Editors’ Corner: The “Work-Ready” Marketing Graduate: Part II

Abstract

Welcome to Part II of the special issue on "The 'Work Ready' Marketing Graduate."Part I examined and expanded the existing thinking about what "work-ready" presently means and what it should mean in and beyond the marketing classroom.The articles examined the issues from both the business and academic perspectives, and they challenged the value of a specialist marketing education.In Part II, the focus shifts slightly.The first two articles examine successively how a student's transition to a "work-ready" graduate involves a gradual change in his or her own perceived identity, and how students' work-readiness might meaningfully be communicated to potential employers.Beyond their skill set, "workready" graduates must possess the ability to adapt their skills to meet the demands of a dynamic market place, which is the subject of the third article.The fourth article examines why many students are resistant to a career in sales and how this mindset can be changed.In the first article, Douglas Ewing and Randall Ewing consider whether marketing educators are producing successful business students rather than the "work-ready" graduates who employers seek."Work-ready" business graduates must first transition from the classroom where they have been conditioned to succeed in an academic environment to a business environment demanding different skills.Drawing on Identity Theory, the authors propose that the traditional "business student identity" needs to be redefined to facilitate students identifying as a working professional.The authors assert that if carefully orchestrated, a curriculum and academic environment that more closely reflects the professional environment will facilitate this transition.The initiative's potential obstacles and opportunities are identified and discussed.Heather Honea, Iana Castro, and Paula Peter examine how employers determine the competencies of job applicants, specifically how marketing practitioners evaluate different evidence items and activities as signals of marketing competencies among marketing graduates.The authors developed a survey composed of a comprehensive set of evidence items, and they surveyed marketing practitioners to determine the items that emerged as valued signals.The authors provide insights concerning how marketing curricula can be leveraged in terms of assessments and deliverables 740450J MDXXX10.

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