How Long Should You Stay in a Technology Marketing Job?
By Sally Sullivan, Senior Partner
As you might expect of someone who recruits nothing but marketing professionals for technology companies, I recently put forward several great candidates to a software firm looking to recruit a young marketer.
Whilst the client agreed that each was a good match, their one reservation about most if not all applicants was their tenure in previous perm jobs. Or rather, their lack thereof!
Specifically, the client felt that an average of two years in a permanent role was not long enough – perhaps because they felt it displayed lack of loyalty, risk of lost investment in things such as training or even that it takes three years or more to really get under the skin of a marketing process and excel at it.
All of which got me thinking – how long is long enough in today’s world of marketing technology jobs? How long should you stay in a marketing technology job? Is two years long enough?
The UK does not record data of this kind with the Office of National Statistics (ONS), but after some light research I discovered that average UK job tenure is approximately 5 years, according to the insurance firm LV=. However, the BBC attests that this figure decreases markedly in sectors such as technology, advertising and PR, where job-hopping is more acceptable – “in order for employees to keep up with changes in the market”.
In the United States of America – where this metric is measured – the average tenure of workers aged 55 to 64 is 10.1 years, over three times the 2.8 – 3.2 years of workers aged 25 to 34, according to the most recent USA statistics.
Back in Blighty, shorter tenures of two to three years are clearly becoming increasingly common. I believe in today’s world that the best way for an employee to get as good as possible is to expose themselves to as much marketing as possible – ideally within the same company but externally if they hit a glass ceiling. This is particularly prevalent amongst millennials who want to jump up the ladder quickly.
What do you think? Is two years enough? Is five years too long? Please leave your comments below and I’ll reply to each!
Contact
To discuss how Marketing Moves can help your organisation, please contact Sally by any of the means below:
+44 (0) 1932 253 352
+44 (0) 7976 488 303
sosullivan@marketingmoves.projectwebtec2.com
linkedin.com/sally-o-sullivan
