Hello,

This is a spanish citizen of 32 years old currently doing some research on Masters in Marketing both in North America and Europe.

I've worked for 5 years in car dealers doing sales & marketing and most recently worked in the marketing department of an automotive brand.

My desire is to gain a strategic vision of marketing and finding a program that enables me to land a marketing comms role preferably within a well recognized automotive manufacturer . My aim is to gain further expertise in key areas of marketing: marketing strategy and planning, marketing communications and branding, digital marketing...

My long term objective is to become a marketing leader in the auto industry.

My dilemma is:
Should I apply for a MSc in Marketing or waiting some years and going for an Executive MSc in Marketing? Is there any part-time program suited to professionals?

These are the options I am considering based on several factors: school reputation, job prospects, career service, quality,etc:
- USA: Georgetown, UT Dallas, NYU, Northwestern
- Europe: Esade, Cranfield, Warwick, UCD, Imperial

Please note that many of these programs are mostly oriented to recent graduates so I won't probably be a good fit. Taking into consideration my profile, what would be your recommendation?

After graduation I would like to work either in Canada, US or UK. FYI have not included any MSc from Canada as the offer is very poor in this type of degrees (don't know the reason).

Looking forward to your recommendations. If you need some more info please don't hesitate.
Thanks!

[Edited by magic1985 on Aug 10, 2017]

With 5 years of work experience you're probably better off looking at full-time MBA programs, which, beyond giving you a better salary in general, would probably help you more in getting a job in a different country. Of all the countries you're looking at, Canada is by far the most liberal in terms of post-MBA visas. Start here:

https://find-mba.com/lists/top-business-school-by-speciality/top-business-schools-for-marketing

Georgetown, NYU, Northwestern are excellent schools! A non MBA Masters in US is usually geared towards students with less work experience but that doesn't mean people with more work ex cannot apply/attend.

Understand, that in US post Master employment will depend upon your ability to convince a recruiter to sponsor you for H1B. This becomes tricky if you want to switch careers (functions specially) and get into something like Brand Management. It's not too specific a skillset for which companies can't find talent in US - thus they tend not to sponsor Internationals.

Usually international students immerse into lot of data driven marketing and tools such as Tablaeu, SPSS, SAS etc. (My sister (Indian) graduated from Fordham Univerisity - Master's in Marketing Intelligence, so I did some research about this).

Please note that there is considerable population of Hispanics in US, and some diversity programs as well such as National Black MBA, National Hispanic MBA.

After graduation I believe you'll have no problems (from Visa point of view) to work in EU/EEA. I am not sure how Brexit will change that with respect to UK. For US, many Europeans find their life partner in US which allows them to get Green Card or you can explore the GC Lottery based upon your country of birth. Otherwise read more about H1B process. Canada can be a good option given that some GM factories were moved from Detroit to Canada, having said that I am pretty sure that Marketing team is still pretty much in US.

Good luck!

Many thanks for the advices.
I just moved to Canada for work reasons but still interested in doing the MSc in the next couple of years.
Do you know any reputable MSc Marketing in Canada? I have not been able to find any masters degree in marketing in this country.
Would you recommend Canada or the US for a Masters in Marketing?

Yes, I know my profile is suitable for an MBA but that is something I am considering to do in the long term not now.

I am really passionate about marketing and would like to dive deep in both marketing strategy and marketing communications. From my research the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications from Georgetown is a good match with my interests and is also more affordable than NYU and Northwestern. I would also stand out the MSc Strategic Marketing from Cranfield which to my understand has a very robust curriculum with an in depth focus on marketing strategy and planning.

What would you recommend? Looking forward to your opinions. Thanks!

If you know French, HEC in Montreal has the best Canadian MSc in marketing http://www.hec.ca/programmes/maitrises/maitrise-marketing/index.html . Queens' also has a strong program, but it's more academic: https://smith.queensu.ca/grad_studies/MSC/areas_of_specialization/marketing.php

Thanks a lot for this informative post Duncan. I have a similr background, digital marketing. Im planning to get a masters from Canada, however, I want to stick with marketing and looking for marketing programs that are application/strategy oriented, not research.

The MBA programs I have come across are generic, hence, I think they make me miss out on the marketing knowledge I am looking to consolidate further.

Any advice. Thanks

I just checked the HEC Montreal MSc marketing program, it is exactly what I am looking for. However, French lang is a requirement I can not meet. Any similar programs, only in English lang. in Canada?

Thanks

Queens.

Concordia also offers an MSc in Marketing.