When it comes to finding a job, the internet is evolving into the best resource for both job seekers and employers.  A recent survey by CareerBuilder.com reported One in Five Employers Use Social Networks in the Hiring Process.  Generally, hiring managers are looking at potential candidates profiles on MySpace and Facebook to get a more personal look at the people they are considering hiring.  If you are currently interviewing, make sure your profile is professional.  As part of the survey, CareerBuilder reported potential employers who are checking social networking sites were concerned about evidence of achohol/drug abuse, inappropriate photos, and unprofessional language and attitudes among other things.  Although unprofessional profiles can spell the end of your chances at landing a job, a professional profile complete with recommendations will come off very well to hiring managers and can definitely help your chances of receiving a job offer.
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A couple weeks ago I used Indeed's tools to look at SEO Job Growth and the Top 30 Cities to Work in SEO according to salary numbers.  Knowing that the search marketing industry is currently talent constrained, I wanted to take a look at where the search marketing talent was located.  To get a feel for this I chose to use SEMPO's member roster as a baseline to assess where search marketing professionals and companies are located throughout the United States and the World. More...

Ken Clark, our Co-Founder and Executive Vice President, contributed a piece to Search Engine Journal today about finding your next SEO Job. 

Ken's article, 3 Tips to Help You Find Your Next SEO Job, discusses strategies to help you manage your personal job search.  Ken gives advice on how to:

1. Market Yourself and Establish Your Personal Brand
2. Search Optimize Your Linkedin Profile
3. Leverage Indeed's Tools to Track the SEO Job Market

Ken's post gives great examples of how these strategies will support your SEO Job search.  I hope you enjoy it!

This past week was fairly slow in terms of search marketing staffing news.  By the end of the week the headlines were dominated by what will hopefully be the end of the Microhoo saga.  Now that both sides have returned to their corners to fight against Google by themselves, it will be interesting to see how they react over the next couple months and to see if they are forced to layoff workers or if they aggressively staff up to try and take some ground from Google.

 

Last week there was a great article by Fionn Downhill, on Search Engine Watch, about Training Your Search Marketing Employees.  In part one of her article Fionn covers some of the crucial steps for properly training new employees.  With a focus on newbie search marketers, Fionn stresses understanding an employee’s learning styles as the key to a successful training program.  As part of her training she suggests job shadowing to gain knowledge of the agency, and having employees go through SEM training courses to gain knowledge of the industry.

 

Matt McGee of Small Business SEM posted an article at the end of the week titled, SEO Career Advice from an Out-of-Work SEO.  As someone who recently entered the SEO job market for the first time in nearly 20 years, Matt provides some great insight into how he is tackling the issue, as well as advice to anyone in a similar situation.   Matt gives 9 points of suggestion in response to a letter he received from someone currently trying to get into search marketing.  To sum up his advice in two words, stay active.  His suggestions range from blogging regularly to volunteering to build experience on your resume.  If you are having trouble finding a position, check out his article to make sure you are covering all your bases to stay ahead in the game.

 

To close out April Jessica Bowman provided some good insight in her article Outsourcing to Increase SEO Throughput.  Jessica explains how to grow an efficient SEO program even when facing budget constraints.  When you are unable to afford adding staff, Jessica suggests evaluating what you are currently handling in-house, and outsourcing some of the easier tasks.  Although if you are in this situation you may not be able to afford outsourcing to an agency, tasks like keyword research and copywriting can easily be outsourced to other internal departments when proper instruction is available.

 

To start the month of May, SEMPO announced they will begin a certification program for agencies.  Through the SEMPO Institute they will offer two levels of certification.  Based on the percentage of employees who complete SEMPO’s course agencies can either receive a Gold Seal (20-49%) or a Platinum Seal (50% or more).  The program will be open to all agencies and will require a $250 application fee. This will be great way to improve the quality of agencies and protect the reputation of them as well.

 

That sums up the search marketing staffing news for this week, check back next week for another update.

This week we are starting our weekly posting of the Hot Job of the Week.

Title: Senior Search Marketing Analyst

Location: Greater Boston Area

We are currently working with one of the largest companies in the travel industry.  Our client is looking for an experienced search marketing professional with strengths specifically in analytics.  As Senior Search Marketing Analyst the first project will be to build out international sites in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.  The Senior Analyst will be responsible for managing significant spend in these regions as well as helping the company grow their in-house SEM management team.   

Main responsibilities include:
-Daily and weekly campaign performance reporting and analysis.
-Designing, implementing, and analyzing experiments to test optimization theories, including changes in bidding strategies, keyword discovery, and creative enhancements.
-Working closely with engineering team to identify project areas and enhancements to tools that will lead to overall program improvements.  Manage those projects through to completion.  
-Continuous analysis of program data/theory testing.
-Stay on top of international industry trends, and share this knowledge with marketing/engineering teams to help define future projects.

Hiring Requirements:  
-Minimum 4 years experience, including at least 2 years managing SEM campaigns with increasing levels of responsibility.  
-Very strong quantitative and analytical ability
–If creating a pivot table in Excel or importing comma delimited data into a spreadsheet scares or bores you, this is not the job for you!
-Foreign language proficiency in at least one of Spanish, French, German or Italian. Spanish preferred.
-Previous product/project management experience preferred.
-Genuine curiosity about how consumers make decisions.
-BA or BS degree, preferably in statistics, mathematics, computer science/engineering, or other quantitative field, or significant coursework in these areas.
-Ability to work cross-functionally.
-Teamwork skills essential; sense of humor preferred.

If you are interested in learning more about this position you can contact Josh Gampel at 800 829 0072 x 3011 or email him at jgampel@onwardsearch.com