Avoid This Reaction at Your Next Interview
Following from my presentation at Search School Manchester last month, it seems to me that there are loads of students looking for further information on how to enter the digital marketing industry. With digital marketing evolving at the pace is has and continues to, universities and other educational bodies appear to have struggled to keep up, focussing as they do on more traditional marketing methods. Meanwhile, an entire industry has cropped up and today’s students want in.
Since speaking at the event, a number of students have asked me how they can improve their chances of earning a job in digital marketing, including Ned – who posted the following question to the Search School Ning.
“Do you look favourably on candidates with specific skills such as coding or photoshop/creative suite, or is a passion to learn these skills enough at graduate level?”
I started to type my answer but it quickly morphed into a bit of an essay that could conceivably help others in the same boat as Ned, so I thought I’d post it here.
Realistically, ANY digital proficiency can be used to your advantage when looking for a job in digital marketing. How much of an advantage will depend on how proficient you are, and the relevancy of your proficiency to the role you are applying for. For example, coding skills might allow you to work directly on a site, while a flair for design or copywriting could help you to create content or images that people want to see, read and link to.
That said, if you want to be a marketer rather than a developer, copywriter or designer then some proficiency in one of these skills might not be sufficient to get your foot in the door, especially nowadays as competition for jobs gets fiercer and fiercer. Whether you want to go into affiliate marketing, paid search, social media, SEO or email marketing, you should get as much presentation experience as you can if you’re still at university (marketers tend to have to present to bosses and / or clients quite frequently). Set up a site (if you haven’t already got one) and get some experience using website analytics programmes. Google Analytics is widely used, free, and you’ll stand in very good stead if you can show you know how to use it to a relatively advanced level.
Aside from that, read, read, read. Most online marketers are self-taught to some degree, and we seem to be unable to keep it to ourselves. There are literally thousands of blogs, guides and e-books covering virtually every aspect of online marketing. Back over at the Search School Ning I gave the following starter guides for SEO (prepare for some heavy, but edifying, reading);
The SEOMoz Beginner’s Guide To Search – http://bit.ly/Pczt
SEO Revolution Google Best Practices Guide – http://bit.ly/9lxmHS
Hobo’s Google SEO Basics Guide – http://bit.ly/NyhcO
Google’s Search Engine Optimisation Starter Guide – http://bit.ly/11Xze
I can recommend these SEO guides as they’ve all contributed to my personal understanding, but there are plenty of great other blogs and guides out there to help you get to grips with other aspects of digital marketing, including…
The Digital Marketing Industry – http://econsultancy.com/blog
Pay Per Click Management – http://www.ppchero.com/
Affiliate Marketing – http://www.affiliates4u.com/
Social Media Marketing – http://whatconsumesme.com/
Email Marketing – http://www.b2bemailmarketing.com/
The examples given above are a few of our favourites, but the list is far from exhaustive. Read around the subject by performing your own searches, or follow blog roll or comment links for more sources of information. Join in with conversations in the comments sections – be open and honest about your n00b status and more often than not you’ll find people falling over themselves to help (be smart about it though – if you have what seems like it could be a dumb question, JFGI first).
In his original post, Ned also asks about how useful diplomas / qualifications from bodies such as CAM, IDM or CIM are when applying for digital marketing roles. Having none of these qualifications myself at present, I hardly feel qualified to comment, but if anyone reading has any advice regarding this sort of qualification and the value it adds to a career in digital marketing, please feel do comment below! I do, however, have a relative at the CIM to whom I’ll pose this question, so watch this space for more info!
One final, indispensable advantage when applying for jobs is actual, real life work experience. By working in digital marketing with an agency or online business, you’ll see first hand, and experience the different tasks, skills, challenges and rewards that come with a career in this industry. Work experience stints can sometimes turn into fully fledged jobs, and even if not, you’ll go to your next interview with far more ammunition than before.
Fluid are always open to applications for work experience from anyone wanting to get a head start in this industry. As we’re a full service agency, candidates experience a wide range of disciplines, and see how they can feed into one another to create great websites and content. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch at info@fluidcreativity.co.uk. Let us know the kind of experience you’re looking for, when you’re available, and anything else about yourself you think might be relevant, and we’ll see how we can help!
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