Let me start with some tough love, delivered with a cuppa and a hug.

If you’re a graduate applying for marketing roles in Northern Ireland right now, you’re up against a lot of people. Big UK employers receive an average of 140 applications per graduate vacancy, the highest the Institute of Student Employers has recorded since it started counting in 1991. In 2024/25, digital and IT roles were among the most competitive, at around 205 applications per vacancy.

And the internships that used to be your way in? Those are getting crowded too. Employers received 101 applications per internship and 123 per placement in the last cycle.

So if you’ve sent 46 applications and heard nothing back, please hear this: it’s not (only) you. The maths is brutal.

But the maths also tells you something useful. When everyone is doing the same thing, doing something different is how you get noticed.

Here’s what I’d tell you if you were sitting across the desk from me.

1. Stop sending more. Start sending better.

I know it’s tempting. AI tools make it possible to fire out ten ‘tailored’ applications before your toast pops. But the ISE’s advice is blunt: sending lots of poorly prepared applications isn’t the answer. And employers have noticed. I, for one, have noticed and it gets me so triggered. 

Around 79% of employers are reviewing or redesigning their recruitment processes because of AI. 61% have caught candidates using AI during interviews without saying so. [Yikes.]

When I read applications, I can usually spot the AI written ones within a line or two. They all sound the same > ‘passionate’, ‘dynamic’, ‘results-driven’. They talk about ‘leveraging synergies’ and never once mention our clients, our work or anything specific about us. I have worked in marketing for almost 30 years and NEVER EVER have I talked about ‘leveraging’ anything!

What works instead: Pick fewer roles. Research each business properly. Look at their website, their socials, their recent work. Then write something that could only have been written to them by a human. Mention a campaign you liked and say why. That alone puts you ahead of most of the pile.

2. Show me, don’t tell me

‘I’m creative and a strong communicator’ tells me nothing. Every single application says that. [Communication is the most-requested skill in NI job ads, so everyone leans on it.]

A portfolio tells me everything.

And no, you don’t need a client list to have a portfolio. You can:

• Run a real account. Grow a page for a local club, charity, family business or your own side project. Track the numbers. Write up what you tried and what happened.
• Do a ‘spec’ campaign. Pick a local brand you love and plan a social campaign for it. Strategy, content pillars, three sample posts, how you’d measure success. One page is plenty.
• Make content that proves a skill. A short-form video you shot and edited. A carousel you designed in Canva. A blog post that ranks for something.
• Audit something. Look at a local business’s Instagram and write down five things you’d change and why. [Please don’t send it to them unsolicited with a list of their failings, though. Ask first. Manners.]

Put it on a simple one-page site or even a well-organised Google Drive folder, and link to it at the top of your CV.

Steal this idea: pitch in public

If you want proof that ‘show, don’t tell’ works, go and watch this reel from @sillbillsocial. [I’m genuinely obsessed with it.]

She’s a personal brand and social media strategist who’s worked on brands like NYX and Maybelline. When she wanted to get the attention of Aimee Smale, the founder of fashion brand Odd Muse, she didn’t send a polite email and hope for the best. She pitched to her publicly, on social, and then broke down exactly how she did it.

The reel opens with one line on screen: ‘POV it’s your first day as the social strategist for ODD MUSE.’ She hasn’t got the job. She just acts like she has. Then, in under three minutes, she does the job on camera:

• She builds the world. Coffee in hand, an ‘Odd Muse social strategy’ whiteboard behind her, a mood board of the brand’s pieces pinned to the wall, and a pinstripe blazer that looks straight out of their autumn edit. Before she says a word, it looks like she already works there.
• She uses the brand’s own assets. Odd Muse product shots, the brand’s Instagram profile and its member community all appear on screen. She’s clearly done her homework.
• She quotes the founder back to herself. She drops in a clip of Aimee talking on her own podcast about marketing, and builds on it. Nothing gets a founder’s attention like proof that you’ve actually listened.
• She brings an idea, not just compliments. She pulls in a news headline, ‘How Gen X is leading the world in consumer spending’, alongside street-style shots of chic older women, and makes the case for an audience the brand could be talking to more.
• She backs it with data. A search trends chart pops up to show the idea isn’t a hunch.
• She talks product. She works through specific pieces and trends (think fringe and that cardigan) rather than vague ‘brand awareness’ chat.

It’s a pitch, a portfolio and a strategy presentation in one reel. And it worked. Aimee had said she was looking for help with social media and content. Sillbill didn’t just put her hand up. She showed what that help would look like, and she got the meeting. Because it was posted publicly, every other founder scrolling past saw what she can do too.

Here’s why it’s so clever:

• It’s the job interview and the portfolio in one. She didn’t tell a founder she was good at social. She showed her, on the platform the job is actually done on.
• It meets the founder where she already is. Aimee built Odd Muse from her bedroom, largely on TikTok and founder-led content. A pitch made as content speaks her language.
• It works even if it doesn’t ‘work’. Every other brand, founder and recruiter watching sees the pitch too. The content keeps doing its job long after it’s posted.

Your NI version: Pick a local brand you genuinely love. Make the content you’d make for them > a reel, a carousel, a mini strategy. Post it, tag them, and keep it generous, not a teardown. Even better, keep an eye out for founders saying they need help, the way Aimee did, and answer with work rather than a CV. Worst case, you’ve added a brilliant piece to your portfolio. Best case, you end up in a meeting with the founder.

3. Get the free certifications (they’re genuinely useful)

Certifications won’t get you hired on their own. But they show initiative, and they mean you’ll understand the platforms on day one. The best part? Loads of them are free.

• Google Skillshop > Google Ads and Google Analytics certifications
• Meta Blueprint > free courses on Facebook and Instagram advertising
• HubSpot Academy > free inbound marketing, content and email marketing certifications
• Skill Up (NI) > free accredited courses for anyone 18+ who’s eligible to work in NI, delivered through local universities and colleges. When the programme launched, digital marketing was one of the subject areas on offer. Check what’s open this year through nibusinessinfo or your local college.

If you can talk confidently in an interview about how you’d set up a basic Meta campaign or what you’d look at first in Google Analytics, you’re already ahead of a lot of applicants.

4. Look beyond the ‘graduate scheme’ label

In July 2026, only around 300 of the roughly 10,400 online job ads in NI mentioned the word ‘graduate’. Most marketing jobs here won’t say ‘graduate’ anywhere in the ad.

Northern Ireland’s economy is mostly small and medium-sized businesses. That means a lot of great starter roles are titled things like ‘Marketing Assistant’, ‘Social Media Executive’, ‘Content Coordinator’ or ‘Digital Marketing Executive’. Some are part-time. Some are maternity cover. Some are never advertised at all.

What to do:

• Search by job title, not by ‘graduate’.
• Follow local agencies and businesses you admire on LinkedIn and Instagram > many share roles there first.
• Don’t rule out fixed-term contracts. A 12-month mat cover is a brilliant way to get real experience on your CV.
• Keep an eye on Assured Skills Academies from the Department for the Economy. They’re free, short pre-employment programmes designed with employers. A recent Software Sales Academy at Belfast Met guaranteed every successful participant an interview, with starting salaries typically £25,000 to £30,000. Not marketing, but sales and marketing skills overlap more than people think.

5. Get in the room

I’ll never stop banging this drum. So many of the best opportunities in NI come through people, not portals.

• Go to the NI Graduate Recruitment Fair (held at Ulster University’s Belfast campus in June).
• Go to local marketing, tech and business events. Many are free or have student rates.
• Join professional bodies with student membership, like the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), which has an active Ireland network.
• Use your university careers service. Many offer support to graduates after you’ve finished, so ask.

And when you go, don’t just collect business cards. Ask people one good question about their work, then follow up within a day. That’s it. You’d be amazed how few people do the follow-up.

6. Understand what the job actually is

This one matters. A lot of people apply for marketing roles because they like social media. That’s a great starting point. But day-to-day marketing also involves:

• reading data and reports (and caring about them),
• writing a lot > captions, emails, ads, blogs, client updates,
• testing things that don’t work and trying again,
• managing deadlines, budgets and client expectations,
• explaining your decisions to people who don’t ‘get’ social media.

If that list excites you, brilliant. Say so in your application, with an example. If it doesn’t, that’s OK too > but it’s better to know now than six months into a job you don’t enjoy.

7. Look after yourself through the process

Job hunting in this market is exhausting. Rejections (or silence) hurt, especially when you’ve done everything ‘right’.

Set yourself a sensible routine. Track your applications in a simple spreadsheet. Celebrate the small wins > a reply, an interview, a good conversation at an event. And talk to people. Your friends are probably going through the same thing.

Remember, the ISE found that 92% of graduate hiring is still going ahead as normal. The jobs are there. You’re just playing a longer game than graduates did a few years ago.

The bottom line

The graduates who stand out right now aren’t the ones with the most applications sent. They’re the ones who make it easy for an employer to picture them in the job. Do fewer applications, better. Show your work. Get in the room. Keep learning.

And if you’re applying to us? Show us something you’ve made. We’ll read it properly. Promise.

Know a graduate who’s job hunting right now? Share this with them. And if you’ve got a tip that landed you your first marketing role, tell us in the comments.

References

• Institute of Student Employers, ISE top 10 stats of 2025 > 140 applications per vacancy, 79% reviewing recruitment
• HRreview, Graduate job applications hit record high (2024) > 205 applications per digital and IT vacancy
• Institute of Student Employers, 5 internship and placement trends to watch in 2026
• Times Higher Education, Large employers hire more apprentices as graduate jobs cut back > 61% caught undisclosed AI use in interviews
• Department for the Economy, Online Job Posting Trends, July 2026
• Belfast Met, NI’s first Assured Skills Academy in Software Sales
• Ulster University, NI Graduate Recruitment Fair 2026
• Department for the Economy, Skill Up launch

Resources

• Skill Up course list (nibusinessinfo)
• Ulster University Skill Up
• Google Skillshop, Meta Blueprint and HubSpot Academy > free platform certifications
• Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Ireland > student membership and events
• Assured Skills Academies > announced on the Department for the Economy news page

Also referenced: @sillbillsocial reel: how she publicly pitched to Aimee Smale · StartupRise: how Aimee Smale built Odd Muse