This week there was a good amount of staffing discussions around the search marketing industry.
At the start of the week Gerry Bavaro continued his series, More On The SEM People Problem. In this series Gerry has been covering the issues associated with hiring quality SEM professionals. This week he focused on the characteristics that make up a successful SEM professional. Gerry explains why creativity, language skills, quantitative comfort, passion, communication skills, and relationship building are the characteristics needed to excel at SEM. Although it can be difficult to find someone who has all these characteristics, Gerry stresses the importance of maintaining high quality professionals to continue to drive results in search marketing.
In response to a recent survey Manpower Inc. conducted, Kevin Heissler posted his article, Top 10 Toughest Jobs to Fill? The Top 3 Are In Search Engine Marketing. Manpower’s survey listed the top 10 hardest positions to fill as fairly broad categories (skilled manual laborers, sales representatives, technicians rounded out the top three). Kevin along with several other SEW experts feel they know better, as Manpower’s survey is likely skewed by the database of companies they serve. Kevin contacted Onward’s John Skroly to get a feel for what positions Fortune 500 companies and top search marketing firms are having difficulty filling.
John’s top three were:
1) Qualified Web Analytics Professionals
2) Organic SEO Experts w/ e-commerce experience
3) Paid Search professionals w/ vertical experience
For SEOmoz's Whiteboard Friday this past week, Rand Fishkin did a great video explaining How To Get An SEO Job. Rand gives great tips about how to prepare for an interview and the type of knowledge employers are looking for. He makes some great points and you should check out the video if you are looking to find a new SEO job.
Just today, Onward’s Josh Gampel, wrote an excellent article for Search Engine Journal, Getting Your Search Marketing Resume Indexed By a Recruiter. Josh goes through what he looks for when evaluating a search marketing resume. It’s a great resource for anyone who is currently looking for a new position or will be looking in the near future.
Also today Amybeth Hale, from ere.net, posted a great article about Recruiting at Web 2.0. Having just returned from the Web 2.0 Expo, Amy saw two different methods of candidate recruiting. The first, a very focused approach, involved using a social network setup especially for the expo, to network with potential candidates for a position as a social media researcher. The second, a more broad based attempt, was the fish bowl. Amy pointed out using a fish bowl to collect business cards as you raffle off prizes, is a very inefficient method of finding a potential employee. By using the social network people were able to find more qualified candidates who were actually looking for a new position, without breaking the bank on a booth and prizes.
Recently Google has been very vocal about their goals of overtaking Baidu.com as the dominant search engine in China. As part of this initiative Google Plans to Hire 200 In China This Year. Overall Google has slowed their hiring pace, but in China where they aren’t the search giant they are in America, they plan to increase staff 30% each year over the next 5 years.
That is it for search marketing staffing news for this week. Check back the same time next week for another update.
