Professionalizing Marketing: The Public Face Portrayed in Recruitment Advertisements

The content and wording of job advertisements not only is important in attracting the appropriate candidate, but also provides insights into the professional status of a particular post and its standing in the organization. Reports on a content analysis of advertisements for marketing posts and examines key dimensions related to professionalism,i.e. qualifications, personal attributes or characteristics and experience. In the second part, uses similar posts drawn from personnel management advertisements as a basis for comparison. Finds that job advertisements in marketing do not emphasize aspects associated with professionalism. More specialized areas do tend to be a little more demanding, but the image of professionalism conveyed in the personnel job advertisements are much higher. Discusses this difference between the images conveyed by the two disciplines in terms of competition between the professions.