As a new graduate entering the work-force for the very first time, it’s impossible for you to know exactly what us hiring managers want to see from you as you don’t truly know what is important and what isn’t in the working environment. Yes, you know we want hard workers, but every single person claims to be one so just stating that isn’t going to help you get hired any faster.
Let’s make this easier on you. The below list is exactly what marketing hiring managers want to see on your resume and what the typical entry-level applicant has on their resume. If you’ve been applying for over 2 months, there’s likely an issue with your resume (more often than not, it’s your lack of work experience). Getting your first full-time marketing job is hard because:
- Hiring managers usually don’t give you feedback on why you were passed over and
- You have no idea what you’re competing against in other applicants.
So, as a long time marketing hiring manager who sees hundreds of marketing entry-level applications a month, I’m going to provide you with that info here so you can see why you’re getting ghosted and how you stack up so you can make the appropriate changes and get more interviews and job offers.
By far, the most important thing on your resume is your work experience section (you likely already know that but I just want to emphasize that 1 more time here). 90% of our focus will be on this section of your resume alone. So, make sure that you do whatever you can to adjust your work experience section to get as close to the below as possible. Remember, this is just putting you at the average entry-level marketing candidate. Ideally, you want to get more than this as you want to actually stand out. Remember, getting more online certifications is not a shortcut for work experience so don’t think you can pad this area with those and it will help you get hired faster as you’re probably already realizing. I see far too many applicants making this mistake and then are upset when their 7+ certifications aren’t leading to more interviews/offers. Hiring managers care about work experience.
The average marketing entry-level applicant has the below:
- Work experience in at least 2 but most have work experience in 3 of the below main 4 areas of digital marketing:
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
- PPC Marketing
- SEO Marketing
- DON’T worry about the 2-3 years of experience they are asking for. Apply anyways! What really matters is do you have the below bullet points or not. If you do, then this 2-3 years doesn’t matter.
Below is a “wish list” for what marketing hiring managers want in a dream entry-level candidate. Most of your competition has work experience in 50-60% of this so you want to strive to get at least that just to compete but get more to really have a good chance of getting hired faster. Save this list and use this as guidance. The faster you take action and get this experience, the faster you’ll get hired.
- Created a brand awareness campaign and the company’s content marketing strategy which increased monthly leads by x%
- Created social media content
- Repurposed content to expand the company’s social media and online presence in an efficient way
- Developed a hashtag strategy to improve the reach of our content
- Created social media content that went viral and received x likes and x shares.
- Designed and created PPC lead generation campaigns on multiple social media platforms
- Created an optimized landing page to increase conversions for PPC campaigns
- Built targeted audiences for PPC ads to optimize the company’s ROI on their ad spend
- Created optimized copy for landing pages and PPC ads to increase conversion rates
- Designed a lead generation strategy that increased leads by xxx% in my region
- Optimized a current lead generation strategy that increased leads by x% in my region
- Optimized the company’s emails that increased open rates and conversion rates
- Used automation tools to set up an automated outbound lead generation campaign
- Set up and managed a CRM from scratch
- Created and optimized an email workflow with if/then triggers to optimize leads through the marketing funnel.
- Created all the copy for the lead generation messaging.
- Utilized social media channels and group pages to find and prospect potential leads
- Provided customer service support to guide our prospects into our marketing funnel
- Increased sales in my region by x%
- Performed competitor analysis, keyword research, and SERP Analysis for inbound marketing blog efforts using Ahrefs
- Created blog article content based on extensive Ahrefs research and optimized it for SEO purposes
- Implemented an effective blog promotion strategy via backlinking, social media, online publishing platforms, working with other publishers, and via content syndication
- Increased website traffic via inbound marketing tactics including blog and infographic creation.
- Established partnerships with industry experts to help further the company’s online presence
So, now you know what you’re up against. Once again, the faster you get this work experience on your resume, the faster you’re going to get hired.
If you’re lacking work experience, don’t worry. We have you covered. Check out this article (link to eook) which is going to show you exactly how you can get the most in-demand work experience quickly as well as give you some amazing entry-level marketing interview tips. I’ve helped over 3,000 graduates land entry-level marketing jobs in as little as 2 weeks with the methods in this article so make sure you check it out.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at joseph@jobprepped.com as I’m always happy to help 🙂
