Our question this week is an excellent one for anyone who is looking to start their career in marketing: “How can I make myself stand out as a strong candidate for my first full-time marketing role?”
The job market is tough at the moment. It can be hard to stand out amongst other candidates. It’s even more difficult if you are looking for your first role in the industry.
I’m going to walk through a few ways that you can identify the right role for you, increase your chances of being invited to interview, and demonstrate your suitability for the role to hiring managers.
Finding The Right Opportunities To Apply For
One of the most important steps in standing out amongst a sea of other applicants is making sure you are applying for the right roles.
When you are looking through the job boards or speaking with recruiters, it’s critical that you consider the following:
Do I Want To Be A Specialist Or A Generalist Marketer?
Marketing is an extremely broad industry. It covers online and offline, acquisition and retention, creative and technical – email, paid, organic, CRM, and social.
There are many types of work that can be carried out under the “marketing” umbrella. You may have a clear idea of what type of marketing interests you, or you might still be unsure.
If you are unsure, then it may be a good idea to look at a more generalist role for your first one. This would be one that gives you exposure to different types of marketing. For example, a role that means you’ll be working on a paid ad campaign one day and an email campaign another.
This way, after a few years in the role you’ll have solid experience in a range of disciplines and can make a more informed decision about the direction you want your career to go in.
Having a broad experience also makes it easier for you to work collaboratively with other marketers in the future, as you’ll have an understanding of what their work entails.
In-house Or Agency?
Speak to any marketer, and they will tell you that there are some big differences between working in-house for a brand and working for clients in an agency.
It is worth considering these when looking for your first role. For example, when working as an in-house marketer, you will likely get to really dig deep into marketing for that one industry.
You may be working with other industry specialists and will have the opportunity to learn a lot about how to market to that particular audience.
However, there’s a risk that you may not have many other marketers to learn from. You may be in a team of one or two other marketers, and you may not benefit from the wisdom of a wide range of experienced colleagues. Your stakeholders will be the business’s decision-makers, potentially very senior members of staff.
However, working for an agency gives you exposure to many more industries, businesses and types of activities.
If you are looking to focus on SEO, for example, your likelihood of being involved in complicated SEO processes like migrations and technical audits will increase.
Your stakeholders will mainly be clients, other agencies, and perhaps your agency’s development team. However, you will always be one step removed from the business you are marketing for and the decisions made about it.
Do I Need To Research Marketing Channels Further?
You may need to pause your search for your new role to do some more research. Spend some time looking into the different marketing channels and the skills needed for them.
If you have any connections who are marketers, spend some time speaking to them about what they enjoy about their roles and what their favorite marketing activities are. This way, you can start to get a feel for what roles you might thrive in.
Applying For Roles
Once you have identified the jobs that you are interested in, it’s time to start applying. This is your opportunity for first impressions. There are many guides available on how to structure your resume to show off your skills.
For your first role in the marketing industry, you need to pay attention to the skills listed in the job adverts and make sure you include and demonstrate them in your resume.
That’s tricky to do, though, if this is your first marketing job. So how do you evidence your suitability through your application?
Transferrable Skills
Look at the skills involved in the marketing activities the role would require you to carry out. Read through the job description and pick out any specific behavior traits it mentions. Think back through your recent work or voluntary experience and pick out where those skills overlap with the job requirements.
For example, if you have worked in retail or customer service, you will have likely developed excellent stakeholder management skills. These are always useful for marketing roles. Working as an administrator in an office will have given you experience in meeting tight timelines. Your prize-winning art school submission evidences your creativity!
Whatever your previous experience is, there will most likely be aspects from which you can draw parallels to the requirements of the role you are applying for.
Remember, if you are applying for entry-level marketing roles, the hiring team should be expecting you to have little to no formal work experience within the industry.
Demonstrating that you are aware of what the role entails, and that you have already begun cultivating the skills needed for it will set you apart from a vast number of other candidates.
Voluntary Experience
Voluntary work experience in marketing will help you stand out. It will further demonstrate that you understand different marketing techniques and job requirements. Many charities will be grateful for assistance with their marketing.
If you do this, just make sure that you feel confident enough in your knowledge that you are not going to make serious mistakes or that you will be given a supervisor who can help guide you.
If you can’t find suitable voluntary experience you could try approaching local marketing agencies and seeing if they offer work experience placements.
Even a week of work will give you experience you can include on a resume and, perhaps more importantly, will help you create a network of other marketers.
Get A Resume Check From A Marketing Recruitment Specialist
Finally, if you are unsure that your resume is showcasing all of your transferrable skills and marketing knowledge in a way that is attractive to hiring managers, consider a resume review.
Many recruiters will offer you the opportunity to have your resume reviewed by them for free. Look for ones that specialize in recruiting for marketing roles.
You benefit from their years of experience working with candidates. They may even forward you for any appropriate roles they are recruiting for.
Nailing The Interviews
Remember, if you are applying for the right types of roles, no one is going to expect you to have all the answers during your interview. They will know that you are looking to break into the industry.
I have a lot of experience in hiring marketing interns and early-career colleagues. The candidates who have impressed me the most for these roles are those who have shown that they understand what it entails and can demonstrate a passion for marketing.
These roles have been designed to train new marketers, so the emphasis isn’t on their experience but on their ability to learn and their interest in doing so.
So when you get to your interviews, think about the following.
What Excites You About The Role?
Research each company that you are interviewing with and be ready to talk about why that role interests you.
For example, if you are applying to an agency, you can look at its website and social media accounts to identify some of the clients and industries it works with.
Perhaps its focus on charities appeals to you, or you feel that the opportunity to work with a broad range of companies will help grow your marketing skills quickly.
Take a look at some of the campaigns the agency has carried out or the work it has done to win awards. Speak to the team about specific examples and why you feel that is the sort of work you want to be involved with.
If you are applying to in-house roles, still take a look at their social media and websites. Sign up for their email newsletters.
This will give you an understanding of what sort of marketing they are doing. Perhaps you like the tone of voice they use with their audience or think their most recent email campaign was particularly effective.
Discussing these aspects shows you are interested in their company, but more importantly, that you understand the different marketing levers they are already using.
Where You Have Learned Marketing
Be ready to discuss where you have learned about marketing. This may be through formal education like a degree, or it might be that you have taken on your own personal studies.
Interviewers will be interested to know what you already understand about marketing theory but also that you are still trying to stay up to date. Remind yourself of the conferences you’ve attended, podcasts you’ve listened to, and articles you’ve read. This can demonstrate both a passion for marketing but also a strong grounding in its principles.
Perhaps your knowledge has come about through some side projects you’ve worked on at your previous jobs.
You may not have been the company’s full-time marketer, but you may have assisted in putting together an ad campaign or carrying out marketing surveys.
This is all relevant experience and knowledge that you should highlight at the interview to stand out from the crowd.
Show Your Continued Interest In Marketing
Another way to stand out as a candidate who is genuinely interested in the marketing industry is to talk about news, trends, and campaigns that you have recently seen.
For example, keeping up-to-date via publications like Search Engine Journal means you can talk about the latest advancements regarding AI in marketing – or you can discuss recent Google system updates and changes to social media platforms. All of this will show that you are embedding yourself in the industry and keeping abreast of important changes in it.
Have a look at some recent marketing campaigns that have stood out to you – both successful and not. Think about what they got right in terms of audience, messaging, and channels. Think about what you would recommend they change.
Also, note some companies that you think are leading the charge within the marketing channels you are looking to work with.
Or perhaps even research some of the competitors for the company you are applying to. You can have a look at what they are doing well or poorly at in regards to their marketing.
This will demonstrate that you are already thinking about how to critique and improve campaigns. It also shows that you understand the importance of competitor analysis and monitoring.
Get Advice From People Already In The Industry
A lot of what goes into landing a good job in marketing, especially if it is your first one, is who you know.
The marketing industry, especially among channel specialists, can be very tight-knit. This means that you should try to take full advantage of the communities and conferences available to you.
Ask people already doing the type of marketing you’re hoping to work in what they would be looking for when hiring a junior – what skills they are looking for and what sort of behaviors they would want to see demonstrated in interviews.
You might be able to arrange for a mentor through one of these communities. That way you are getting to know someone more senior than you who will be able to connect you with other marketers and potentially even provide a reference for you.
Have Examples
Finally, a great way to stand out from the crowd is to start doing the work that you want to end up doing.
By that, I mean create some draft Facebook adverts or sketch out some ideas for a digital PR campaign. You can talk about these at an interview, or if you share them more widely, it might even help you get an interview.
Sharing your ideas and asking for feedback on social media is a great way to learn. It also helps to get your name out there to potential employers.
If you are looking to specialize in something like SEO, digital PR, or content creation, start your own website or channel. Practice the skills you are learning, and you’ll be ready with some examples of what you’ve learned when you get to interviews.
It’s Not Just About Making Yourself Stand Out
In essence, it can feel overwhelming when trying to break into the marketing industry.
In reality, though, there are ways you can start to learn and practice skills way in advance of getting your first interview. Any voluntary experience you have can help to demonstrate your aptitude and interest in marketing.
Most critically, though, if this is a career that you see yourself in for a while, it is good to take some time to find the right first job.
Look for a company that is going to support you as you grow in confidence and give you the opportunities you need to become an expert marketer.
More resources:
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal