We see marketers taking very different approaches to their career. There are two polar opposite kinds of ‘career builder’ in particular:
The Spontaneous Reactionaries
It’s hard going building a career path – which is why many of you just go with the flow and see which opportunity comes your way next. Often this can mean waiting for recruiters to contact you out of the blue about jobs and choosing to go forward for interview, without conducting your own searches. This is particularly easy these days with the advent of features like LinkedIn’s ‘open to opportunities’ function.
We all like a little bit of the unexpected in life, and it can work out really well, with minimal effort as a job hunter (excepting the interview process part which you still need to do!). If it’s a trusted recruiter, someone who does properly consider your career direction and discuss your aspirations with you, who knows the industry you work in and advises accordingly, this can work fantastically well. For marketers within the technology space, Marketing Moves prides itself in being a strategic career adviser more than a ‘job filler’ or ‘candidate placer’. For us, it’s more about the long game. We want candidates like you to grow with us and keep up that relationship over the years as they reach new heights. For this, it’s important you’re making a logical move, not jumping at the first chance for a big change. With 20 years under our belt, and many long term consultants, we’ve seen marketers build impressive careers and become truly influential in technology marketing. We appreciate your openness to new challenges and new directions and want to help you make a positive strategic choice.
The Planners and Deep Thinkers
Naturally we also welcome a different type of marketer: those of you who choose a more proactive approach and take as much control of your career as you can. Some marketers have really mapped out where it is they want to go with their careers. If you’re one of them then you’ll have thought about where you want to be 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years even. You might come to us with a list of companies you’d like to work for. You’ll have a clearly defined sense of the skills and experience you’re seeking to gain in your next role.
For those in the higher echelons of the marketing career ladder, this may mean planning strategic horizontal moves between marketing functions to cover a wider skill set before the big step up to marketing director or CMO. In companies that offer solid progression and versatility within roles, this can be done in one place, but for many, in order to fulfill their potential they need the changing challenges of multiple companies. That’s where we come in.
With very driven, focused marketers, it’s important we help you to not be closed minded – which is a danger with so much forward-planning. There may be great companies that aren’t on your radar but which would be a hot spot for your development. Don’t discount a job opportunity because it doesn’t appear to completely fit with the plan (though do if it outright doesn’t), you might not gain experience in one particular area, but it might make up for it in terms of valuable experience in a new area. These kinds of decisions are to be made on an individual basis, carefully – for advice on choosing between potential job offers –this blog post might be helpful.
Somewhere between the two
Now we’d say the majority of marketers we speak to are somewhere between the two. They’re open to exciting opportunities and to the unexpected, but they also have a fairly good idea in the back of their heads about what it is they want and have some kind of pre-considered criteria. This is perhaps the career builder sweet spot.
For support with finding your next strategic career move or career advice contact Melvin Day on mday@marketingmoves.com or call 01932 253 352 to speak to one of our experienced technology marketing consultants.
