Executive Jobs and Hiring Trends in Internet Marketing

Episode #5 Transcript

PUBLISHED ON APRIL 21, 2010

Peter Clayton: We're back in Wilton, Connecticut today with Josh Gampel who is the vice president and Tom Hull, The VP of executive search for Onward Search, and we're going to talk a little bit about the current job market for interactive marketing at the executive level and to understand what a candidate needs to do to find the right next step in their career.

Tom and Josh, obviously we've had a big economic change, thank God, over the past 18 months, and if I'm a VP or a C-level interactive marketing candidate in the job market right now, what does the job market look like, Josh?

Josh: Thanks Peter. To say it short and sweet, the job market right now is great. I know it's a sigh of relief for everyone to hear that. Our open job count is at the highest it's ever been. Statistically speaking, for positions such as search engine optimization, from year over year, there has been about 100% job growth for job boards and ads that are online. Social media, there's been about a 300% job growth. iPhone, I mean, it's absolutely through the roof for the amount of open jobs that we're seeing across the board, across the company, across the country, for many different type of acquisition marketing roles.

Basically, companies are reinvesting into their acquisition marketing strategy. There's been a lot of cutbacks over the past several years, and really about six months ago, we started to see a drastic shift in okay the recession is over and we need to start hiring again, and marketing is one of the first areas that people are starting to invest in, specifically interactive and online marketing. We are really excited for where the market is going and have a lot of openings. We're looking for talent everyday right now.

Peter: That's really great news and, of course, most of our shows here on Onward Search Career Cast have focused on the temp market or the project-based, go in, do an assignment three months, whatever, and get out, but today, we're really focusing on those permanent jobs and that's really what Tom Hull, who is the VP of Executive Search focuses on.

Tom, talk to us a little bit about the executive search team, and how you work and interact with the contingency based team.

Tom: Hi Peter, thank you very much. It's nice to be here. For our group, we focus exclusively on the permanent placement hires, those senior level executives that will really impact the business and lead the growth for years to come. The typical clients that we work with are companies that are usually frustrated by not having a committed partner, who don't understand the business issues or have limited access to the right candidates, and that's really where we come in.

What we've seen over the past year and a half or so is an improving job market. We're starting to see a shift from what we say is a client-driven market where there is not as many jobs open that would see a lot of candidates for each position, where now where they're looking to hire, there is not as many qualified people to get access to.

Choosing the right search partner is critical for business success, that's really where we see our executive search team coming in to find the right talent.

Peter: We've talked in past episodes here about going from temp to perm. Do you ever get involved with the temp side, the project side of Onward Search when you start doing a candidate search for full-time employees?

Tom: What we do is we work with our clients to really determine what works best for them. In some circumstances, the temp model works great for them. In others, especially at the more senior level, bringing in executive strictly from a permanent basis makes the more sense for them. So, we really work with the client to understand what their needs are and we can work our business model around that.

Peter: If I'm a candidate or a client, why would I choose to work with a recruiter?

Tom: The short answer to that that covers both the client and the candidate is access. From the client's perspective, the way that businesses grow is through talent and through money, and we offer the talent piece of that. We specialize in our marketplace for internet marketing creative, that's the space to work in a daily basis, we know where the talent sits, and we know how to get access to them. We find those candidates that are passive, those that are not looking for their next opportunity. We constantly keep them aware of the opportunities in the marketplace, and then they can decide if it makes sense for them to make a change. Those are the ones that truly impact the business.

From a candidate perspective, same thing, access is supremely important. We have jobs that they're not going to hear of to any other resource. For exclusive reasons or replacement of an incumbent, where it needs to be a confidential search, we'll have access to those jobs. Looking for a job is almost like a full time job, so when you work with a trusted partner in an executive search firm, what we're going to do is proactively keep you aware of opportunities that will match your skill set, your personality, and offer you that next step in your career that you wouldn't hear about otherwise.

Peter: Josh, if I'm an active candidate looking for a new position, and I approach Onward Search, is there any cost to me in getting involved with you guys?

Josh: Great question, Peter. On the candidate side, there's no cost at all. Basically, the clients pay for our services. On the executive permanent placement side, there's a couple of different pricing models that we have but at the end of the day, we price it off of a percentage of the candidate's salary.

If you're a candidate looking for a job, you reach out to us, we get to really understand what you're looking for, where you're based out of, a lot of times we deal with relocation, are you willing to relocate for the right opportunity. We really looked to understand what you're looking for as that next step in your career, what skill sets you have, and then we match that up with our client's needs. If we put you into a position with our client, they pay the fee.

There's never any charge to work with us, the benefit is to get access to the jobs that we're working on it this time and many are not on the job boards. Our clients partner with us because of our relationships to really find them the best talent for the specific need that they have.

Peter: To expand on that a little bit, what are some of the segments and categories that employers are looking for right now, Tom?

Tom: Well, what we've seen specifically for within our niche in internet marketing creative, emerging technology, and mobile is enormous. You put the social media category in their a couple of years ago, everyone wanted to use social as part of what their strategy was going to be and unfortunately, it was basically put on hold. They said we're going to focus on our course strategy, we know we want to do social but we can't measure it, we don't know how it's going to impact the business, so we're going to put it on hold. However now it is a core piece of everyone's business. There's a dearth of talent in this area, and finding somebody that can impact the business through social or mobile is in high demand.

Peter: Josh, can you give us three tips for a job seeker in 2010? What are some of the things that if I'm out there and I'm actively looking for a job, what are the main things that I need to concentrate on?

Josh: Another great question, Peter. It goes along with what Tom said about what the clients are looking for right now. As Tom mentioned, they're looking for a lot of experience in the social and the mobile piece. Clients are looking for what have you done to attract customers and increase sales. They want to know what type of online marketing techniques have you used, and if you have used cutting edge or emerging technologies to help gain customers and increase revenue. That's the hottest thing.

If you're really doing the just print direct marketing world, a lot of companies are phasing out that spend and really going into the online marketing space.

From a three-tips perspective, your resume needs to reflect your online internet marketing experience as well as creative, also statistics are huge. You need to show revenue growth, you need to show quarter over quarter growth, new leads, return on investment, you need to speak the language that the internet marketers are speaking. Also throughout your career, make sure that your resume shows proven career growth every change and every step that you've made from an increased responsibility standpoint.

The next tip I would say is Twitter. A lot of people have made a lot of jokes about Twitter. If you haven't already, jump on the bandwagon, jump on the bandwagon, start following people, and then start tweeting yourself. The most important part about that is myself as a recruiter, and Tom as a recruiter, and other employers out there are looking at it now. They're looking at it, they're seeing what type of things you're saying, and if you start providing valuable content to your followers in regards to marketing, they know that you get it, and that you live and breathe in that space.

The final tip I would say is update your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn has become a massive resource for recruiters, hiring managers, really anybody in this space is on LinkedIn. Recently LinkedIn has added the functionality where it updates, your Twitter account at the same time, so Twitter and LinkedIn really coincide with each other, talked to your LinkedIn community, join groups, be active in the groups, provide content for them, and myself as a recruiter if I see you're on LinkedIn and you're commenting on different group boards, and you're answering questions, I know that you understand what you're talking about when I look at your resume, I'll see your proven revenue growth year over year, I'm going to want to talk to you, learn more about what you're looking for, and really dig in deeper into that.

With a dearth of candidates out in the marketplace, you need to stand apart from the rest and LinkedIn, Twitter, and statistics on your resume are the top three things that I would suggest just to be noticed.

Peter: I think that's some great advice, so sort of the old, either how you're going to save me money or how you're going to make me money, right?

Josh: Yeah, exactly.

Peter: Tom, tell me about some of the hot jobs that you're working on right now?

Tom: You're going to see some general themes coming along with the jobs. When we focused within our niche market and we're saying where we're seeing some of the newest opportunities coming in, we're working in mobile, we're working in social, we're working in search, we are working with e-commerce companies for their internet marketing needs, and we're also working in web analytics.

Currently, we're working with a major digital agency in Manhattan. They're looking for a mobile marketing strategist. This is somebody who's going to sit on the executive team and they're going to develop the mobile strategy for major blue chip clients.

On the internet retail side, we're dealing with the multi-channel organization that is looking specifically for a creative director who is responsible for the artistic direction and design oversight for the e-commerce activities. In conjunction, we're working with them to find them their next VP of digital marketing, who is in charge of growing the business through social, through their affiliate network, through search, and through mobile.

That's a real quick checklist of some of the things that we're working on but it's national. We're working with blue chip companies that everyone has heard of, small entrepreneurial firms, major agencies as well.

Peter: That's great, and these are all six-figure plus jobs, right?

Tom: Yes. They're all permanent placement at the executive level.

Peter: This has been really interesting and I really appreciate your time today. Any last minute thoughts, Josh?

Josh: Get your resume out there if you are interested in any of the jobs that we have on our website. We also have @Onward Search, @SEO jobs and @PPC jobs - Twitter accounts, check those out. If you're interested in anything, email us, reach out to Tom or myself, or one of our recruiters.

What we're going to do is we're going to have a conversation with you, understand what you're looking for, check on what we have right now that may be a fit. We may not have anything right now, but our main goal would be really to establish a relationship for the future so when that right opportunity comes that meets our client's needs and your needs, we'll be able to make a match.

Peter: That's great.

Thank you for tuning in for Onward Search Career Cast. For more information on the career opportunities available through Onward Search, you should visit us online at onwardsearch.com or call 1-800-829-0072 and speak with an experienced recruiter. You should also follow Onward Search on Twitter @Twitter.com/onwardsearch.