The Marketing Operations Strategist - Welcome & How to Stand Out as a Marketing Operations Job Applicant

Welcome to my brand new newsletter! 👋 I’m excited to start offering more in-depth insights and resources than I can share on LinkedIn — and maybe a bit more sass too. 😜 I plan to send this out every other week or so until I get into more of a cadence with writing it. I don’t want to send any newsletters just to send them — that’s the worst. 😬

I’m just getting into the swing of things here, so please send any feedback that you have! You can just reply to this email and I will receive your reply. 🙂 

I thought I’d start with something on just about everyone’s mind right now: how to improve your chances of getting a new job in marketing operations (or, honestly, any kind of role — this should be helpful if you are in any professional industry). 🧳

How to be in the top 1% of marketing operations job applicants ❤️‍🔥

It’s arguably never been harder to get a marketing operations job. With many phantom job listings (jobs either already internally filled, or not looking to hire within the next 3 months) and a flood of awesome talent from the hundreds of thousands of layoffs from tech companies over the last year or two, the competition is stiff.

So how can you stick out?

1. Clean up your LinkedIn.

Spruce up your LinkedIn profile. I know, I know — in MOPs, we tend to be pretty lowkey and don’t love self-promotion. However, if we hold onto that M.O., we will most certainly be out-shined by other applicants. So, you’re probably wondering — what do I mean, “spruce up?”

A. Update your bio to reflect your “applicant pitch” — this should be a few sentences (up to a paragraph or two), similar to an elevator pitch. Read job descriptions of jobs that you want and hone in on a compelling message to hiring managers of those roles.

Here’s my bio, as an example:

B. Make sure your profile picture is a flattering picture of you, ideally without a “busy” background. In my testing, I have not found it to be important that you are super dressed up (this might matter more for VP+ roles) or that it is the most professional photo of all time; just look somewhat put together and “put a face to a name.”

C. Look at your prior listed jobs and add in some descriptions. Too many profiles have completely blank job history descriptions; I totally get that, due to NDAs, we can’t list every metric or achievement. Even if you have to keep things vague for certain reasons, at least give a sense of what your focus was and any achievements you’re proud of.

D. If you feel comfortable, share knowledge on LinkedIn. This will help you gain followers, and before some of you cringe — yes, I hate the theory of getting subscribers just to get subscribers, but listen — you’re doing professional networking here. Your followers will get to know you and you may meet them in-person at events, etc. Even if you post just a few posts, this will give hiring managers something to read to get to know you a little better.

2. Use a ATS resume reviewer like Teal

There are quite a few choices for ATS scanners out there, but my latest favorite is Teal. You can use it like a job CRM, tracking jobs and comparing your listed skills on your resume to the job description. A word of warning, Teal is new so it is a tiny bit buggy at time…but I love what the team is doing and expect the bugs to decrease drastically over time. Try teal here. _{(By the way, you may see me posting some affiliate links here and there — rest assured, I will not personally recommend any products or services that I have not personally used and loved. This is just an easy way to provide great content and get a little cash back to continue to fund the effort!)}

3. Create a career plan.

The job market shifts around under us, especially nowadays — where ABM was the “hot ticket” a year ago, now analytical skills are the most in-demand non-martech skill.

The only way you can keep up to speed is by continuing to monitor job listings for the role you’d want next. Then, create a personalized learning plan for yourself. No, this doesn’t mean you have to “rise and grind” before or after work to build new skills; this could be as simple as keeping specific desired experience in mind so that, when an opportunity comes up at work, you jump to take it. Here’s a screenshot of a portion of my skill-tracking Trello board (I am a nerd about these things and love to learn, so please don’t feel like you have to replicate exactly what I have! This is just an example, and I definitely fall behind my own timelines from time to time etc)! Because marketing analytics is all the rage right now, I’ve been spending a lot of my time in Datacamp _{(affiliate link)} — but you can choose any platform you like, like Udemy, YouTube, Coursera, or more!

4. Create your “elevator pitch” for your job search overall.

In almost every phone screen/initial conversation, you’ll want to have a quick summary of your experience and achievements. If you are struggling with this, take your favorite achievements and ask ChatGPT to write you a summary! That should get the gears in your head turning.

5. Practice interviewing.

Whether it be through interviewing with a potential company you’re interested in (but don’t have your heart set on), professional peers, or even your family/friends, practice interviewing! There aren’t standard marketing operations questions, but you can start by nailing the standard interview questions. Here’s a great article by The Balance that goes over typical questions, the answers to them, and the STAR method.

6. Network, network, network.

In this economy, the key to getting an interview is knowing someone at the company. If you’re lucky and it is public knowledge that you’re laid off, you could be referred without even knowing — if you’re employed and looking, you could reach out to a contact at the company to see if you can get a referral link or a warm intro to the hiring manager! The key is to not only network when you’re looking for a job; proactively network when you’re happily employed! Try to join at least 1 Slack group (listed below) and 1 professional group (example: Marketo User Group), if you can.

7. Prepare for your next job by building confidence.

Brush up on any skills you haven’t used recently, watch videos about corporate politics, watch inspirational YouTube videos, talk with your friends, whatever gets you pumped up and confident to go into an interview; because let’s be honest, the typical interview process nowadays can be quite demoralizing.

8. If you don’t get the job, wait a few weeks and lurk on LinkedIn to see who got the job.

If you start to see a pattern in the candidates who end up with the roles you’re applying for, address that skill or experience gap (either through learning more, getting experience, or addressing it better in the interview process).

9. Do your research ahead of the interview.

Use tools like builtwith.com to look at what tech stack the company is using on their website. For example, if you see both HubSpot and Marketo — you can ask, are you considering a move to Marketo? This opens conversation and, if you are correct, makes you look extra knowledgeable.

10. Feel empowered to manage your candidacy alongside the recruiter.

Ask the recruiter for feedback from each interview; you’d be surprised at what they are often willing to share! You could even ask for tips ahead of time…what should you know about the hiring manager, what issues have come up with other candidates…does the recruiter, themselves, have any concerns about your experience? With this intel, you can prepare and nail the interview! Make sure you also give the recruiter great feedback, as they can be a huge advocate for you — so the more they like you, the better.

Recommended book of the week:

Learning resource of the week:

Helpful AI tool of the week 🤖

Need help rewriting your resume? Writing a thank you letter to a hiring manager? Grammarly has an AI tool that could help you out! Check it out here.

What I’m up to/what I’m studying

This week, I’ve been really focused on finishing up my MOPs Master Playbook course! I’ll be sharing more soon, but I must say…creating a course is probably the hardest professional project I’ve done! 😱 Especially as a team of 1. 😅

Dear Sara ✍️

New to marketing operations? On a team of one at your company? Shy/introverted? Wish you could ask a question to an experienced marketing operations professional, without them knowing who you are? Here’s your chance! Submit an anonymous question to me here and I’ll answer a new question in every issue.

What else do you want to hear about from me?

I have a bunch of content lined up, but I want to hear from you — did you enjoy this issue? Is there anything specific you’d like to hear my take on? Please do reply to this email with any and all feedback! 😄 If you enjoyed this issue, please refer your friends by forwarding this email/sending them here!

Til next time,

❤️ Sara