I’m thinking of changing careers completely from marketing to psychology. I’ve worked in marketing for 15 years and studied it at university level for 6. I’ve reached the top, mastered it, and I’m ready for a career switch up.
But I’m worried I won’t have what it takes.
To me, studying and applying marketing strategy has always been about working in the ‘grey space’. There is no right or wrong answer - just a best justified and executed one. Like if you want to sell shoes to 15 years olds there are 100 ways to do it.
Will studying psychology be vastly different? I assume it will be more scientifically ‘black and white. Like if a 15 year old presents with symptoms of anxiety, there’s 1 exact way to diagnose her problem and 1 answer I must know to solve it (like math).
I have a very ‘grey space’ brain and way of learning and executing. This is what has made me a brilliant marketer. But will I struggle with a hard science discipline like psychology? Is it even a hard science at all?
I guess in essence I’m asking, can someone who’s been conditioned to think and learn and work in marketing for almost 20 years easily adapt to learning and working in psychology? Or is this apples and oranges?
Will my marketing career compliment psychology or present a learning barrier to it?
Well, in essence, propaganda is advertising. And advertising leans on satisfying perceived need.
So if I’m selling you shoes it’s to satisfy your physiological, social, or self-fulfilment order need. Shoes are functional, make you cool, or make a statement.
Propaganda is fulfilling some need to be effective - probably fear based in the social, safety, or belongingness orders, and carried via viral channels like word of mouth or social (viral).
I haven’t really thought about it too much but it’s just a communication or a reinforced message; it’s just advertising. Think about it that way.
And with regard to Russia, they are all ‘fear the West’ and ‘national pride’ driven, compounded over 3-4 generations. It would be such an easy spin.