First of all, marketing jobs aren’t too difficult. Yes, marketing is hard. Developing products that people want, setting prices, building trust with a customer base—those things are hard. But most marketing jobs aren’t that. Most marketing jobs are tactical, office labor positions focused on words, pictures, and shiny software. I bet you already know how to write and take pictures. Oh, but you’re not a professional? No worries. Just make your writing worse (more vague, more boring, more self-congratulatory) and start taking pictures of things no one cares about (average products, people sitting at computers, fake bursts of joy performed by fake customers). Not sure about the shiny software? Google it. Read five blog posts. Open the software up. Good. You now know more about it than 99% of the people at your company, including all the executives. You might run into some tricky things here and there. How does the automation work? Why are we writing this press release in the passive voice? Do not fret. You are just learning the secrets of the trade—how to ruin things that might otherwise be cool.
Second of all, marketing jobs allow you to place the blame somewhere else. Nothing is selling? Bad product. Ad creative is subpar? The budget wasn’t big enough. Customers are unhappy? Talk to customer service. Marketing is conceivably an essential part of every corner of the organization, and just as conceivably responsible for almost none of it. Marketing job descriptions sound all-encompassing. Marketing jobs are not. Upload the .jpg. Start the campaign. Report the vanity metrics. Let the grownups at the company take care of the real business stuff.
Finally, a marketing job makes you sound reasonably successful. No, we’re not talking doctor, lawyer, investment banker successful. But we are talking health insurance, working at headquarters, and paying all your bills on time successful. And if you get really good at the bullshit (and farther away from the real work), you might start sneaking up on the third-rate lawyers. Plus, a marketing job means you’re not in sales. Sales might be more important to the organization, but nobody really likes salespeople. Remember, part of being reasonably successful is sounding respectable.
So, get yourself a marketing job. It’s probably the best slightly-above-average decision you can make.