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. 

As recruiters, we expect to see specific hiring trends during economic downturns. Historically, we anticipate increases in contract/freelance staffing because corporations, which are in the midst of hiring freezes, have laid-off large numbers of marketing and communications pros. With a skeleton staff and the same daunting workload, the inevitable outcome is that organizations bring on contract/freelance staff to fill the gap.

Generally the most common need is for mid-level talent with 5-10 years of experience.  The senior level positions are less often requested because strategies have been set and companies want simply to execute on plans.  But 2009 has not played by the standard rules.

While we are seeing an increase in contract/freelance hires, we’ve been surprised that another trend has emerged: our staff is recruiting for a significant number of senior and executive level marketing openings across a broad range of industries.  

Most recently, we’ve recruited for a CMOs, VPs and Directors of Marketing across a wide variety of industries including retail, telecom, health and beauty and tech.

 The question: Why the change in upper management at this time?

Are these executive level openings a result of the company taking their business in a different direction, and, thus, needing a new leader with fresh thinking? Perhaps this recession has provided management with the opportunity to clean house and let go of senior marketing staff that have not been able to make a measurable impact. It may be a case of organizational growth despite this challenging environment. Some suggest it may be a case of attrition. Or perhaps it is simply an anomaly that we alone are experiencing within our recruitment practice.

To find the answers or at least further the conversation, we are reaching out to our community of Marketing Professionals. As marketers on the front lines, we’re interested in hearing directly from you. Click here to take a five question survey about hiring trends within your organization. We’ll be sharing the findings with our readers, and individual responses will remain confidential. And feel free to comment on the subject here. We value your insight, your questions and your feedback. 

In a recent Newsweek article, Sarah Kliff advises that if you want your children to eat their vegetables, simply “rename them” (the vegetables, not the kids).  She explained that “When researchers told kindergarteners they were eating ‘X-ray vision carrots’ rather than plain old vegetables, the kids ate 50 percent more”.

X-ray vision carrots?  That, ladies and gentlemen, is called marketing.

The buzzsaw of toddler protest against foods that have even a trace of nutritional integrity is something I’ve experienced first hand.  A few weeks ago, I found myself in just such a impasse as I tried to explain to my three-year old why he should eat his cucumbers.  None of my erudite rationalizations swayed him.  If anything, he dug his heels in.

Then I walked over to him, rolled up my sleeve, and showed him my muscle, and said, “You see this? This is why you should eat your cucumbers!”

The result?  Argument over. 

With one look at my flexed bicep, his objections evaporated instantly and he happily devoured his cucumber slices. 

It makes sense.  After all, who can argue with a flexed bicep? 

But I would submit that this too, is marketing.  The only difference is that the latter is a visual solution, while the former is a headline-driven solution.  Either way, it’s marketing.

News flash: if you’re a parent, you’re a full-time marketer.  And your end user is pretty fickle, so choose your marketing program carefully.

Smart people, like Professor David Just of Cornell University don’t call it marketing, he calls it Behavorial Economics.  Behavorial Economics is an academic field that studies the role of environmental factors in decision making.

So if you’re an advertising or marketing professional, you’re actually a behavorial economist.  Now go home and eat your X-ray vision carrots.

Carrots contain beta-carotene which is converted to vitamin A by the body, which forms a pigment called rhodopsin, which raisies the effectiveness of the light-sensitive area of the retina, which the eye needs to see in dim light. Maybe calling them "x-ray vision carrots" isn't such an exaggeration after all.

Take the red pill.

In fact, take it now before you really need it.  That’s the lesson I’ve learned about networking.

In The Matrix, our hero is given a choice: take a blue pill and continue on with his life or take the red pill and see life as it really is.  Of course, he takes the red pill (wouldn’t be much of a movie if he didn’t), the veil is lifted and he becomes aware of things that were always there but never seen.

Lately I’ve begun to build on my own network of friends and professional colleagues, coaxing it to take form, and develop.  Actually, I’m helping it grow.  The network was always there; I just never saw it.  Then I took the red pill.

It was April 2006 when I was first asked to join a friend’s network through LinkedIn.  Sounded like fun and a good way to stay in touch with people.  But I rarely looked at it.  The next request came in October 2007.  I was flattered someone would ask me to join a network and, yeah, I felt hip.

But it wasn’t until this past February that I began to build my network in earnest.  I had to; my role had been eliminated and along with so many others folks I was in the market for a new position.

As so many at Paladin attest, you’ve got to get out and network.  This may seem rather obvious but it isn’t something all of us do when we’re employed.  Of course, some roles – from sales to marketing to politics – require networking and maintaining relationships to achieve their goals.  Networking within the organization was key to my last role.

Many job descriptions, however, do not ask you to stay in touch with people who don’t directly affect you or your work.

Because so many people are new to this networking gig, it seemed like a good idea to ask some friends from my network what they have learned along the way.   This list is by no means comprehensive, but it is road tested:

• Get out of the house – My friend Buzz put it as a simple, Nike-esque rule: “You just gotta be out there!  Go out and go to things anytime you can.”

It’s okay, everybody’s doing it.  And by “it,” I mean looking for work.  Here’s the yin and the yang of it: We all know that this isn’t the best time in the history of humankind to be looking for work.  On the other hand, the stigma of being out of work isn’t what it used to be, not when so many people are in the same position.  There’s no shame in being unemployed but somehow it seems a little easier to say “I’m in transition” when the headlines are always talking about yet another round of lay offs.  Just ask all of those former headline writers.

• Don’t be so shy – Of course, once you’re out of the house you’ve got to meet people.  “People want to help,” as my friend Katherine put it, but don’t make it difficult for them.  Give them your personal marketing plan or your newly updated resume to review.  Suggest meeting for coffee so there’s an understanding that the meeting doesn’t have to last for hours.  (And note that just because you say “Let’s meet for coffee” doesn’t mean you need to drink coffee at every meeting – especially if you have several lined up in one day.  Trust me on this one.)

Job seekers and their friends might want to read this article in The New York Times that provides some suggestions for how to give and receive help.  “The most important corollary to this rule,” Katherine points out, “is to thank people for their time and respect their schedules.”

• Be prepared – It’s not just for Boy Scouts anymore.  “Never show up unprepared even for a quick networking meeting,” said Katherine.  “You have to do your research in advance, or you waste people’s time.”  This means knowing about your contact’s business and providing something for them to use (which can be as simple as meaningful article referrals, for example, suggests Leslie).

• Back to basics – It’s all about the prompt follow-up and the personalized, hand-written thank you notes.  Making sure to write down unique reminder information on business cards. (“No,” says Leslie, “you won’t remember who all those folks are when you’re sitting in front of your computer doing the follow-up.”)

• Don’t just do something, stand there – “A lot of people don’t know how to listen,” says Buzz.  It’s not that you just sit back and watch the show.  “If you ask somebody for help, shut up and listen!  Don’t ask for advice and then overwhelm someone with your expertise!”

Here’s a surprise: You’ve already started.  As I mentioned earlier, my network was always there.  Sure, it was a little fallow and needed some tending and weeding.  But at the risk of taking this gardening metaphor too far, let’s just say you’ve bought the land already; employed or not, you need to start tilling the soil.

At a meeting of job seekers I attended, one participant put the benefits of networking this way: “I’ve lived in Chicago for 20 years.  Now it seems like a small town.”

Take the red pill.

Contributed by: Frank McGee
Business writer, trainer, coach