Viewpoint: The Marketing Academy

Camilla Woodhouse
Programme director
The Marketing Academy

Helping to select The Marketing Academy’s 30 scholars each year from the hundreds nominated has shown me that marketing talent comes in a huge variety of shapes and sizes and consequently when it comes to recruitment, companies should take time to look beyond the obvious.

The best candidate for the role is not always the one with the great degree from a top university, the one that comes from a big branded competitor or has the right amount of budget or management experience. It’s the skills, passion, personal values and beliefs that count the most when making a great hire, and you sometimes have to look hard to find these on a CV.

The most successful and talented people are passionate about what they do and this spills over into all areas of their lives, so it’s worth finding out what makes their hearts beat faster. Do they blog? Do they try to give something back to others? Do they go the extra mile?

I think recruiters often confuse skills and experience. You’re not always going to be able to find someone who has the correct practical experience, especially in the fast moving world of marketing, but you can look for the potential, attitude, intellect and emotional intelligence that will enable them to fly in a role.

Cultural ‘fit’ is important and failing to understand it is one of the main reasons why hires don’t always work. It is an employer’s market at the moment but we’re seeing more career choices based on culture and values over brand names, titles and salaries and it’s these things that companies should talk about.

It really can be the little things that count. An opportunity for development and progression might mean more than an impressive job title, or the knowledge that a prospective employer will support their potential employee’s passion for ‘giving back’ ‘or ‘making a difference’ might be worth a couple of grand on the salary.