job is. Keep to the time they give you - don't make them late - and send a thank you, either by mail or email, but I'd recommend mail, especially if you can "brand it" with your personality and contact information, so when they tack it up, or put it on a shelf, or whatever, when they do see a junior position open up, they'll have it handy. Don't hit them up for a job in any way. Treat them as someone who wants to help you in the industry in general. Be really respectful and learn all about them. And they'll try to give you good advice and, if they like you, they'll keep an eye out for jobs for you.