The Marketing Operations Strategist - Don't get rejected in the 2025 MOPs hiring spree

Hey! 👋

Okay, okay, maybe it won’t be a spree persay, but I do anticipate that marketing operations jobs will continue to open up. Why?

Because we are hopefully continuing to see Federal Reserve rate cuts here in the United States. I’m also noticing more VC movement than I’ve previously been seeing — VC investors are cleaning house on poorly performing executives and looking to replace them with fresh talent. We may still have a little while to go, but I’m witnessing signs of recovery. And, let’s be honest…the marketing operations hiring market has a lot of room to improve after the past 2+ years. 😰

So….what skills am I seeing in high-demand for marketing operations professionals heading into the new year? And how can you prepare, so you have the best chance of landing an amazing new job?

Let me tell you more about it after a quick mention from our wonderful sponsors 💖

Okay, let’s get back into the skills I believe you need to focus on for 2025. After doing extensive research on LinkedIn and other job posting platforms, here are my findings and how to prep for them (I’m only providing links to free resources or courses I’ve taken and approve of personally — working on taking more courses so I can give more paid recommendations as well!):

1. Marketing technology (especially MAP, ABM, and CDP)

Most job descriptions mention marketing automation platforms like HubSpot, Marketo, or Pardot, but let’s be honest — those just touch on the surface of most marketing operations roles. You want to learn more about ABM strategy and tools like 6sense and Demandbase, as well as CDPs like Segment or Braze.

I’m not saying that you’ll need to be hands-on in these tools right away, but I am saying that it’s a good idea to at least take a look at some of their free trainings online so you can be familiar. Braze is still more broadly used in B2C companies, but I am seeing a lot of B2B companies spin up B2C offerings as well as blur the lines on their GTM approach overall, so I think tools like Braze will become more and more relevant.

Here are some of my favorite resources:

• HubSpot University

• Trailhead (Pardot and SFMC)

• Adobe Experience League (Marketo)

• Segment University

2. Data Analysis + Reporting (Google Analytics, Tableau, PowerBI)

I know, I know — you’re probably thinking that this is for marketing analytics, not marketing operations roles. Welp, unfortunately with the consolidation of roles during this tricky economic environment, the line between marketing operations and marketing analytics has become fuzzier.

These days, marketing operations professionals are expected to be able to pull their own reports — and create their own insights and recommendations based on data. Which tool you need to learn is dependent upon the size of company you’re targeting, as I tend to see Google Analytics in SMB, Tableau in Enterprise, and PowerBI spread throughout. It isn’t enough to just learn how to use the tools, though — you need to learn how to work the data.

Here are some of my favorite resources:

• Datacamp

• Google Analytics

3. CRM

Learning mainstream CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Dynamics is key. Gone are the days where one could ride on just knowing marketing automation platforms. To be effective, you need to learn CRM as well. If you want to be even more attractive, learn sales operations methodologies and everything from lead to cash. Revenue Operations is growing quickly!

Here are some of my favorite resources:

• FocusOnForce (great exam study guides)

• Trailhead (get access to free Salesforce training instances!)

• HubSpot Academy

4. Project management

Project management is the “how” of getting things done. We can have all of the greatest goals and ideas in the world, but if we can’t figure out how to execute on them, we aren’t going to get very far. If you know how to organize projects, tasks, people, and budgets, you’ll be a complete goal-achieving machine. This makes you invaluable to any marketing leader, as a lot of folks are all talk and no action.

Here are some of my favorite resources:

• Project Management Institute: Kickoff

5. AI (and how marketing can leverage it)

There is a lot of hype around AI, sure — but there are also a lot of use cases that are taking off and helping a lot of people. I anticipate that these use cases will continue to expand and become more and more valuable to marketers and marketing operations teams alike. The key here is to 1) learn the fundamentals of AI and prompt engineering and then 2) learn the offerings out there and help marketers select and implement the tools with the best ROI.

Here are some of my favorite resources:

• Datacamp’s artificial intelligence courses

6. Change management + M&A

Change management often gets overlooked, but I’d argue that it’s one of the make-or-break areas for marketing operations. If we can’t guide teams through change, we are cooked. M&A is another specialization that deserves more focus — as the economy improves, I expect to see M&A pick up again. A lot of companies depend upon their in-house teams to facilitate M&A activity, so you better get ready!

Here are some of my favorite resources:

• Project Management Institute: Change Management Self-Starter Course

• M&A resources for marketing are hard to come by…I’m working on addressing this in my course/upcoming learning offerings 🙂

7. Relationship building, influence

We have to work well with our sales operations, marketing, customer success, sales….all of our counterparts. If you can build relationships, you can influence decisions, get teams motivated, and get more done.

Here are some of my favorite resources:

• How to Win Friends and Influence People

• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

• Never Split the Difference

8. Leadership: Budgeting and planning

For management roles, you’d better learn budgeting and planning, because these will — more likely than not — be your responsibility. The tricky part is that each company manages finance a little differently, so you should focus on learning the fundamentals instead of the tools.

Even if you don’t technically own budgeting and planning, you have a strong interest in making sure these functions work properly; after all, these are inputs into how we accurately measure ROI and run marketing like an efficient business. If there is chaos and the budget is being spent incorrectly, there’s no way we can succeed.

Here are some of my favorite resources:

• Asana

• Uptempo’s Blueprint for Marketing Planning (also the sponsor of this edition of the newsletter)

9. Leadership: People management

People management is an area that most companies under-invest in, especially with the more recent trend of “flattening” middle-management layers. This is really unfortunate, because study after study shows that having an engaging and supportive manager is one of the key ways to retain talent.

Even with this flattening, those of us who want to move up into people management will still need to hone these skills in preparation to become a good leader. We need to learn key aspects like creating psychological safety, giving and receiving feedback, and motivating employees.

Here are some of my favorite resources:

• Start With Why

• YouTube videos

10. My own speculative thoughts

Okay, so these are much more speculative than the rest, more of my own opinion — but I think that Dreamdata, Paramark, Clay, and other RevOps platforms will become valuable to learn. These companies are generally killing it at sales right now, which means that they need consultants to help implement…just saying! Especially for those who are running consulting side gigs. 🙂 

Now, on to the logistics of the interview process. A few tips on how to set the odds in your favor from a process standpoint:

1. Network and get a referral.

A referral isn’t always a silver bullet, but if you are applying to a small enough company it can be the difference between getting a response and sitting in the applicant pile. Make it a point to always network, ESPECIALLY when you don’t need a referral — that way, you can invest in others and then ask for value back once you’ve already provided them value. This makes it more of a 50:50 relationship rather than 0:100, where you are just asking for favors.

2. Accelerate the process as much as you can (while still getting to know the opportunity and people involved).

The longer you let a process go on, the more applicants enter the process, and the more decision paralysis the hiring managers tend to have. If you can, have multiple interview processes moving along and work with the recruiter to set a sense of urgency. Be proactive in following up on next steps and answering any of their communications ASAP.

3. Speaking of, please DO build a relationship with the recruiter!

The recruiter is a great person to get to know because:

• They often are influential in the decision-making process (they generally screen you upfront and then can provide feedback if a hiring manager is torn between two candidates).

• They get to know the hiring manager and/or can ask questions on your behalf.

• They are great to have “in your corner” on compensation negotiation.

For these reasons, we want to appeal to the hiring manager. Be open with any compliments you have on the process/their work and be proactive with questions about the people you’re interviewing with. Here are some of my common questions that give me an edge:

• For this next interview, where have other applicants mis-stepped or where have they shone through? Is there anything specific I should highlight about my experience? Anything else I should know about the hiring manager/the next interviewer?

• What does the complete interview process look like? How many steps, who will I meet with, any presentations?

• How quickly is the hiring manager looking to make a hire? Is this an urgent hire, or is this for next quarter?

• My other interview process has picked up steam and I am expecting an offer soon — but I have loved the conversations with your team, is there any way we can accelerate our process here at X Company?

4. Ask for feedback.

Throughout the process, ask each interviewer, the hiring manager, and the recruiter for feedback. I like to throw in a question ¾ of the way through an interview: Is there anything in my experience that I could elaborate on to better paint the picture for you? Is there anything we’ve discussed that gives you pause or that you’re especially excited about?

And don’t forget to ask for feedback if you get rejected. Some companies will keep it vague due to HR policy reasons, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

5. Be aware of perception.

If you appear tired, bored, or unhappy, that will shine through. I tend to be better in the afternoon, so I try to push interviews to early afternoon if I can. I hype myself up with music beforehand, especially if I’m exhausted from all of the interviews. Remember, each interview is typically a first impression and a vote for/against your candidacy, so make it count.

Are you interested in free live demos of up-and-coming tools?

I’m working on some new concepts as I wrap up some current projects and am looking for feedback on what people are looking for to best help them in their careers. Would you be interested in seeing me set up workflows live in new up-and-coming martech and salestech tools?

Learning resource of the week:

Helpful AI tool of the week 🤖

You may remember my mention of ChatGPT a few editions ago — but if ChatGPT isn’t your style, there is a worthy competitor that you could consider. A company called Anthropic has created a tool called Claude, and some of its more recent updates have been exciting — like the ability to upload up to 500 pages of notes, files, and examples so that Claude can help you with any questions about your project, without having to feed it context over and over again. You can read more about it here.

What I’m up to/what I’m studying

Lately, I’m focusing more on further-down-the-funnel training — I want to learn more about CPQ and sales processes so I can more easily pivot and provide value from lead to cash.

On a more personal note, I’m going to Knott’s Scary Farm soon and am excited to be spooked. 👻 Speaking of, has anyone seen the movie Infinity Pool? What a wild movie! Mia Goth is SUCH A GOOD HORROR ACTRESS. Anyways, the movie isn’t for the weak of heart, so please be sure to read reviews/ratings before watching, if you are unfamiliar. 😇 

Anyone doing anything especially fun for Halloween? Would love to hear about it!

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.

Here’s my answer to a question from last week:

HA! I can relate to this — math is one of the least exciting things, to me. I find it dreadfully boring.

That being said, I don’t think you have to do tons of math to move forward in your career — it helps, but I anticipate it will be less and less critical over time as more AI assistants become available/widely used.

But those statements aren’t answering your question. To answer your questions:

1. What motivates you to complete other tasks/goals? I once worked for a VP who LOVED gamification — she loved Trailhead even though she didn’t need to know any of it for her job. I personally do well with tracking and then slicing goals into tiny tasks that feel less overwhelming. Others find rewards to be helpful, like giving themselves a treat after finishing tasks. I’d ask yourself what motivates you in other area of your life and try applying it to this area. If nothing helps, you could always pull up a salary range for the increased role and fantasize about what you could buy/experience with the extra money!

2. You could go CMO, COO, CEO…the great news is that so many of our skills in marketing operations are easily applicable to other roles within the business. It’s hard to say exactly which routes you should explore without knowing more about you, but I’d suggest networking with folks in roles you’re considering and asking them for unfiltered insights on what the job is like. You could also try being a Chief of Staff for one of these roles, which will give you more paid exposure to what the actual job is like.

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! 😄

Til next time,

❤️ Sara