What Hiring Managers Want: Essential Tips for Content and Marketing Job Seekers

A dozen purposes arrived shortly after the posting for a copywriter on the content material advertising and marketing staff at The TemPositions Group of Firms went reside.

Walter Prystowsky, director of selling, says he anticipated to have greater than 100 inside the week.

“Many of those candidates appear to be very certified with years of expertise producing a excessive quantity of content material. It’s robust to decide on solely a handful to talk with,” he says.

The conundrum Walter faces as an employer is much more difficult on the opposite aspect of the method — the tons of (or extra) of job candidates vying for a similar place.

Properly over half of entrepreneurs (68%) in CMI’s upcoming Content material Advertising Profession and Wage Survey (September 2024) say discovering knowledgeable job in advertising and marketing is tougher right now in comparison with 5 years in the past.

So, how do job searchers stand out in a crowded, difficult market? What do the individuals hiring content material entrepreneurs need to see? What errors do you have to keep away from?

A handful of entrepreneurs on the frontline of hiring share their processes and what they wished job searchers would do (and never do).

Do you have to write a canopy letter?

Conversations concerning the cowl letter abound on LinkedIn and in skilled teams. Many job searchers say if it’s required, they simply use a generative AI software to create it. Others say they by no means ship a canopy letter.

Walter says he doesn’t ask for canopy letters, although he would learn one if somebody took the time to write down it. “A generic cowl letter singing our praises blindly with none substance doesn’t add a lot,” he says.

“What would stand out to me is that if the particular person did particular analysis on our firm, learn our content material, and had considerate insights on the path they’d take in the event that they obtained the chance.”

HiredSupport is one other firm that doesn’t put a lot inventory in a canopy letter. “I choose to ask the candidates questions, similar to why ought to I rent them or what units them other than different candidates,” says Joel Wolfe, firm founder and president.

My desire? I discover cowl letters work particularly effectively when making use of for writing-related jobs. A very good cowl letter can showcase the applicant’s writing and enterprise expertise (or a minimum of present that they don’t have them). When you’ll be able to write a couple of paragraphs to indicate why you’re the best option to assist the enterprise obtain its objectives, you additionally display you could write persuasively to get the employer’s target market to take motion. (And if it doesn’t get learn, no worries. You simply drafted your in-person gross sales pitch for the job.)

What ought to the resume embrace?

Mariah Obiedzinski Tang, assistant vp of content material advertising and marketing at Stamats, says she desires to see candidates display their development.

“That may look some ways — developments in careers, the addition of accountability, doing duties outdoors their consolation zone, and reporting private/skilled takeaways,” she says.

Most significantly, candidates ought to present they care about their work and aren’t simply saying, “I’m good; rent me.”

However how do you present that development? How do you share that you just care concerning the job?

Mariah suggests including a “What I Discovered” subheading in your resume to seize the potential employer’s consideration. Spotlight these out-of-scope duties or difficult assignments. “It provides you a pure likelihood for a story as a substitute of simply itemizing duties,” she explains.

Additionally, tailor your resume to the context of the job description. “Your resume ought to present that you just meet or exceed the {qualifications}, not simply that you just’ve had a collection of content material or content-adjacent roles,” Mariah says.

Seeing a strategic alignment can be essential to Laura Goldstone, senior director of communications technique and head of brand name at AdDaptive Intelligence.

In truth, candidates make it to the highest of her checklist after they show they’ll assume and act strategically, join the dots from technique to execution, and care about understanding and elevating the model’s content material technique.

“You don’t should have one-to-one expertise. I simply have to really feel assured that you are able to do the job based mostly on the abilities and knowledge you’ve honed,” Laura says.

How do you show that? Clarify the abilities utilized in earlier conditions and the way these expertise will assist your new employer or what classes you’ve realized that could possibly be utilized within the new position.

At TemPositions, Walter desires to see a observe report exhibiting somebody who can assume strategically about the right way to align content material with enterprise objectives. For the copywriter opening for instance, candidates who go additional within the course of quantify their report of manufacturing a excessive quantity of Website positioning-optimized content material.

So far as a candidate’s employment timeline, Walter says one or two brief stints aren’t a crimson flag, however a profession of 1 yr right here, six months there, and so forth., is problematic. “It’s arduous to belief that they’ll spend a lot time on my staff. A inexperienced flag is profession development at a earlier firm, particularly in a short while body,” he explains.

What concerning the interview?

Earlier than you land an interview with the hiring supervisor, count on some further steps.

At HiredSupport, candidates submit their purposes after which take a pre-screening take a look at — a set of technical questions solely knowledgeable would know.

Walter at TemPositions used to interview anybody he thought might do the job, taking two to a few weeks to display, interview, and current the candidates to the CEO. However that’s an excessive amount of work on prime of his day-to-day duties so the interior HR staff, which is aware of his hiring preferences, creates a shortlist of candidates for him.

At Stamats, Mariah says she interviews about 10 to 30% of the candidates relying on the position’s required ability stage and variety of purposes. As an alternative of writing evaluation checks, she asks the applicant to drag up a bit of labor they’re pleased with and describe the writing, analysis, modifying, distributing course of, and so forth. She additionally asks what they’d have accomplished in another way.

“This provides a strong indication of their deeper ability in content material construction and technique, not simply writing in a managed setting,” Mariah says.

AdDaptive Intelligence’s Laura says she likes to ask situational and behavioral inquiries to encourage the candidate to inform a narrative. For instance, as a substitute of asking what advertising and marketing tech stack candidates use, she asks them to inform her a few time they needed to discover ways to use a software, highlighting the method and consequence.

Amongst her different storytelling query prompts:

• Inform me about a technique you’ve grown within the final yr.
• Inform me a few time while you needed to work cross-functionally, highlighting what you do to make the collaboration profitable.
• How do you construct belief in relationships up and throughout?

“Candidates with detailed tales that reply my questions and present me how they could act favorably on this position shine,” she says.

Laura additionally listens through the interview to evaluate not solely the arduous expertise possessed by the candidate however their delicate expertise, too. She desires to find out how they impart, the tradition they thrive finest in, their organizational expertise, their priorities, and the situations to do their finest work. “These intangibles are extremely essential to me as I construct a multifaceted however close-knit staff,” she says.

Penny Gralewski, vp of selling at Rimo3, suggests candidates be ready with challenge-action-result tales. Stroll by means of a enterprise drawback that generated a necessity for content material. Clarify the way you collaborated with the opposite groups concerned to analysis, write, and produce the content material. Then, brag concerning the enterprise outcomes.

“Hiring managers study a lot about expertise, teamwork, and enterprise mindset when content material entrepreneurs convey work samples, tales concerning the content material’s creation, and metrics about its affect,” she says.

Take time to assume

What errors do these hiring entrepreneurs see candidates make? All of them boil down the reply to 2 phrases: blah responses.

“Candidates are fast to reply the questions I ship them. They don’t learn what I’m asking and provides me a bland response that lacks technical information,” Joel says.

As an alternative, he says, candidates ought to take a beat and reply utilizing a laptop computer pc to get away from the notification bombardments and disruptions that occur on a cell phone.

Laura says she typically will get generic replies to those questions: What retains you cheerful in a job? The place do you get your motivation? What about this position intrigued you and impressed you to answer?

“I are likely to get blanket statements or obscure responses that don’t inform me something concerning the particular person,” she says. “If somebody can reply these questions with one thing illuminating, actionable, and distinctive, my ears will perk up.”

Perking up the ears of a hiring supervisor is the utmost accomplishment for any job searcher in content material and advertising and marketing. However to get to that time, you higher use your content material expertise to inform a narrative about how your skilled story will assist additional the hiring firm’s story.