What kind of jobs can i get with a career in marketing? good pay? any suggestions for someone who likes art?

i am very unsure of what career path to take but i think i would do well in marketing. what are some types of jobs that a degree in marketing could offer. any advice? what kind of pay? do people in marketing like their jobs? skills they should possess? are there any jobs in marketing that have to deal with art or design?
any other major you suggest?

is there anything you recommend i specialize in? i speak 3 languages so hopefully that helps my career...

I love my job in marketing because I know one thing for sure... it will never be the same thing every day. The field has offered me and incredible diversity of challenges & opportunities.

Keep in mind that you can take a marketing career into a variety of directions, and your employer might also give you a lot or very little flexibility to dabble in different areas. For example I've been in the tradeshow business (very logistical), and I've also been a marketing strategy guy (very hypothetical). I've been in Communications (very creative/left-brain), and I've been in Marketing Analysis (very right brain).

I did not major in Marketing - my B.A. was actually in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Government (when I chose my major I thought I wanted to be a lawyer... go figure). As much as some people might tell you there's a "pedigree" or "specific path" to be a marketing professional... that's kinda short-sighted and not completely true except in large company environments. Remember that small companies significantly outnumber the big ones, and small companies are more interested in character and results vs. formalities. Even Hewlett-Packard started in a guy's garage, and Steve Jobs was just another schlub on campus 30+ years ago.

For pay ranges, you might want to check out www.salary.com for job descriptions & wages.

One field you should definately look into is Marketing Communications - it deals a lot with art & design. Websites, product literature, tradeshow exhibits, video, etc. Keep in mind you may not have to work for a company directly to do this kind of stuff - creative agencies are another route into it (and you get the bonus of a wider variety of challenge).

Skills that have always been useful to me are:
* Learning as much as I can about the audience I'm marketing to. What are the challenges they face? What are their buying habits? What are their budgets? What do they read? What influences their opinion? You simply can't know enough about your audience when you're trying to market a product/service to them.
* Always translating features & technical details into value & benefit... why should the audience care about whatever you're trying to tell them. What's at stake for THEM when they read your gizmo or service does X, Y, or Z. Why should they care?
* Mastering the suite of MS Office applications. There are years of working in Powerpoint, Excel and Word ahead of an aspiring marketing professional.
* Remembering the golden rule of communication - "Communicate with people the way THEY want to be communicated with" If you're giving them paragraphs when all they want is bullet points, it's a disconnect. Or vice-versa.
* Self-motivation & enthusiasm - it can/will get you through tough challenges of deadlines, financial crunches, product launches, and marathons.

I did find that smaller companies offer a LOT more flexibility in job responsibilities and learning opportunities than larger companies, and high-tech salaries are better than most other industries. The small high-tech employer is also a pretty volatile employment & supervisory situation - but I always found it was the most fun. When you're part of a tight, energetic team and can see immediate results from your direct efforts, it's a total rush.

My best advice would be... be open, be willing to learn, and be honest with yourself as you go along your path. Your first couple of jobs are NOT your career - and the most important thing about taking a job out of college (besides paying the bills!), is the learning opportunity for what you do/don't want your next job AFTER that to be.

Good luck!