Whether you’re planning your leadership career development, interested in the next step up, or are recruiting for a senior marketing role, it pays to keep an eye on the job market.
What’s the current job market like? It seems pretty fluid.
Being an executive search firm, we’re quite a good barometer of the market – if we’re going well, it means our clients are hiring. For the last three years, our revenue stream has gone up year-on-year, and this will be our record year. While everyone has been worried about Brexit, it would appear that many are trying to hire themselves out of a potential downturn.
Also, candidates want change. About 35% of our revenue comes from repeat placements. A lot of the people we’ve placed will come back to us telling us they fancy a change, don’t feel fulfilled or are looking for more from their role.
What are the current skills most hiring companies look for in a senior marketer?
The classic thing businesses are looking for is people with cultural awareness. They want to know whether the hire can make an impact culturally and change the dynamics of the organisation. They want someone who can take a £17 million company to £21 million over a set period of time, and know the steps to get them there.
They’re also looking for people skilled in relationship building. Of course as a director, you’re always going to need operational experience and commercial awareness, but that comes as standard.
Have those requirements changed much over the past few years?
Back then, there weren’t as many senior roles available; it was more about building talent at the mid-level, although this is more so the case with agencies, than clients. That’s because three years ago businesses weren’t focusing on expansion but on offering a full service to their clients in order to get the maximum from them.
Downturn or not, companies are now asking ‘how are we going to sustain our place in the market?’ The answer is not by just delivering on what they’ve got, but looking at new revenue streams.
How high does financial literacy rank in the wish lists of recruiters?
Very few of the people we place get asked about financial literacy. While they do need to be commercially aware and understand the P&L, it’s really not the most important thing. I’m not sure why; it’s a bit bizarre. Of course you do have dedicated departments for that, but as a business leader it’s so integral.
It’s not like the nineties when people cared more about facts and numbers, it’s about more human emotion now. There has definitely been a shift to being more socially and emotionally aware. People don’t just want to buy products or services, they want to buy into a business and brand.
So emotional intelligence is highly sought after. But what does that trait look like in interview?
We’ve all been there, the candidate ticks all the boxes except for cultural fit. Funnily enough, if you ask the hirer to elaborate, they never will. It’s about connection, which is very hard to define but very important to obtain.
That ability to relate allows you to connect with your peers and customers, and you have to demonstrate it. It doesn’t matter how many amazing campaigns you’ve worked on, if you can’t connect with the people who pay the bills and are aligned to their business ethos, you won’t get the job.
What advice can you give to marketers on determining the fit and culture of a business before their interview?
We always tell our candidates not to look at the website and assume they know the business or their potential role in it. Most of the time the website never represents what that company is really trying to be. Actually, it represents where it was a few years ago. Your job would be to take it in a new direction.
Look at the key influencers in the business, the heads of department and policy makers – that’s whether you’re being interviewed by them or not. Look at their work history, social media and the blogs they’ve written to understand what makes them tick. That will tell you more about the business and how to influence it than the website ever would.
Many leaders advocate continuous learning but is that really something most businesses deliver?
Marketing agencies have one of the highest rates of staff turnover. Most agencies don’t truly invest in their own talent, some do it very well and invite external trainers in, but most don’t. So most staff leave after about two years. Agencies often complain about recruitment costs but they wouldn’t be nearly as high if they were recruiting less for replacement and more for expansion.
Given that moving roles is part of career progression and a means to develop different skills, is there a certain route you’d recommend marketers take? For example, should they be specialists or generalists?
Ten years ago it was all about being a jack-of-all-trades but now businesses want specialists, for example in ABM or fintech. Often the wider the candidates’ experience, the less they progress during the interview process.
And actually, you can gain a lot of targeted experience from bouncing between roles within the same company. It’s not always right to jump ship.
What does the typical senior marketer want from an ideal role?
If you go back to 2007 and onwards, it was more about money and job security, because people were worried about the recession. They didn’t move around a lot, but if they did, it was always about the money. Now we’re in a state of transition. We’re still dealing with a candidate base that are financially motivated, but I’m also getting asked about flexible working – that’s the biggest thing at the moment.
Where does flexible working rank in the typical candidate’s wish list?
The top concern for candidates is still salary, but next comes job flexibility. That’s before culture and career progression. Five years ago we weren’t talking about paternity leave for flexible working for mums, it was taboo. Now senior marketers are prepared to work into the night but they want to be able to take their kids to school. That’s why quite a few agencies are extending the working day but moving to four day weeks.
What’s the typical route for a marketer who’s finished the daily grind of a senior leadership role and wants to slow down their career?
A lot of marketers who worked at global, well-known organisations now contract as one-man-bands sent in to troubleshoot. Eighty percent of the time it will be because they have an existing relationship with the company. But it can also be tough to earn enough from consultancy to keep the wolves from the door.
What’s the demand for marketers in non-executive board roles?
I place a few marketers in NED [non-executive director] roles, typically who have run their own business and want to come in and do a few days a month, but it’s not that common. It’s tough for marketers past a certain age.
I see some unbelievable talent, both client-side and from agencies, with a wealth of great experience. They’ve had career defining moments, sometimes run their own companies, but because they’re in their mid-50s they’re deemed old hat and can’t find roles.
I have marketers who were on £170,000 salaries who now can’t get a job for £70,000 because of their age. It breaks my heart and it does need to change. We’ll all reach that age ourselves but refuse to pull our heads out of the sand. In fact, I’d like to set up a recruitment agency for veteran marketers – no joke. Not least because I think companies need this untapped talent now more than ever.
