How to Convert a Job into a Career
If you’re a job-seeker looking for a career
move, ask the hiring manager what work needs to be done, what problems need to
be solved and how success in the job will impact the company’s strategy or mission.
If you don't get a good answer, move on.
The
following two job posting are advertisements for the same job, which one would
you rather have?
Senior Marketing
Analyst
Must have 2-5 years in consumer products marketing with
emphasis on using metadata for marketing analysis
Prior work experience in marketing, web analytics and/or
statistical analysis within an online business unit or at a consumer internet
company
An MBA from a Top 25 business school is preferred and a
BS in Marketing is required
Must be detailed-oriented with strong Excel and
econometric modeling skills
Must be familiar with at least three of the latest
marketing analytical tools like Omniture, Google Analytics, Tealeaf, Vertica,
Greenplum, Netezza, Hadoop, Pig, MapReduce, Tableau, R, SQL and/or Hive
Self-starter, with ability to thrive in a fast paced and
dynamic environment
Strong team and collaboration skills
We are an employee-friendly company that offers a
competitive compensation package, good benefits and a positive work/life balance
Marketing Analyst
– Creating Order Out of Big Data Chaos
If you dream about the beauty of numbers, combinations,
and first derivatives, this will be your dream job. Where others see endless
streams of bits, bytes and digits, you see patterns, behaviors and
opportunities. Using your big data analytical skills, here’s your chance to
help take our fast-growing company to another level. Big data will represent
the critical difference. So can you. Here’s how:
We need help figuring out where our current analytics
approach is stumbling. We need you to come up with some short-term fixes and
long-term solutions.
Get your arms around all of our big data resources and as
quickly as possible convert them into practical, strategic marketing and
product planning tools.
Become the subject matter expert in our company using big
data to predict product performance in new channels and new markets.
Work closely with our R&D, product development and
advanced marketing teams to prepare our three-year product roadmap.
This is just the start of what you’ll be doing. What you
do next will be up to you. While we’re not a big company, we think big, and we
know the person is this role will impact our future in a big way. Aside from
working with a great group of people working on a remarkable mission, our
benefits are top notch and compensation is wide open.
So
if you were a candidate, which job would you want?
If
you’re a recruiter, HR leader or hiring manager here are some points to
consider if you want to see and hire more top people who are looking for
careers, not lateral transfers:
- Skills and experiences don’t predict performance. Worse, they won’t attract the best people, either. Don’t ignore this. Most passive candidates will check out your job postings after being contacted. Here a sample of what they should see.
- Your public job postings reflect your company and culture. If you want to see and hire stronger people, attract them in, don’t week them out. There’s no law that says your job postings need to be boring or that you must describe every skill imaginable or that people must apply directly. Here’s a posting that describes a very unusual culture. What do your company’s posting say about your culture?
- Performance-based job descriptions and postings like this are perfectly legal. As part of The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired I sought out the top labor in the U.S. from the top firm to validate this process. Here’s what he had to say.
- Crafting a career requires a solution, not a transaction. While people who aren’t looking might be open to a short exploratory discussion, don’t rush it. Here’s a post describing the most important thing you need to do to recruit passive candidates.
- Clarifying expectations is the number one driver for performance and retention. (See Gallup’s Q12 for the proof.) If hiring managers and recruiters can’t define what a person needs to do to be successful, it’s problematic if they’ll see or hire the right person. This leads to what I call the “vicious cycle” of hiring the right person for the wrong job using the wrong reasons.
- Combine stretch, growth and satisfaction to convert a job into a career. During the interview ask candidates what they’ve accomplished for each of the big performance objectives. If the accomplishments are comparable and the differences in what the candidate has accomplished and what you need done are reasonable, you've just converted your job into a career move.
If
you’re a job-seeker looking for a career move, ask the hiring manager what work
needs to be done, what problems need to be solved and how success in the job
will impact the company’s strategy or mission. If you get a good answer, you
then have to prove your both competent and motivated to do the work. If you
don't get a good answer, move on.
If
you’re a hiring manager, make sure you, and those who post your jobs and screen
your candidates also know the answer. If not, the best people will move on
before you ever have a chance to meet them. How many have you lost so far?
Lou
Adler is the CEO of The
Adler Group http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140330222919-15454-how-to-convert-a-job-into-a-career?trk=eml-ced-b-art-M-0&midToken=AQGIPog6-r4O6Q&fromEmail=fromEmail&ut=27DtlG8kiS56c1
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