Is marketing becoming Oxbridge-grad vogue?


Industry Magazine Marketing Week yesterday ran a story on the rise of Oxford and Cambridge university graduates entering into careers in marketing.
The article, which you can read here, is based on university post-grad surveys which indicate that Oxbridge students in marketing roles has doubled over the last four years.
This has apparently prompted industry figures to gaze wistfully, their eyes glazing over and daring to dream that marketing will be the 21st-century equivalent to the "old professions". MW themselves fanned the flames with the subheading: "boosting perception of the discipline among graduates of the UK’s premier universities to same level as finance, law and medicine."
David Thorp, director of research and professional development at the Chartered Institute of Marketing, says the shift will help subsequent generations view marketing as a profession enjoying the same status as the old established professions.
“No other profession is so effectively straddling art and science in the way that marketing does. As such it is increasingly seen as an intellectually-demanding calling that is every bit the equal of the “traditional” career choices Oxbridge graduates formerly made … marketing now really does impact on every area of life both in the commercial, public and social spheres.”
It is commendable that more red-brick universities are promoting marketing, and their students are responding. This will lead to a new demographic of candidates that will bring new ideas and skills that perhaps the industry had been lacking, and London-based City agencies will thrive.

But will this new generation of marketers put the profession on the same revered plinth as brain surgery, investment banking and the bar association?

In a word - no.

Marketing is popular because it is creative, modern and powerful. It is media-centric, filled with opportunity and, for want of a better phrase, big business. Again: it is popular - to all graduates.

2012's High Flyers recruitment survey suggested that graduate applications were higher and more competitive than ever, and Martin Birchall, managing director at High Flyers, said:

"Three years ago, when the recession first took hold, many students felt there was little point in looking for a graduate job in such a tough employment market and instead opted to take time off, go travelling or enrol for further study at university. Today's students aren't necessarily much more confident about the graduate job market but have been fighting really hard to secure the jobs that are on offer from employers."
In these findings, perhaps, is the real truth - the recession has bitten hard, less graduates are taking gap-years and are getting into employment as quickly as they can. It is ultra-competitive across all demographics, and the influx of Oxbridge candidates in marketing suggests that marketing is simply a viable and attractive option - which is great news for the industry.

But don't confuse a high number of applications with claims of "the new medicine/law/finance". Yes, the growing revolution of social media and smartphones and a culture of "always online" lets marketers and other digital industries dare to dream - and that is good. For our best and brightest (and wealthiest) to keenly regard marketing as a sound career path is great news for this evolving industry.

But those pillars of profession, medicine, law and finance, are steeped in history and tradition. Can you see marketers taking a Hippocratic oath? Or placing their right hand on the Bible?

Okay, I'm exaggerating. The article did say "perception" of graduates, and not reality. Marketing is an admirable career, at the cutting-edge of digital business.

Comparing marketing to near-vocational careers in medicine, law, and finance simply because of a rise in Oxbridge CVs is a touch overstated.

Marketing is a fashionably vogue career for the Apple and Facebook generation. The grand old professions shouldn't worry about their Oxbridge grads just yet.