Ambitious Young Marketers? Read on for their top 6 questions...

Last year I decided to allocate some of my time to mentoring - firstly for some potential entrepreneurs through The Royal Academy of Engineering's Leaders in Innovation Fellowship programme and then for the Chartered Institute of Marketing, having recently been appointed as a Fellow by them.

Over the last 12 months, I helped my mentees with a really broad range of needs. There were some common themes. I can share some of the content without disclosing any private information. Here were the top six topics:

1. Should I stay or should I go?

It's a really personal decision identifying whether to continue working for the same business or thinking about a move. What I have seen is that a promotion (and significant salary increase)tends to be easier to achieve with a move. That's not always the case, of course, but many businesses cap internal salary increases with promotions whereas a successful move can take you beyond that cap.

I helped some of my mentees make a decision by sharing a strategic weighted decision-making matrix. Here's a brief look at how to achieve that:

Think about all the things you are looking for from your career and working life. A mind map often helps in an exercise like this.
List your top 10
Give each of your top 10 a relative importance score between 1 & 10 - this is the weighting. For example, if career development was very important, give it a 10. If flexible working is a benefit, but something you're not too bothered about, score it a 5.
List your options, such as staying in the business vs moving to a digital agency, joining a retailer or even starting something new. You could have more than two options if you want here.
Score each of the options, using a table like this:

The highest score reflects the best decision for you. It's tempting to cheat by now changing the criteria, weighting and scores to get a different outcome but I have found the first answer is usually the right one!

2. Hello. Is it me you're looking for?

What are CMO's looking for when they recruit young marketers for their team?

This must be the question I've been asked most often, or to put it another way- "What should my CV look like?" It's important to stress that my selection process is different to other CMO's - so there is no one easy answer to this one.

I had a couple of useful insights from Steve Dalton last year when he presented his research into the recruitment process. I remember him saying the average time spent studying a CV was six seconds and 80% of the time was spent looking at the name, current company title and dates, plus the previous company title and dates. So don't sweat the small stuff!

If you have a chance to hear Steve speak, I would strongly recommend it. It could be the one thing that gets you hired. If you don’t have a chance to hear him speak, you could buy his book - The 2-hour job search.

I remember part of the MBA personal development process was putting my own CV through the smart assessment with Vmock. This helped highlight any activities that didn’t have measurable outcomes, which are really quite useful. VMock also highlights any typo’s and picks up the over-used words too.

Back to the question. When I review a young marketer's CV, I'm typically looking for digital experience, as that's something that is a large part of a marketers focus. If I don't see Instagram, Google or YouTube mentioned, it's not going to carry the same weight as other CV's. Anything that demonstrates digital ability is a plus too. Google and Facebook have excellent (and free) training programmes that are useful in day-to-day roles but also carry considerable power when you can mention you have been certified by either organisation.

For most roles, I'm typically looking for an aspect of creativity in a candidate to really stand out. Whether that is in the format the CV is presented in (a risk, not recommended) or something mentioned that describes a passion or interest beyond the marketing function. I like to see side hustles and in particular, micro businesses with trading websites can demonstrate a rounded interest and deeper understanding of all disciplines in marketing and e-commerce too.

Finally, if you've ticked the digital and creative boxes, plus I find out that you've a member of one or two networks, then you've probably a long way down the road of successful pitching yourself to me. Why are these networks important? I see them as places where you get to share what works with your peers and show that your interest extends further than it just being a job (the Chartered Institute of Marketing or The Marketing Society are both good to join but to get the full benefit, you should be attending their events too). The Marketing Meetup or The Walpole (for luxury brands) are other great options.

3. What advice would you give to a younger you?

Work smarter, not harder. It's easy to spend time on the activities that might be fun but are not likely to have the most impact.
Learn that often saying no to an opportunity that doesn't feel right in your gut can lead to something better appearing round the corner, filling that void you've created.
Don't trust everyone that wants to start a business together! It's flattering but might not always be the best option for you.
When you realise a project isn't going to be as successful as you planned, stop. Reflect and take out the key learnings and then either pivot (I'm a big fan now of "test & learn") or move on.
Your contacts network could be your most valuable asset. Nurture and treasure it. Don't forget to drop a quick note occasionally to those who have been important in your career or could be in the future. It could be that little nudge that keeps you front of mind for when suitable opportunities arise.

4. How do I land a management position after a specialist role?

This one is easy to explain, but tougher to execute. It's too easy to list everything on your CV that you've been working on, giving equal attention to each activity. Actually in my view, if you want to demonstrate your well-rounded ability, start by thinking not about what you've done but about all the different disciplines in marketing. A good place for reference is the Chartered Institute of Marketing's Professional Marketing Competencies framework. https://www.cim.co.uk/membership/professional-marketing-competencies/

Now start to build up measurable activities that you have been involved in that match as many of these capabilities and competencies as possible. You can extract some of the best from your existing CV but don't have too many in one area. Pay attention to the core capabilities as they should be reflected in your summary statement at the top of your CV. Try to add some colour through named projects and descriptions if you can so it makes it more interesting to read!

5. How can I ensure I achieve my goal?

When I studied for my MBA, we were presented with many models, some of which I've found myself using quite often in my career. One of the models I really like is perhaps the oldest we were shown - the Force Field Analysis (Lewin K. (1951) 'Field Theory in Social Science', Harper and Row, New York).

It is a great strategic tool to help understand what is needed to achieve a change:

You start by writing down the goal you want to achieve.
Then list the 'driving forces' - those key positives you have on your side to help achieve your goal.
Then list the 'restraining forces' - anything that is going to hold you back from reaching the goal.
Evaluate the driving and restraining forces - from a score of 1(weak) to 5 (strong)
If the total score for the restraining forces is higher than the driving forces, then you have work to do!
Review the forces - which ones do you have power to influence?
Create your strategy to strengthen the driving forces or weaken the restraining ones.

I've used this model to present strategy for change too.

6. How to present a strategy or vision to leadership

This is the final one of the six main questions I have been asked and it’s perhaps the trickiest to answer, especially here; there isn’t enough room!

In short, I would suggest you do something like this:

1. Tell a story to explain the journey you’ve been on to reach the proposed strategy.

2. Demonstrate some statistical evidence or insight from inside your organisation that leads the audience towards your recommended approach.

3. Repeat the last step with a view from the market you compete in.

4. Now try to look at your business from a customer perspective. Are they changing tastes? What research do you have to support the relationship with your business?

5. Look up the PESTEL macro-environmental framework. Add a short summary of this but only complete the parts that are relevant for your strategy

6. Consider presenting a visual that helps highlight the core focus and direction. Even the SmartArt templates in Microsoft PowerPoint are suitable. I’ve used them many times over.

7. Try to collate your thinking into a small number of channels or pillars that gives your business some focus. Less than three is probably not enough, more than six or seven is probably too many.

8. Save plenty of time for questions and interaction. If possible, leave some gaps so the leadership team can contribute and feed their thinking into your final approach.

I have so many different styles of presenting that vary depending on audience, the business, the internal culture and the country too. Why not apply for one of the mentoring sessions and then perhaps I can walk you through some of the methods I use?

Special Offer:

Receive around £500 of mentoring for free when you join the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Membership can cost less than £20 per month. You can find out how to apply here:

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and watch their video about the benefits of membership here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQdW2F59RyQ&t=1s

I mentor up to six marketers at any one time, three through CIM and three directly. If you are interested in having me as a mentor to support you on your marketing journey, please submit a request here:

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A typical session costs around £150.

What have I missed? Have you been given some great advice? Please share it here.