Episode Summary
The job market is extremely hot right now, and many people are looking to build their careers and shift into better roles. But how do you evaluate different content marketing job opportunities to make sure you pick the best one?
In this episode of the Content Logistics podcast, our host Camille Trent talks about the most vital factors to consider when evaluating your career path. She shares some tips for understanding whether a specific role or a company is the right choice for you.
Key Insights
- Choose the career path that's right for you. Finding the right career path takes time. So, make sure you carefully weigh your options. Camille explains, "Every time I accept a role, I adjust that criteria a bit more because I understand more; in general, I understand the game of marketing and business and what companies are looking for. But then also, I understand myself a little better and what I'm looking for and what I'm actually good at. And not just that, but what gives me energy? What do I enjoy doing? And where is there a market? So combining all of those things together to better evaluate roles and content marketing role fit, if you will."
- Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should do it. Even though you're the perfect candidate for a job, it doesn't mean you should go for it. Camille says, "I think that's something important to consider as you're looking through job descriptions — grass is always greener. You're always going to find something that seems like, 'Oh wow, I check all of these boxes. This is the perfect job for me,' and you do it, and maybe you find that even though you're good at it, it doesn't spark joy. And maybe that's because you find that you enjoy working with a lot of people, and you don't have this at the new job. Or you like working alone, and you don't have that at the new place. You find other things about yourself that are important to your path to that genius zone."
- How to evaluate content marketing job opportunities? In this episode, Camille shares her most useful tips for finding the right content marketing opportunity. She says, "I had to think about it a little bit, and then I narrowed it down to my top five things that I consider before taking a role or even really considering a role; so, just my basic vetting process."
Episode Highlights
Consider the Stage of a Company
“The stage of a company is very important as it lends itself to completely different personalities. So if you are a specialist, and you are really great at one specific thing — maybe one specific aspect of content marketing, so maybe it’s editing, or maybe it’s social media, or I’m trying to think of something even more specific. Maybe it’s TikTok. It’s like a specific channel. If you are very channel-specific in your content marketing approach, a later-stage company or an enterprise company may be the best fit in that they are probably going to pay the most for that type of a role and value a specialist, maybe more so than an early stage startup.”
What Industry Are You Most Interested In?
“What industries? What content are you most interested in producing? So it could be that you are a marketer that likes marketing to other marketers, and luckily, there is a huge opportunity in marketing tech. There are tons of marketing tech companies and lots of opportunities there. Could be that you enjoy sales, CS — I’m mostly thinking about SaaS here, but there’s everything from FinTech to MedTech. So really figuring out what topics you enjoy writing about and what style you enjoy writing about.”
Understand the Leadership’s Priorities
“Does the CEO get marketing? So starting at the top; is the CEO investing in marketing? Looking at their past hires, when did they hire marketing? Who did they hire for marketing? So one thing that I like to look at is, ‘Would your direct report be a CMO? Would they be a VP of marketing? Would they be a head of marketing? At what level are they investing in marketing?’ And I’m not saying that an early-stage company should have a CMO or even should have a VP of marketing, but that can be a signal that they care about it and that they’re investing at a high level. Next thing is: does the CMO or the VP of marketing get content marketing, and even beyond that, are they content marketers themselves?”
Make Sure You Believe in the Company’s Vision
“Do you believe in the business model? Do you believe in the strategy and the vision? And then, can you see and understand what success looks like? Both for that year and even have an idea of what success looks like in five years, and they don’t have to have that figured out. It could be that an IPO makes sense. It could be that an acquisition makes sense. So they may not know them at that point, but I think having some milestones and a good idea of what success looks like for the company is a good idea, and understanding how content fits into that. So how much do you think that content can influence that journey and those growth goals?”
The People You Work With Are As Important As Your Work
“Part of the reason that this is farther down the list is because I do feel the team leadership and who you’re working with every day is more important than what you’re actually working on every day. That’s not to say that what you’re working on is not important, but I think that if you gel really well with the rest of the team, if you can work well together, that’s oftentimes like a number one thing for me, especially that the team respects each other’s boundaries and work-life balance.”
Growth Potential Is Vital
“Will this job be a good stepping stone to get you there? Will you be able to learn the skills that you need to be able to get you where you want to go? So, is there growth potential and having that conversation early and often with your manager; or, if you’re a manager, making sure that you’re having those conversations with your team because more so than anything, I’m convinced that that is going to be key for retention.”
Evaluate the Company’s Product
“Really understanding not only the product itself but how that relates to you and how that relates to content marketing. What does the pricing of the product and the go-to-market of the product mean for you as a content marketer?”
