Career family
Sales, Marketing & Communications
Helping organisations understand customers, tell their story and sell their products and ideas.
- Mainly Leading & Enterprising
- Also Creating & Expressing
- Also Helping & Teaching
What the work involves
A closer look.
Roles mix creativity with targets and results. You may be meeting clients, writing campaigns, running social media or analysing what is working.
Typical roles
- Sales representative
- Marketing officer
- Brand manager
- Digital marketer
- Public relations officer
- Copywriter
- Market researcher
- Customer success manager
Entry routes in Nigeria
- Commercial or Arts subjects at SSCE
- Degrees in marketing, mass communication, business or English, among others
- Professional bodies such as NIMN for marketing, NIPR for public relations and APCON for advertising
- Short courses and a portfolio for digital marketing
Requirements change. Always verify with the official body, JAMB or the institution.
Skills that matter
- Clear speaking and writing
- Understanding people
- Persuasion and negotiation
- Basic data and reporting
- Creativity under deadlines
By life stage
Where you could start.
Secondary school
Often-linked SSCE stream: Commercial or Arts. Check with your school.
Undergraduate
Marketing, mass communication, business administration, English, economics. Internships: agencies, brand teams, media houses.
Fresh graduate
Sales executive, marketing assistant, social media officer, junior copywriter, customer success associate.
Young professional
People move in from customer service, teaching, writing and many technical fields where product knowledge helps in sales.
Vocational routes, entrepreneurship, public service and further study are all valid paths. We don’t show salaries or employment rates without a dated, verified source.
Ask a practitioner
Questions to ask.
Use these in a 15–20 minute conversation with someone who works in this family.
- What does a normal week look like for you?
- What do you enjoy most about the work, and what is hardest?
- How did you get into this field? Were there other routes you could have taken?
- Which subjects, courses or qualifications really matter, and which matter less than people think?
- What skills do you use every day that school didn’t teach you?
- What do people misunderstand about your job?
- If you were starting today, what would you do first?
- Who else should I talk to?
Test it
Ways to check if it suits you
Informational conversation
Talk to one person who does the work, using the questions on this page.
Job description review
Read three real adverts for roles in this family and list the requirements that keep coming up.
Small project
Try a small piece of the work yourself, then reflect on whether you enjoyed it.
Short course
Take a free or low-cost introductory course to test your interest before committing.
Job shadow or workplace visit
Spend a few hours watching the work happen. CPI arranges visits for participants.
Mentor conversation
Discuss what you have found with a mentor or coach.
Official qualification research
Check requirements with the professional body, JAMB, the institution or the employer directly.
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ExploreWant to know if this fits you?
Take the self-assessment, then use your roadmap to test this direction.