Are you looking for a terrific job in marketing? Me too! And have I found the job for you!
Awesome opportunity for the right person! Our fast-growing firm seeks an experienced marketing manager to begin immediately. Our culture is among the best in the industry!
Responsibilities: Google Ads, Social media: Facebook ads and posts, Instagram posts, keeping website up-to-date, posting copy written by someone else, must keep their desk tidy. Remote position possible for the right person.
Must-have: 5 years daily Hubspot experience, Marketo specialist, Expert Adobe suite skills, WordPress expert, Marketing degree or equal experience, (Nice-to-have: MBA with Marketing specialty); Self-starter, Excellent written and public speaking communication skills; Sales and Business development experience, website development experience, UX/UI design experience, SEO/SEM specialist, Certified in Google Ad-Words and Analytics. Must be able to create high-converting landing pages and microsites. At least 5 years Pay-per-click experience. Must be proficient with SEMRush, Optimizely, Moz, and all other martech stacks. Must be analytical and have a qualitative mind.
Please send a recent portfolio, salary requirements, and resume to Jobs@thebestcompanyever.com, and complete the laborious application on our website as well (which often is fraught with technical glitches). Also expected is a detailed, personalized cover letter which we won’t even bother to read.
Salary range: $45-55k DOE per year after 90 day probation.
Note: our hiring process typically takes 6-8 weeks and will include 5-6 Zoom interviews with anyone that wants to talk to you, spaced out 1 per week. We reserve the right to not hire anyone after that period or explain why or when we determine such.
The faux-job-posting is tongue-in-cheek. Deviations of the title? Digital Marketing Manager, Social Media Marketing Manager, Brand Manager, Product Marketing Manager, Digital Marketing Specialist, Marketing Coordinator…and a multitude of other titles that have nothing to do with marketing management. At all.
One search on Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn jobs, Google Jobs or any other job site will reveal hundreds of these opportunities. They look great! Until you read further.
How do I know this and can state it so confidently?
Because I’ve taught marketing management at University, and I’ve been working in marketing for over a decade in nearly every role imaginable. I also have an MBA with a concentration in marketing strategy and worked for years in the Graduate Business School at the University of Alabama helping marketing graduate students get jobs upon graduation. And much more.
There are 2 sides to the hiring equation. If you’re just starting out and a new graduate you may feel like the employer holds all the cards. And in many cases, they do.
But if you’re experienced and skilled, you have quite a bit of leverage to find the right position with the right firm and negotiate terms. Is this what companies seek? I’m not so sure.
When I state “companies” I mean the decision-makers at firms. Usually the CEO, possibly a few HR people, and some people in the marketing and/or sales departments that have tenure.
Do I sound jaded? Yes. It’s because of a good reason though and not because I’m a whiner, quitter, sniveler, or complainer of my own situation. I hold myself accountable in every appropriate situation. I’ve been looking for a Marketing Manager or Marketing Director-type role for a while, and I’m seeing this. A LOT. EVERY DAY.
It’s because this is what’s posted everywhere, relentlessly. By recruiters and HR specialists and CEOs and Marketing Directors and CMO’s and people that should know better. And sometimes I believe they do, which makes it more reprehensible and tiring. I believe the job title is inflated to attract eyeballs and interest, and then the reality of what the position is mentioned once the job seeker’s attention and time has been wasted intentionally.
It’s a “bait and switch” tactic that unethical used car dealers engage in. I’m presently looking for a cheap used car, so I’m currently immersed in that world, making it even easier to spot. And to me, it’s becoming equally unethical because I see it as a pattern. Not just a few innocent mistakes here and there.
What the job poster is REALLY looking for is what’s stated above. BUT! What the title should be is something else. Entirely.
The responsibilities wanted are executional. Administrative. Not managerial in nature, and not marketing. They are the jobs that are determined by the marketing plan and part of the marketing strategy. They take what the actual Marketing Manager, or Marketing Director, or Director of Marketing Strategy, or CMO, or CEO or VP-Marketing has determined, added as part of the marketing strategy, and needs done to implement it. But doesn’t handle the actual job.
That’s not to say he/she can’t do it. Buth there comes a time when that part of the job is better handled by someone at a lesser salary because it doesn’t involve the higher-strategy part of the marketing plan.
And that’s when things in Hiring-Land started to get screwy.
What the ploy seems to be is hiring someone just to do social media, or SEO, or content development, and save money. But that’s very short-sighted and has a narrow focus. Marketing is one area where the positions should more than pay for themselves. If they don’t then it was a poor hire. Same with sales. If a marketer or salesperson can’t generate more than they earn, then something needs to change, quickly. A good accountant can also give an ROI, but there aren’t many positions beyond that which quantitatively meet that criterion. A CEO, and, hopefully, CFO, yes. These things should be closely watched by the President or CEO, incidentally. Because these are also some of the highest-paying jobs in a company, usually. But that’s going elsewhere than the point of this post.
But “Come do marketing!” Is the lure. Then reality hits. It’s not marketing per se. It’s the same as offering someone a job writing a great novel. And then they find out what they’ll be doing is taking dictation from someone else who is actually doing the “writing.” They were hired to take notes and do some general grammatical editing, basically, and will be judged on the accuracy and tone.
I have no doubt that decision-makers will read this post, just as they read my “What Are Your Salary Expectations?” post which I got some feedback about, and not cheerful. But always fair, from respectful professionals. And will not like my sentiments, or perhaps label them negative, which they are. I don’t mean to come across as negative whatsoever, but I do call things as I see them. And sometimes calling out something negative sounds…well, negative. But I’m pointing this out for a positive reason which is to not allow it to corrupt the marketing industry and dilute marketing manager roles. Which are, and should be distinct.
Still don’t agree with me? Well, here’s an actual posting I just came across without any effort:
Letting things like this pass without comment or calling it out is compliance and I’m not the type to be passive and compliant when it’s harmful. And yes, I consider this practice harmful. To companies and job seekers. It harms the credibility of job posters and wastes the time and misleads job-seekers. And sets a poor precedent. It misconstrues words and titles and jobs and pay, for that matter.
So I plug away, still looking for a home as a top A+ Marketer today. I specialize in strategy but I can, have, and enjoy getting dirty doing the content writing, inbound strategy and website building, SEM, SEO, and all the things mentioned above. But I do so much more, and if a marketing plan is integrated, it should be close-knit. As in, the same person many times, especially if on a tight budget.
How can I help you?