What is the best way to go to the TX Motor Speedway?

What are the best ways to get a job in the Marketing world?

• I just recently graduated college Magna Cum Lade in 3 years. I'm just now 20 years old and I have great experience for my age. I've worked as a store manager for a UPS store, I worked at Fidelity with retirement accounts (when I was an undecided business major and thought finance was the way to go for me... I was wrong) and then changed to marketing. Since I changed majors I've been working for a company that is all about consulting and I run their marketing (including all of the marketing interns) and all of their sites (they have several other businesses on the side). There isn't much room to grow here, and the pay isn't great.   I ideally would love to work for a marketing/advertising agency, or a sports facility (I'm in the DFW area) so Texas Motor Speedway, Dallas Stadium, American Airlines center, etc. or a reputable, established company where (as cliche as it sounds) I can grow.   I've have experience in designing websites, backend HTML coding (lightly), promoting websites, building traffic, marketing to clients, creating advertisements, management, etc. I'm really driven and don't want to take something just to take it. I don't want a call center job where I'm doing cold calls or working for a small business that requires me to be the only marketer. I work well on teams with collaboration but I'm a natural born leaders.   Any ideas of companies to check out, places to apply, things to do, etc. I have created a personal website to showcase my skills and work.

• Answer:

  You need a network. And the fastest way to get one in your area and in your industry is through "informational interviews". Use LinkedIn to find the marketers who worknat the exact companies you're interested in. You'll need a list of dozens of people. Email and call these people. Tell them you want to do a 20 minute phoner just to learn their story and gain insight on your industry. Some people will say yes even though you're cold calling them. However if the idea of cold calling gives you the sweats start off by asking your current network to introduce you to new people. Warning - the second method is a lot slower, and you'll still run into walls anyway. After each informational interview ask for a referral to someone else. I'm following tjis process myself right now and I'm surprised at how willing strangers have been to introduce me to other strangers. Keep in touch with your new network by sending them interesting articles over email. Try to take key people out to lunch and pay for the meal.  Eventually through the power of serendipity you will begin hearing about jobs before there is an actual posting for it. Right now I'm considering a position that was created for me. The company knows me through my network. It has little to do with how awesome am.