On Friday I had the pleasure of taking part in a panel discussion with graduate students from Northwestern University’s Masters of Science in Communication program. The topics covered included: career paths, job search and the effects of the current economy for recent graduates.

Here are a few of the insights that I gathered and shared with them:

 Masters of Communications vs. MBAs:

We ran a quick pool of several senior level marketing and communications professionals to get their take on the value of a Masters of Communications.  As of today 51 have responded. Nearly 50% said it gave a professional a leg up or was “a must”.  Only 17% said other degrees are better.  The poll is still live. Feel free to participate and check out the results: Poll

Compensation:

One of the trends we are seeing is a polarization of compensation. The top 10% of earners within marketing and communications make at least 50% more income than the average earnings of the bottom 90%.  An article in Marketing Week from the UK gives a global view of this trend: ‘A New Age of Austerity Hits Pay Packets Hard‘

 Where the Money is: 

• US owned companies compensate these Marketing and Communications roles better than their European counterparts.
• Digital natives (those who have worked within online marketing from the beginning of their careers) earn a significant premium in compensation.
• High performing employees may be in a great position to negotiate. 70% of companies reported that they were concerned that these high performing employees may leave.

The Economy

Yes, the economy is difficult. But the anxiety caused by high unemployment numbers is often worsened by media oversaturation. The staggering numbers (8.4 Millions jobs lost since the recession began – Bureau of Labor Statistics) do not provide a  perspective on how communication  professionals will be effected. While white collar workers did experience some of the wrath of the poor economy, they were not affected to the same degree as those without a bachelor’s degree. Bureau of Labor Statistics Education Pays Graph.

 On the bright side:

• The Unemployment rate recently fell to under 10%.
• In January there were 5.9 job seekers on average competing for each job -  a significant decrease from the pervious month
• There were 2.5 million job openings in December 2009- a significant increase from November
• Even with 14.8 million people out of work, there are an estimated 137 million employed.
• A Towers Watson survey released Dec. 2009 states that the number of polled companies that plan to freeze or reduce hiring dropped by half to just 33%. Click here to see the Study
• Marketing, creative and communications professions make up only a very small percentage of the total work force and unemployment rates among those ranks are generally much less than the national averages.
• In surveying the January job postings for Communications roles several groups were up. For example- Internal Communications increased 9%, Communications Managers increased by 10%.

So take a deep breath and start regrouping for the big surge ahead that will surely follow this economic turmoil.  It is time to get back to the hard work – figuring out what you are truly passionate about. Trying to guess the direction of the market, following the hot industries of the moment will never create the foolproof career plan. Being passionate about your chosen path will make you more attractive to employers regardless of which way the current trends are blowing.

Employee vs. Contractor

Temporary employment is becoming the new norm. As companies remain fiscally conservative and credit strapped, they are reluctant to bring on a permanent head count. Marketing, creative and communications departments have had experience with this model for years. This will continue to be a growing trend into 2010 and potentially far beyond. From junior assistants and mid-level specialists to the most senior level strategic directors – contract vs. employee is an important part of the mix. Check out two articles on the subject:

‘Temporary CMOs are Here to Stay – for Six Months or So’ - Brandweek

‘Recruiters See Jobs Pickup in 2010 Despite Concerns’ – Wall Street Journal

As always, I came away from the panel discussion super charged. The talent, dedication, drive and passion these professionals have reminded me why I love this field so much- a big Thank You to the school for inviting Paladin to participate.

Over the last few months, several of our corporate clients have discussed significant changes in how they execute their marketing and communications efforts. Several are planning to drastically shift how they use their agency partners and will bring key projects in-house. Others are looking to outsource marketing and creative functions to concentrate on their core business. These clients differ across industries and size including global b-to-b manufactures, financial services firms, non-profit organizations and professional services firms. Because of the number of clients grappling with the same issues, we want to dive in further to find out if these are unique occurrences or growing trends.

We are turning to the marketing and communications community to hear from you. How are you executing marketing and communications efforts?  Take our poll and check back for results: TAKE POLL NOW

In the mean time, here are a few articles I have come across recently on related topics that may also be of value in this discussion. Feel free to share your comments, insights and opinions on the topic here and on our poll.

Tough economy forces marketers to reorganize http://tinyurl.com/yfjghjd

Small ad agencies go over big http://tinyurl.com/yg98soe

Down economy drives small businesses and EAG http://tinyurl.com/yghcv6h

Marketing Business Services in Down Economy http://tinyurl.com/yl8etfc

Avoid the temptation to cut marketing budgets http://tinyurl.com/yf9ahe2  

In-house SEO vs. SEO Provider http://tinyurl.com/yf87yr9

Last month I wrote a blog highlighting a hiring trend I’m seeing recently at Paladin. In short, we found that although a recession typically leads to an increase in mid-level interim staffing needs within corporations and agencies, our clients were disproportionally hiring senior/executive level marketers for both direct-hire positions and for interim roles.

To gain a larger perspective, we asked the marketing community for feedback via a LinkedIn poll. We wanted to determine if what we are seeing at Paladin is an anomaly, or actually a hiring trend in marketing departments.

The Findings:

Nearly 60% of the respondents polled said their companies were not hiring at all in 2009. Not shocking given the current state of the economy.

However, what’s interesting is that 30% of the remaining respondents said their organization was hiring due to one of the following three reasons:

-         The need for a fresh marketing approach

-         A shift in business direction

-         Business growth

We also saw that enterprise and mid-sized organization were seeing the least hiring of senior level marketing talent. Small and large organization were the most active.

So, how can this information help marketers who are looking for work? The good news is that there are opportunities, and in order to find those openings, you should keep an eye out for companies that match the three indicators for hiring.  As you network through organizations like the BMA or CIMA, read key publications such as Crain’s Chicago Business and The Chicago Tribune or leverage corporate Facebook accounts and Twitter feeds, keep an eye out for corporations that are taking a distinctly different approach to marketing or to their actual business model.  As always, those companies that are experiencing rapid growth are ideal opportunities for senior marketers as well.

The poll is still up and active. Feel free to participate and add comments. We continue to be interested in tracking this trend. 

We have all felt the pinch in a tough economy.  Messages get jumbled and clustered together; marketers shifting campaign focus to lower cost mediums such as webcasts and social media outlets.  And emails, oh boy the emails… ping, ping, pinging away at your inbox until you cannot take anymore.  As marketers, we must refrain from jumping on the “buy from me now” podium and take a different stance in order to stand out in this challenging time. 

My message is not a novel idea by any stretch.  But why not make sure that traditional sales efforts are once again in sync with marketing - and truly integrated. If marketing launches an educational campaign, whether it be a download, a white-paper, or a prospect reach-out, companies have to make sure those leads are followed up with quickly—which means that sales communicates back with those contacts in a timely manner.  I manage marketing for an IT consulting firm and we have implemented “Marketing 101″ in a sense, where marketing provides awareness, then sales drives the client through the purchase process with the proper phone call and follow up steps.  Again, this is not a novel idea but a simple reminder in an environment where the next greatest technology has us running to catch up. 

Do not get me wrong of course, organizations and marketers in particular must stay on top of the latest technologies in order to maintain b-to-c and b-to-b reach.  But we cannot lose out on the opportunities to remain traditional in our execution. 

In a tight marketplace, it is more important to coordinate and execute marketing and sales efforts as well as you possibly can. Make it like a re-training exercise if you have to. Learn to sync up sales and marketing all over again, since opportunities are few and far between. You have to take advantage and maximize each possibility, and that means being more on the ball than ever.  Do not forget the basics!