When you get called in to interview for an advanced digital marketing job, you can take extra steps before and during to represent yourself well and ensure a productive meeting.
Titles like “Chief Digital Officer,” “Director of Digital,” or “VP – Digital Marketing” are becoming more and more common—and for good reason. But these positions are still evolving and many organizations don’t know how to communicate with top digital minds.
Just as frequently, talented digital marketers struggle to express their value, share their experience and show their success in meaningful ways. Interviewing for high-level digital jobs is different from its traditional marketing and executive counterparts. If you think you’re the right person for the job, do some extra preparation and frame your interview discussions in a way that’s more productive for both parties.
Do Your Homework
Before any interview you should always do basic research on the company: its values and trends, place in the market, that sort of thing. But you’ll need to do some digital investigating, too. Look into their web site structure, see what their online shopping user experience is like, check out their social media channels and mobile capabilities.
Your homework will depend on your expertise and the nature of the company you’re interviewing with. The important thing is to get context on where they are now digitally, where they seem to want to be, and what you could help them do better.
Illustrate Your Success
The number one thing any high-performing company want to hear from prospective employees is how they’re going to drive results. They need reassurance that you’ve done it before, and you’ll be able to do it again.
As a digital marketer, you’re in luck. Digital offers unprecedented tracking capabilities and KPI metrics at your disposal to demonstrate progress and ROI. You just have to be smart and creative with how you show your past success to interviewers.
Digital marketers love data—it’s their bread and butter. But while you can glance at a spreadsheet and see a goldmine of valuable insight, others might see an intimidating wall of figures. Tease out key information and provide essential context so even people with very little digital knowledge can understand your value. Consider bringing a few charts and graphics to the interview to illustrate your biggest achievements.
Speak Marketer, Not Robot
No matter how talented you are, you’ll offer little value to your future employer if you can’t effectively communicate with the people you’re working with.
You know how quickly digital marketing is evolving. Don’t expect the hiring manager and marketing leaders you meet with to be able to keep up with your level of understanding and comprehension. Even if you’re interviewing directly with the CMO, you shouldn’t assume that they’re familiar with the most advanced levels of digital. Ideas and jargon that come second nature to you might be confusing or unheard of to people who do not live in your world.
Use the interview as an opportunity to display your communication skills and abilities as a digital translator. You don’t need to rely on fancy acronyms and obscure industry terms to impress your interviewers. Share your knowledge, ideas and values in a way professional marketers will understand.
Plan Your First Few Months
Once you you’ve spoken with the company and completed your first interview, create a general strategy that you’ll execute over the first 90 days or so if you get the job. This is a great way to differentiate yourself from other candidates and make your follow-up interviews go smoothly.
What will you do first? What objectives will you prioritize? What weaknesses will you reinforce?
You should even go as far as to create a short presentation or schedule to share with your interviewers. Even if you never use or directly reference any of this planning or material, you’ll be able to more confidently talk about your capabilities and the positive impact you’ll have right away.
An outlined calendar serves as a foundation to build answers for any difficult questions you might be asked. When you’re unsure about how you want to respond to something tricky, you can fall back on the strategy you’ve already fleshed out and customize your answer from there.
Need more advice for your digital interview? When you get placed through a digital marketing recruitment firm, you get guidance through the entire hiring process. Check our candidate advice section regularly for more interview wisdom and help growing your marketing career.
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