Suzanne - Not having seen the actual job description, I suspect you nailed it.

If they have resolved to replace the person every two years or less, though, they're on the right track. I just don't see why anyone would want to do that for such a position. Those sorts of credentials aren't the easiest in the world to find.

It alsmost makes sense, that they should hire someone fresh out of school. You know what though? They'll have a ton of applicants. And I'm sure you know someone who actually might fit the job description. In hindsight, I know it may be boring as toast to you, but to someone else, hey you never know..!!

When life gives you lemons...

Marc, Cam: Yes, they may have a ton of applicants, and, for the right person, it may be perfect.

BUT I still think something's wrong that they don't view it as a growth role. This kind of dead-end mindset puts marketers into marginalized roles -- right from the get-go!

Marc,

Asking for 10-12 years of experience are they really looking for someone fresh out of school? It looks like they want someone with experience.

Any creative person in a dead end job will leave at some point (I know I did), if it is in marketing or anything else. I now have a consulting company and one thing I have realized over time is how easy it is to make interesting ideas materialize. Sure, the lawyer and accountant sometime have headaches trying to nut out our crazy ideas but there is no excuse for having a boring company. Interesting companies attract interesting people and the reverse is of course true.

A lot of professional firms have no idea how to market themselves properly. Even worse, a lot believe that marketing is dirty because their services should sell themselves.

It doesn't surprise me that it's a revolving door job. It's very typical for a professional services firm to advertise a job that looks attractive - even with a boring Corporate America job description. But once the employee gets on board and really learns where marketing falls on the agenda, they easily get discouraged and move on.

I work w/ firms like this everyday to make a dent. Most believe that marketing is expensive, time consuming, un-measurable, and beneath them. It can be fixed, but only at the highest levels of an organization - and it usually takes significant effort.

are there MBA with 10-12 years of work ex looking for jobs??? I dont know, i believe I still have time to empthathise

Tim and Nick talk about dead end jobs and marketers getting into a job that LATER turns out to be a dud. For professional service firms (and I suspect other companies too), this is STILL a major wake-up call. Why search for 10-12 years of experience but offer no growth possibilities? Why marginalize marketing? I think it's increasingly required of the marketing professional himself -- whether inside a firm currently, or job hunting from the outside -- to start teaching these firms how to make more effective use of the function.