Key Takeaways
- Pinpoint the marketing skills and tasks that excite you the most.
- Picture where you want to be in five years and what lifestyle suits you.
- Look into current job titles and market trends to find your dream role.
- Update your resume to showcase experiences that match your ideal job.
- Use specific keywords to make your resume stand out to recruiters.
- Prepare and practice real examples from your past work for interview questions.
How to Define Your Marketing Career Goals
We had a chat with Lydia Huang, a recruiter-turned marketing career consultant, to tap into her expert insights on advancing your marketing career. With years of experience in marketing and talent acquisition, Lydia shares practical tips on setting your career goals, fine-tuning your resume, and shining in job interviews. She also talks about navigating the competitive job market, identifying your strengths, and showcasing your value to potential employers.
What are the first steps a marketing professional should take in defining their career goals and ideal job?
“There are two strategies that I want to share with you:
“First, you need to identify your top marketing skills and the specific marketing functions that you are passionate about. Consider where you want to see yourself in five years and what lifestyle suits you. This will help you clarify how your next role fits into this vision.
Reflect on what brings you joy and energy in your current or most recent job. Identifying these elements can highlight your strengths and pinpoint areas you’re passionate about.
Research the common job titles in the current job market, and ask yourself these questions to clarify your interest: What products or services do you enjoy working with? Do you prefer working on a B2B or B2C marketing strategy? What is your target industry?”
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Can you provide tips on how to set realistic career goals within the marketing industry, especially in a highly competitive job market?
“Depending on your situation, you may need to adjust your goal to be able to see faster and better results. For example, if most of your marketing experiences are in small companies, and you want to advance your career in an enterprise setting, it might take various routes to get into your dream company. You may need to start with a mid-size company and gain more experience in a specific marketing function or work on side projects to gain knowledge in certain industries.
There are a few common reasons marketing professionals feel lost in the job search, including not sure what they want in their next career, what they are good at, or how to market their talents to potential employers. Learning about yourself and understanding the market demand are keys to helping you set a more realistic job search goal.”
Tailoring Your Resume for a Specific Marketing Role
Based on one’s career goals, how should marketing professionals tailor their resumes to highlight their most relevant experiences and skills for a specific marketing role?
“Customize the resume to emphasize experiences and achievements that align with your target job and, most importantly, remove irrelevant information.
As a marketer, your job is to make your resume concise and to the point so that when recruiters or hiring managers read it, they can quickly understand why you are a great candidate for the role. Your resume is part of your portfolio. It shows your communication and writing skills, so pay more attention to how you write it. Some important information that you can mention includes specific campaigns or projects that you’ve done, how they impacted the business, and the results with key metrics.”
What are key elements that make a resume stand out to recruiters in the marketing field?
Keywords that match the role. Most recruiters handle multiple roles simultaneously, so they usually lack deep knowledge of a particular area. That’s why having common keywords on your resume is crucial. They can help recruiters determine your qualifications for the role quickly.
Note: recruiters usually spend 10 – 15 seconds reviewing each resume.
Also, recruiters use keywords to search for talents on LinkedIn, ATS, or other recruiting methods. It’s just like people use specific keywords to find relevant information on Google. That’s why having the right keywords on your resume will help boost your visibility in the job market.
What common mistakes do you see on marketing resumes and how can these be avoided?
“Confusing Job Titles—In marketing, there are various job titles in the market, and you want to reduce any potential confusion when a recruiter reads your resume. Many of my clients also have concerns about changing their job titles, and I usually tell them that as long as the title focuses on things they’ve done, then it’s okay to tweak it to match the job market’s needs.
Unclear Career Goal—Don’t state that you are open to any marketing position or are interested in both B2B and B2C marketing. It is important that you highlight your niche and point out your specialty on your resume.
Typos—In marketing, no company will risk hiring someone who is not detail-oriented when writing their resume. When I was a corporate recruiter, I witnessed a great candidate being rejected because the hiring manager noticed a small timeline typo on his resume. You don’t want that to happen to you, so be sure to double and triple-check your resume before finalizing it.”
Essential Steps for a Marketing Job Interview
Once the resume has landed them an interview, what are the most important aspects of preparation for a marketing job interview?
“Read the job description to understand what the role entails, and research the interviewer by checking their LinkedIn profiles.
Preparing real work examples for potential interview questions, both behavioral and technical.
Prepare 2-3 insightful questions to ask. Here are some great questions you can ask during your interview: What are the current challenges in the team or the company? What main project will this role be responsible for? How do you measure the success of this role?”
If there was one interview question you wish marketers were more prepared for, which question would that be and why?
“How did you resolve conflict when working with cross-functional teams?
This is a tricky question, and most job seekers have difficulty answering it. There is no doubt that conflict will happen in any workplace, so the interviewer wants to know how well you can handle the stress at work while remaining professional. The key is to provide a real story starting from a negative situation but ending in a positive result. Even though you are lucky enough never to have to deal with conflict in your work history, try your best to share any relevant examples from your school project, volunteer work, or any side project.”
And if there was one skill you believe every marketer should demonstrate during an interview, what would it be and how can they showcase it effectively?
“Cross-functional Communication.
First, you should provide a real work example to demonstrate this specific skill. The example should showcase your different communication strategies while working with different departments. For example, product marketing professionals usually need to work closely with engineering teams, so knowing how to translate non-technical information to technical professionals is critical. Vice versa, translating technical information to help marketing teams work more efficiently will help your potential employers know that you are a great communicator for the job.”
Can you share some final advice for handling stress and nervousness during marketing job interviews?
“Preparation—Be sure to do your research before the interview. Learn about the company, read the job description, and check any public information. Prepare examples from your past experiences that demonstrate your skills and achievements, and be ready to answer any questions regarding information on your resume.
Positive Self-Talk—Practice positive affirmations and remind yourself that you are well-prepared and capable of handling the interview successfully. Visualize yourself confidently answering questions and engaging with the interviewer is another way to help calm the nervousness.
Just Be You—It’s natural to feel nervous before and during an interview, and most interviewers understand this. Instead of fixating on potential outcomes or worrying about making mistakes, concentrate on actively listening to the interviewer, engaging in the conversation, and asking great questions to showcase your passion for the job.”