Advice about battling age discrimination abounds. Interview coaches advise job candidates to not wear a watch to interviews since it dates them, to carry a Smartphone since it makes them look young, and never, ever, utter the words, “When I was your age.”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has seen a 40% increase in age discrimination complaints since 2006, and the AARP reports that: “Once unemployed, older workers are, on average, out of work longer than their younger counterparts… Average duration of unemployment for jobseekers aged 55 and over was 52.4 weeks… This compares to 35.6 weeks for the younger unemployed” (excerpt from June 2011 AARP Public Policy Institute Fact Sheet).

It can be tempting to concede to the discouraging tone of statistics, but in reality what helps anyone – regardless of age – keep or find a job in today’s market is understanding technology. Even print materials now seamless cross into the digital world, appearing electronically and leveraged by social media.

It is crucial that job candidates understand the power and uses of social media and blogging. The digital world is infused into every aspect of business expertise, and is changing everything about how business is done. It is changing market research. It is changing direct marketing. It is changing branding.

Is it changing your approach to work or finding work? It should.

What also must change is the way you present yourself. How do you present yourself?  If you have true genuine energy, enthusiasm, focus in the interview process, that comes through.  If you come through as frustrated and feeling like the deck is stacked against you because you do feel like you’re being discriminated against based on your age, that cynicism will show through as well.  Your mental attitude is incredibly important.

There are excellent resources available to help prepare for an interview. Use them in conjunction with updating Facebook and LinkedIn profiles and taking whatever classes are needed to get up-to-speed on technology (or just sit down and talk with your teenager). Then take off your watch (just in case), pick up your Smartphone, and get into the groove – the digital world awaits you.

About MarketPro:

MarketPro is the leading interim marketing executive and marketing executive search firm in the USA. Whether your need is interim / contract or direct placement, we provide top companies with talent that exceeds expectations both functionally and culturally. Our recruiters know the best marketing talent, because they are experienced marketers. MarketPro places talent in all marketing related disciplines and does so in less time with a higher success ratio than anyone else in the industry.

by Bob Van Rossum

As a member of the Atlanta Chapter of the AMA Executive Advisory Board, I was able to participate in creating a whitepaper on future of marketing. 

On the advisory board are 20 of the brightest marketing minds in Atlanta, including executives from AT&T, Google, Cox Communications, Kodak, Coca-Cola and Arby’s. 

Ken Bernhardt, a panelist and marketing professor at Georgia State University did a great job of summarizing the whitepaper in recent column in the Atlanta Business Chronicle. 

In the whitepaper you will find great information on:

• The changing relationship between brands and consumers.
• Increased demand for personalization.
• The changing role of marketing and the change is skillsets necessary to have a successful marketing career.
• Words of Marketing Advice for 2020.

By Bob Van Rossum

This seems like such a basic part of the job search process, however I am finding more candidates confused about this today than I have seen in during the 12 years I have be in recruiting. 

Ultimately you need to send a thank you note to everyone you have interviewed with.  In today’s world the preferred method for such communication is e-mail. 

Each letter to needs to be personalized to the recipient and can be used to highlight a point you made in the interview that you believe was important.  Please notice I said to highlight a point, not to create an entirely new line of thought.  This is not the time for I forgot telling them all the things you forgot to bring up during the interviews. 

Be humble and grateful, yet confident in your ability to exceed their expectations.  Ultimately people want to work with people who are excited about working with them and for the company.  Please address in your why you are excited about being part of the team. 

Timing is also important, if you send the note from your smartphone when you get to the car, you are stalking.  Best time is that evening when you are done with you work day.  If you wait too long it will be hard to convince them you are really excited about the role and company. 

Also check out:

Win-Win Salary Negotiation

How to Prepare for an Interview

Career Success Triangle

Our Current Jobs

By Bob Van Rossum

Calling it win-win makes this a cliché and while I hate using cliché’s, unfortunately this is the best description.  Too often in the process, both sides get too focused on themselves and as a result too rigid.  A great deal for company and candidate can easily fall apart by focusing on things that are of little importance. 

If the hiring company gives a little is that better than going to the candidate who is second best?

If the candidate gives a little is that better than staying in a job that has no opportunities for career advancement?

Candidate

For the candidate it is important to remember that you only want to negotiate “go” or “no go” items.  Too often candidates confuse questions with negotiation points.  For example, healthcare is not a negotiable item, so you only need that information to help you make a great decision.  Ask for benefits related information in a separate conversation from you salary negotiation.  Keep the salary negotiation focused and simple. 

Company

Take a second to realize that while this is just business for you, it is very personal for the candidate.  You are working to fit the best candidate into you salary range and have internal equity, the candidate really wants to feed their kids.

Each new job sounds good when you start, but how can you tell that offer you are about to accept is really going to move your career forward?

At its core, each career transition has three components and if you are an “A” player you want to make sure all three are positive, in order for the move itself to be considered successful.

Ultimately there are no guarantees and things will change after you start or their will be facts that impact your transition that you do not have at the time you must make a decision.

The best place to start is to make sure these three items are in alignment with your ultimate career goals.

1. Role – Is the role a step forward in your career?  Is it either a step-up in responsibility with a like size organization or a lateral move to a larger company?  Additionally does it move you forward on your path to your long-term career goal?
2. Manager – Are you about to go to work for someone you respect?  Most importantly, someone you can learn from?  Someone you will enjoy working with everyday for the next three – five years?
3. Company – Are you about to go work for a great company?  Is it growing?  Is it in an industry that will grow?  Are you passionate about what the company does?  Do you see yourself as someone who fits well into the culture?  Do they have a defined culture?  Can you grow your career without having to leave the organization?

Ultimately on you can decide what is going to be the best career move for you.  How much you are moving away from pain or towards gain? How each step you take puts you on the path to your ultimate career goal.

Also see:  How to Interview

By Bob Van Rossum

For longer than I have been in the business, candidates have tried to adjust momentum in their favor by creating deadlines for the company doing the hiring.  This is done by making up another offer and telling the recruiter you have an offer when in reality you do not.

Ultimately I have rarely seen this work out well for the candidate and most of the time it backfires.  Companies have a hiring process that they go through because it has proven successful for them in the past.  Asking them to shorten (disrupt) this process makes them uneasy, there is no good reason to do this unless it is absolutely necessary.

After the deadline has passed, it is amazing how often this other offer did not materialize and they are still interested in my client.  Unfortunately the candidate with the faux offer has now lost tremendous credibility.

What we recommend is transparency.  If you really have a competing offer, or are expecting one, share everything you know about it with the recruiter.  Then we can manage our client accordingly and if you are truly very talented it is likely we can get them to make a decision more quickly than they wanted to.  However there is risk they will not adjust the timing of the deal, risk you have no reason to absorb if you are not forced to do so.

By Bob Van Rossum

There is a lot of bad data out there on how to prepare for an interview, much of which is actually counterproductive to the process.  Please DO NOT go out on Google, search for sample interview questions about behavioral interviews or any other type of interview process and waste your time writing out and memorizing answers to these questions.  The result is likely to be disaster, first you have no idea what type of questions the interviewer will ask. Even if you hear from someone who has interviewed there before that Company X uses behavioral interview techniques, you do not really know if they do or just the person they interviewed with did.  Additionally, no matter what methodology a company uses there are always multiple high ranking employees who can’t be bothered to learn the process and therefore interview the same way they always have.   So now your friend told you to prepare for behavioral based questions and you spend hours doing so and you go in and the very first interviewer asks none of the questions you have painstakingly memorized questions for, first you get a little nervous, second your confidence goes downhill and next you are fumbling for answers to even the most basic questions.  You just lost the opportunity to work for this company.  Worse is you go in and they ask you exactly the questions you are expecting and you answer them all based on the memorization game you played with yourself.  You leave the interview feeling great and you never hear from that company again.  You have been rejected and they never even bothered to call and let you know, let alone let you know why.  In this case the reason you were rejected was your answers sounded rehearsed and therefore fake.  Best case scenario is you lacked credibility, worst case scenario they just flat out did not believe you.   When you interview you are competing and when you compete with others of similar skills and background, it is individual most prepared who will win.  How are you separating yourself from the competition?

Check out:

How to Prepare for an Interview

The Phone Interview

MarketPro – is the leading marketing staffing and marketing recruitment firm utilizing top marketers to find you top marketing talent.

 By Bob Van Rossum

After you know How to Prepare for an Interview you can learn some specifics about the phone interview. 

The phone interview is inherently challenging as you lose the non-verbal feedback you receive in a face-to-face interview.  Ultimately this leads to some common mistakes.  

Phone interview Do’s and Don’ts:

1. Do NOT under any circumstances have the pages of notes you have created about your career in front of you when you interview.  You do not want to use the notes as a crutch, you do not want to be fumbling through paper looking for an answer and most of all you do not want to sound like you are reading the answer.
2. Be in a quiet place where you can focus on nothing but the interview.  Door closed.
3. Do not be doing anything else, watching the news, sending an instant message, checking e-mail.  The interviewer deserves your undivided attention.  Television off, computer off, cell phone off.
4. Make the call from a land line.  Nothing ruins a phone interview faster than a dropped cell phone call. 
5. Be formal, interviews are naturally a formal process.  You need to be at least as formal on the phone as you would be in person.  Leave the sarcasm and wit for after you already have the job.
6. Do not feel the need to fill up every moment of silence with the sound of your voice.  Answer the question, fully and completely, demonstrating results / achievements and be quiet.  The interviewer is now deciding which question to ask you next, a common mistake at this moment is to get nervous due to the silence and spend the next 30 minutes giving the interviewer a running commentary on your life since age 2.  I have never seen this work very well, I have seen candidates do this after I have warned them not to. 
7. Do have 4 or 5 questions prepared for the end of the interview.  You should have approximately 3 questions prepared related to the company and the job. 
8. Most importantly, close the interview showing you are results oriented, you are interested in the job and ask for the next step.  While you are at it, go ahead and learn what the real job description is:

Phone interview Final Questions: (Separate yourself from the others)

The final two questions I want you to ask after you come up with two or three of your own.  The 2 or 3 of your own will be around the job / company / opportunity.  These are the standard questions about products, job, scope of responsibility, etc. 

The final two questions are important, just like an in person interview, people will remember the beginning and the end.  Your goal at this point in time is to be invited in for an in person interview.  Do not put the cart before the horse and ask for the job, they do not have enough data on you to award it yet. 

The last question you want to ask the interviewer will vary based on who you are interviewing with hiring manager or human resources. 

Time is precious in the interview and asking the right questions is as important if not more important than answering questions well.  Assume you are competing against other talented professionals and everyone will have strong answers for the interviewer, so far you are only equal to the others.  Now is an opportunity to separate you from the pack.  You will not receive the same amount of time to ask questions that the interviewer will so let’s make sure the questions you do ask really count.  

Hiring Manager:

Second to last question – [FIRST NAME], I really appreciate your time today.  The [INSERT JOB TITLE HERE] role is one I am very excited about, it is a great next step for my career.  I believe I can really come in and add value to the role and the team.  Let’s look out 12 to 18 months and assume I have been able to exceed ALL your expectations.  What have we accomplished and how is the company better off for the effort?

That is a long question but as I said, you do not have much time to communicate your questions.  With this question, you have actually accomplished 4 very important things.

1. You have shown interest in the specific role, the importance of this cannot be overstated.
2. You have shown you are team oriented.
3. You have shown you are results focused.
4. Most importantly if you listen carefully you are about to understand:
   1. The real job description
   2. How to be successful in your first 12 months.

The real job description is something you need to uncover in the interview process.  Chances are the written one was created five years ago by someone other than the hiring manager.  Uncovering the true needs of the position is going to help you prepare for your in-person interview. 

The first year on any job is your most critical time.  Of the people who do not succeed, sometimes it is truly a lack of ability.  Most often it is a misalignment of hiring manager’s expectations with what the new employee sees as important.  New employee is using the job description the hiring manager received from HR and never actually read.

Last question – [FIRST NAME], this sounds like a great time to be joining [COMPANY NAME].  I am impressed with where the company is going and what I have learned about the team.  Do you have any concerns about moving me forward to the next step in the interview process?

With this question you have accomplished three critical items.

1. You have shown interest in the company.  This is equally and important as showing interest in the job and almost always over looked.
2. You have opened a window for them to express any concerns / objections they might have and therefore an opportunity for you to overcome them.  Many times a simple miscommunication derails an interview process.  If they have already decided to take you to the next step or to eliminate you from the process they will not mention anything.  If they are unsure of their decision they will share a concern with you.
3. Psychologically it is harder to say no to someone who asks to go to the next step than it is to say no to someone who does not.

By Bob Van Rossum

The most important thing to remember when preparing for an interview is:  The Company is NOT hiring you, they are hiring what you can DO for them.  The second thing to remember is interview performance is not indicative of job performance, which means the best candidate does not get the job, the candidate who interviews the best does.   An interview is an opportunity and when opportunity meets preparation you get success. 

The key to success in any interview is professional self awareness. 

If you have ever left an interview and thought of a better answer to one of the questions on the way home in your car, you were not appropriately prepared when you walked in.

Ultimately we want to avoid this scenario.  I get a call from the candidate after they leave my clients office after running through 4 or 5 interviews with various members of the team. As I pick up the phone, I am immediately struck by their enthusiasm.   “Bob, thank you for sending me in to this interview, this is a perfect next step for me in my career.  This opportunity has everything I am looking for.  The company is growing, the hiring manager is someone I can learn from.  I will have the opportunity to really create something.”  To which I say, “Great, tell me about how the interviews went.”  Oh everything went fantastic, I really felt strong I answered all the questions really well, there was this one question I did not answer very well, probably not a big deal, but if I just had more time to think about it, I would have had a great answer for them.  As soon as I got to my car I remembered the perfect example to share with them.    Should I mention something about it in my thank you note?  To which, I already know that the thank you note is now completely irrelevant. 

If you spent 2 hours learning about the company, you need to spend 8 hours relearning yourself.  If you have been in the real world for more than 100 days, you have accomplished many things and forgotten most of them.  Trying to remember them on the spot in the middle of an interview is an incredibly bad idea.  It only takes one bad answer to ruin your chances at the job of your dreams. 

I want you to sit down in quiet place and hand write out everything significant or interesting you have done in your career.  You need to hand write it as most of us are more creative when writing by hand versus typing.  You are going to break your background into 3 separate areas, first functional, second is leadership and third is culture.  I want you to take time to go through every role you have ever worked in, this could be multiple roles within the same organization and answer some very important questions. 

In regard to your specific job / function:

1. What was it like to work at the company during this time?
2. What were our challenges?
3. What were my individual goals?
4. Most importantly what were the quantifiable results achieved.  What would I define as my biggest accomplishments?
5. Why those results were important to the company.

In regard to your leadership ability: (if you have not had management responsibilities, you can skip this)

1. What is my leadership style?  Why?
2. Number of direct reports in each of your previous roles and total # on your team.
3. Top hiring success?
4. Example of a time I turned a mediocre performer into a top performer?
5. How do you motivate your team?
6. Most difficult management decision?

With regard to culture:

1. What was the culture of the organization?
2. Did the culture help or hinder success?
3. What would I have changed about the culture if I was empowered to do so?

After you go through all this one time this will become a working document.  You will add notes in the margin as you think of them.  You want to review your notes in detail 3 or 4 times prior to your interview.  Leave the notes at home, you do not want anyone you are interviewing with to see it.  If this is a phone interview DO NOT have the notes in front of you while you are on the phone.  It is not appropriate to be fumbling through your notes looking for answers, nor do you want to sound like you are reading your answers. 

The ultimate purpose of doing this is threefold:

1. To bring all your significant accomplishments to the top of your mind where you can easily access them.  You are now prepared to answer any question they ask because you know yourself.   You can easily access your best answer every time.
2. To increase your confidence in the interview.
3. You will have such ready access to the best answer you will actually be able to determine in the interview if this is really a place you want to work. 

Preparing this way will make every answer you give incrementally better, when you add all those increments up it makes a huge big difference in setting you apart from your competition.

Also check out The Phone Interview.

By Bob Van Rossum 

The CMO role is changing more rapidly than any other “C” suite position.  CMO’s and the COO’s or CEO’s who manage them are scrambling to keep up.  While CMO’s used to be able to get away with understanding brand and advertising, this is no longer enough.  Any CMO with this selective toolbox is only going to provide a very limiting solution to their employer.  Hiring a CMO with this limited view of marketing is one of the reasons the average CMO tenure is 18 months.

Today’s CMO needs to understand how the business works.  This seems obvious, but too often marketing is relegated to the “make things pretty department”.  Only a CMO who understands the business deserves a seat at the big table.  If you are savvy enough to drive corporate strategy then you have the insight necessary to be a great CMO.

Analytics will drive your decisions.  Historically the most persuasive person on the marketing team was the one who was able to get ideas started and implemented.  Today, it all starts with customer data and dispassionate analysis.  We are seeing a trend of top analytics executives being promoted to CMO.  I expect the pace of that trend to accelerate. 

The CMO job is getting more difficult by the day.  New pressures include the evolving media landscape, economic uncertainty and responsibility for corporate strategy.  Continually we are in a period where more is expected with less. 

In addition to all the traditional responsibilities (branding, direct marketing, market research, etc.) we place on the CMO’s plate.  In order to keep their jobs, CMO’s need:

• Innovation – Both in products and how they market them. 
• Revenue Growth – Sales team is execution, marketing owns the sales strategy.
• Alignment – Cross-functional, global, executive team all need to be aligned with customer.
• Accountability – Both in investment and a focus on constant improvement
• Strategy – Top level CMO’s are driving corporate strategy, marketing strategy and sales strategy using customer centric data.

The result is when done correctly, the CMO is the second most powerful role in the organization.  In the future we will commonly see CMO’s promoted to CEO.