As a Marketing Technology professional, I’ve struggled to find the right fit in my career. I’ve held various positions under the CTO or CMO, and within a Global Business Intelligence Department. Although I fit the job description, I often have more skills than the company knows how to leverage.
Things came to a head in November 2022 when I was laid off from a company. I was running their Digital Product, but my responsibilities were never clearly defined. The job market was saturated. Well-known company names like Amazon and Facebook were having mass layoffs. Surprisingly, that wasn’t the biggest obstacle I faced during my job search.
I applied to hundreds of jobs, only to receive automated responses stating that I wasn’t the right fit. It was frustrating. What caught my attention was when recruiters from those same companies reached out on LinkedIn, saying how perfect I was for that position. This made me think about my experience in general.
During interviews, I’m often asked why I haven’t stayed with any company for more than two years. Recruiters focus on my job hopping rather than the contributions I’ve made in short time frames.
I never had a good answer for that until I recently had the privilege of chatting with Mike Rizzo, the founder of Marketingops.com.
Something finally clicked for me after that conversation. My tendency to jump from job to job had a lot to do with companies not knowing how to leverage my unique set of skills. Many articles describe certain unique combinations as a unicorn. I see myself as more of a Minotaur or Chimera (look it up). Due to my background in Analytics, Technology, Marketing, and Product. I’m capable of doing many things for an organization, so I don’t fit neatly into their ideal current state.
I strongly believe that the roles I’ve had lacked clarity in their descriptions. While these companies knew what needed to be done at the time. They had no idea what would happen after a capable person came in and accomplished those tasks. I’ve been in many positions where the company has “let me” figure out what my role was, and it never ended well for me.
If you’ve been jumping from job to job over the years and have to explain your career moves instead of your accomplishments, you’re not alone. If the roles you’re applying to seem vague and the company tells you that “you can make it what you want,” I’ve been there. But don’t lose hope. Many companies are realizing something has been missing in their organization.
There’s a need for people like us, and we need to help educate companies on what that means for their business. We should ask more pointed questions in interviews to make sure they understand the role they’re hiring for. What the future state looks like, not just what it will do today.
Marketing Operations and MarTech positions are exploding right now. It doesn’t mean companies know what they should be looking for. Some companies have been searching for two years or more for these roles because they don’t know what they need. If you’re hiring for one of these roles, leverage resources like MarketingOps(dot)com or talk to companies with successful marketing operations.
Marketing operations professionals are versatile, meaning they can adapt when your company expands. They can shift easily into new areas or provide the insights needed to expand efforts in new places. They know different tactics and potential impact as well as the right technology to get you there.
If you’re looking for work, don’t take things at face value. Understand that the job description probably doesn’t fit what you’d do if hired. Take it upon yourself to ask more questions and interview them about the right fit. Every Marketing Operations role will evolve in the next few years. The expansion of tools, AI, and other capabilities, require this area of focus to take on new responsibilities. Tool integration and utilization will become too complex for a non-marketing operations professional to manage.
A passionate, motivated, & experienced results-driven leader with 15+ years in technology, marketing, data, strategy, ecommerce, and product ownership. With an outstanding record for managing, growing and optimizing teams responsible for: Ecommerce, Marketing Technology (MarTech), Marketing Operations, Conversion Optimization, Consumer Insights, Growth & Performance Marketing, Marketing Automation and more. Over the years I have worked with 250+ different marketing technologies and have helped improve the utilization & Total Cost of Ownership of hundreds of digital technology stacks. Focused on staying ahead of trends and being forward thinking. I spend most of my nights and mornings reading books or articles to continue to gain knowledge that can be shared or implemented in my daily work. • Marketing Technology Ownership • Digital and Marketing Analytics • Product Management • Ecommerce Leadership • Marketing Operations • Conversion Optimization • Experimentation & Personalization • And much more
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