Career
Marketing managers
Decide what a company sells, to whom, and how it tells the story.
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- Formulate, direct, or coordinate marketing activities or policies to promote products or services, working with advertising or promotion managers.
- Use sales forecasting or strategic planning to ensure the sale and profitability of products, lines, or services, analyzing business developments and monitoring market trends.
- Identify, develop, or evaluate marketing strategy, based on knowledge of establishment objectives, market characteristics, and cost and markup factors.
- Direct the hiring, training, or performance evaluations of marketing or sales staff and oversee their daily activities.
- Evaluate the financial aspects of product development, such as budgets, expenditures, research and development appropriations, or return-on-investment and profit-loss projections.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on persuasion & leadership, then information & systems?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Formulate, direct, or coordinate marketing activities or policies to promote products or services, working with advertising or promotion managers.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Active Listening, Speaking, Reading Comprehension, Complex Problem Solving.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
4 years of education after high school (bachelor's degree), for a median of $166,790 a year and 34,000 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- MarketingSee the degree →
- Consumer Merchandising/Retailing ManagementCIP 19.0203
- Apparel and Textile Marketing ManagementCIP 19.0905
- Pharmaceutical Marketing and ManagementCIP 51.2011
- Marketing/Marketing Management, GeneralCIP 52.1401
- Marketing ResearchCIP 52.1402
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists$78,760 · +7.0%
- Sales Managers$148,270 · +4.5%
- Advertising and Promotions Managers$133,660 · -3.7%
- Search Marketing Strategists
- Advertising Sales Agents$64,820 · -7.2%
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
Not sure this fits who you are? Start with Vocational Finder →
Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.