A dozen applications arrived shortly after the posting for a copywriter on the content marketing team at The TemPositions Group of Companies went live.
Walter Prystowsky, director of marketing, says he expected to have more than 100 within the week.
“Many of these applicants seem to be very qualified with years of experience producing a high volume of content. It’s tough to choose only a handful to speak with,” he says.
The conundrum Walter faces as an employer is even more challenging on the other side of the process — the hundreds (or more) of job applicants vying for the same position.
Well over half of marketers (68%) in CMI’s upcoming Content Marketing Career and Salary Survey (September 2024) say finding a professional job in marketing is more challenging today compared to five years ago.
So, how do job searchers stand out in a crowded, challenging marketplace? What do the people hiring content marketers want to see? What mistakes should you avoid?
A handful of marketers on the frontline of hiring share their processes and what they wished job searchers would do (and not do).
Should you write a cover letter?
Conversations about the cover letter abound on LinkedIn and in professional groups. Many job searchers say if it’s required, they just use a generative AI tool to create it. Others say they never send a cover letter.
Walter says he doesn’t ask for cover letters, though he would read one if someone took the time to write it. “A generic cover letter singing our praises blindly without any substance doesn’t add much,” he says.
“What would stand out to me is if the person did specific research on our company, read our content, and had thoughtful insights on the direction they would take if they got the opportunity.”
HiredSupport is another company that doesn’t put much stock in a cover letter. “I prefer to ask the candidates questions, such as why should I hire them or what sets them apart from other candidates,” says Joel Wolfe, company founder and president.
My preference? I find cover letters work especially well when applying for writing-related jobs. A good cover letter can showcase the applicant’s writing and business skills (or at least show that they don’t have them). When you can write a few paragraphs to show why you are the best choice to help the business achieve its goals, you also demonstrate that you can write persuasively to get the employer’s target audience to take action. (And if it doesn’t get read, no worries. You just drafted your in-person sales pitch for the job.)
What should the resume include?
Mariah Obiedzinski Tang, assistant vice president of content marketing at Stamats, says she wants to see candidates demonstrate their growth.
“That can look many ways — advancements in careers, the addition of responsibility, doing tasks outside their comfort zone, and reporting personal/professional takeaways,” she says.
Most importantly, candidates should show they care about their work and aren’t just saying, “I’m good; hire me.”
But how do you show that growth? How do you share that you care about the job?
Mariah suggests adding a “What I Learned” subheading on your resume to grab the prospective employer’s attention. Highlight those out-of-scope duties or challenging assignments. “It gives you a natural chance for a narrative instead of just listing duties,” she explains.
Also, tailor your resume to the context of the job description. “Your resume should show that you meet or exceed the qualifications, not just that you’ve had a series of content or content-adjacent roles,” Mariah says.
Seeing a strategic alignment is also important to Laura Goldstone, senior director of communications strategy and head of brand at AdDaptive Intelligence.
In fact, candidates make it to the top of her list when they prove they can think and act strategically, connect the dots from strategy to execution, and care about understanding and elevating the brand’s content strategy.
“You don’t have to have one-to-one experience. I just need to feel confident that you can do the job based on the skills and wisdom you’ve honed,” Laura says.
How do you prove that? Explain the skills used in earlier situations and how those skills will help your new employer or what lessons you’ve learned that could be applied in the new role.
At TemPositions, Walter wants to see a track record showing someone who can think strategically about how to align content with business goals. For the copywriter opening for example, candidates who go further in the process quantify their record of producing a high volume of SEO-optimized content.
As far as a candidate’s employment timeline, Walter says one or two short stints aren’t a red flag, but a career of one year here, six months there, etc., is problematic. “It’s hard to trust that they’ll spend much time on my team. A green flag is career progression at a previous company, especially in a short time frame,” he explains.
What about the interview?
Before you land an interview with the hiring manager, expect some additional steps.
At HiredSupport, candidates submit their applications and then take a pre-screening test — a set of technical questions only a professional would know.
Walter at TemPositions used to interview anyone he thought could do the job, taking two to three weeks to screen, interview, and present the candidates to the CEO. But that’s too much work on top of his day-to-day responsibilities so the internal HR team, which knows his hiring preferences, creates a shortlist of candidates for him.
At Stamats, Mariah says she interviews about 10 to 30% of the applicants depending on the role’s required skill level and number of applications. Instead of writing assessment tests, she asks the applicant to pull up a piece of work they’re proud of and describe the writing, research, editing, distributing process, etc. She also asks what they would have done differently.
“This gives a solid indication of their deeper skill in content structure and strategy, not just writing in a controlled environment,” Mariah says.
AdDaptive Intelligence’s Laura says she likes to ask situational and behavioral questions to inspire the candidate to tell a story. For example, instead of asking what marketing tech stack candidates use, she asks them to tell her about a time they had to learn how to use a tool, highlighting the process and outcome.
Among her other storytelling question prompts:
- Tell me about one way you’ve grown in the last year.
- Tell me about a time when you had to work cross-functionally, highlighting what you do to make the collaboration successful.
- How do you build trust in relationships up and across?
“Candidates with detailed stories that answer my questions and show me how they might act favorably in this role shine,” she says.
Laura also listens during the interview to assess not only the hard skills possessed by the candidate but their soft skills, too. She wants to learn how they communicate, the culture they thrive best in, their organizational skills, their priorities, and the conditions to do their best work. “Those intangibles are incredibly important to me as I build a multifaceted but close-knit team,” she says.
Penny Gralewski, vice president of marketing at Rimo3, suggests candidates be prepared with challenge-action-result stories. Walk through a business problem that generated a need for content. Explain how you collaborated with the other teams involved to research, write, and produce the content. Then, brag about the business outcomes.
“Hiring managers learn so much about talent, teamwork, and business mindset when content marketers bring work samples, stories about the content’s creation, and metrics about its impact,” she says.
Take time to think
What mistakes do these hiring marketers see candidates make? They all boil down the answer to two words: blah responses.
“Candidates are quick to answer the questions I send them. They don’t read what I am asking and give me a bland response that lacks technical knowledge,” Joel says.
Instead, he says, candidates should take a beat and respond using a laptop computer to get away from the notification bombardments and disruptions that happen on a mobile phone.
Laura says she often gets generic replies to these questions: What keeps you happy in a job? Where do you get your motivation? What about this role intrigued you and inspired you to reply?
“I tend to get blanket statements or vague responses that don’t tell me anything about the person,” she says. “If someone can answer those questions with something illuminating, actionable, and unique, my ears will perk up.”
Perking up the ears of a hiring manager is the utmost accomplishment for any job searcher in content and marketing. But to get to that point, you better use your content skills to tell a story about how your professional story will help further the hiring company’s story.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute