How to Get a Marketing Job: Landing a Position at an In-House Brand

By 2021, Forrester estimates that 50,000 marketing and advertising jobs will be lost on the agency side of the industry alone. Whether you were one of those affected or are looking for a career change, this guide to getting an in-house marketing job in a post-2020 world is for you. Read on for advice on navigating this strange new in-house landscape from Squarespace CMO Kinjil Mathur, marketing career expert Amanda Nachman, and someone who managed to land jobs at in-house brands since March.

Advice from a hiring manager

Squarespace

Kinjil Mathur is the CMO of Squarespace, a website-building platform.

What do marketing candidates need to do differently now to stand out in a remote environment?

The number one thing marketing candidates should be maximizing right now is how they show up online—whether it’s through a website or social media.

Having a built out online presence also legitimizes your brand, ideas, and allows you to share your vision with the world. Marketing candidates are likely to showcase similar skills and in some cases, experiences—it’s the story they narrate about themselves and their career paths through the pixels of the screen that sets candidates apart.

What advice do you have for people building their brand online?

Pick the core skills you have to offer and parts of you that you want to showcase to the world, and think about how you make that come across in an engaging way through a screen. If you don’t have the means or knowledge to build your site from scratch, you can utilize Squarespace’s full suite of offerings to select a design and style for your site that will truly make it your own, and supplement it with tools that will help you maximize your reach.

Has your in-house team of marketers grown during the pandemic? Have you had any layoffs?

Squarespace has been fortunate enough to continue hiring during the pandemic, and the marketing team has made some great new additions across each of our channels.

Paint me a picture of your dream candidate applying for Squarespace's marketing team in 2020.

The dream candidate is someone who brings a passion for Squarespace with fresh and innovative ways to bring our message in front of consumers. This is usually table stakes, but in 2020, the best candidates are ones that are quick to adapt, empathetic, purpose-driven, and socially conscious, and can bring a brand’s message to life in a non-opportunistic way.

Figuring out how to get in front of consumers and keep them engaged is a challenge, especially in a time when we see a variety of new platforms emerge to fight for consumers’ attention. Marketers exist to crack that challenge and the top candidates are those who are excited to and quick to problem solve and experiment with new ways of helping a brand show up to the world.

What are you NOT looking for right now in terms of candidates for your marketing roles?

People that will win at all costs. There is a cost to everything we do as marketers—not just the literal expense but the social impact we all are responsible for.

• A well-designed website is non-negotiable.
• Following that, information about yourself should be organized, easily digestible and chock full of ideas expressed in the most poetic of ways.

Advice from someone who got a job during the pandemic

Alek Nybro is a college student who was hunting for junior year summer internships during the start of the pandemic.

Where did you intern? Are any of those internships still ongoing?

Catalyst Education, Marketing Intern, July 2020–present. Bandit, Marketing Intern, August 2020–present.

How’d you end up job hunting during the pandemic? Were you specifically looking for marketing roles at in-house brands?

I sifted through almost all of the major job search platforms (LinkedIn, Handshake, Indeed, Glassdoor, Built In Austin, etc). Most of my luck came through LinkedIn or applying via the company’s website. I didn’t care if the role was in-house or agency, however, there are more in-house brands in Austin so that meant fewer people applying to each role. Additionally, in my experience, in-house brands are more timely in getting back to applicants, specifically interns.

What was your job search like overall?

A pain! I applied to dozens of positions. Most places that responded had a tiered interview structure (2-3 rounds of Zoom/phone interviews). The job search and interview process took around a month—I was submitting 7-10 applications per week while having interviews 2-3 times per week.

How did your job search compare to past job searches pre-pandemic?

For starters, I wasn’t going into any offices. That part was almost a plus. It was easier logistically to book times for interviews through Calendly links rather than playing email tag for two or three days. Pre-pandemic, I exclusively used LinkedIn to hunt for internships.

Do you think now is a good time to cold email your way into an in-house marketing role for a brand?

Cold emailing/messaging via LinkedIn was particularly effective for me when the companies weren’t hiring for interns, believe it or not. It was a great opportunity to get on people’s radars. Many of the responses I received were along the lines of “We aren’t hiring now but reach out to us again in November. I’ll forward your info along to (person hiring for fall)!”

What did you do to make yourself stand out as an applicant that worked?

I took the time off to redesign my personal website/portfolio. There were also several groups I was active in that catered to students who lost their summer internships (intern.club, Wonsulting, Remote Students Newsletter, WPP NextGen Leaders).

What advice would you give to someone else looking for an internship in in-house marketing specifically during the pandemic?

Start with your university’s job board. My university’s career office uses Handshake and vets every single job before they post it. Many times, the companies that reach out to universities have hired their students before. This is particularly useful if you attend a smaller school that campus recruiters don’t often hit. Besides that, find and join communities. Whether it be on LinkedIn, Facebook, Slack, Reddit, there’s a niche group out there with like-minded individuals. If you’re subscribed to a popular email newsletter, they’ll oftentimes have a community Facebook group where you can network, share memes, and find jobs.

Career expert’s opinion

Amanda Nachman is the Founder and CEO of College Magazine, TEDx Speaker, and author of #QUALIFIED.

What should applicants do differently while applying to a marketing role at an in-house brand now, versus the start of 2020?

The difference between early 2020 and now is that you will need to keep reminding yourself that the rejection is not personal and that you must keep going. And you must speak about your passions more confidently than ever before.

In other words, you must feel connected to the company’s mission and feel passionately about what they do, as well as be able to demonstrate this passion through your stories and personal branding. For example, you’ll want your Instagram or personal branded website to reflect your passion for the wellness industry (through blog posts, images, yoga poses, interviews with meditation experts) if you’re applying for a company that produces yoga equipment. Your enthusiasm for the mission and ability to demonstrate your passion will be your greatest differentiator.

In your opinion, do you think applying to certain types of brands versus others right now will give marketers a better chance of getting hired?

I would recommend applying to brands that you’re passionate about because people want to hire people who are passionate about what they do. Then from there, be aware that your role in the real world economy is to provide value where there’s demand. So while you’re determining which brands to apply for, consider which brands will experience more demand given the new realities of our world.

For instance, gatherings and events will be transformed into virtual experiences and the nature of a pandemic has changed purchasing behaviors. Let’s say you’re passionate about music events, you’ll want to look to organizations that are providing solutions online, creating unique socially distant experiences, and reinventing during these times.

What's a piece of advice about applying for a marketing role at an in-house brand that rings true no matter what the economy is doing?

When applying for a marketing role, you always want to research the company, which means carving out at least 30 minutes to learn about them. Ultimately you want to get a feel for if this organization aligns with your interests, strengths and values so that you know how you can offer value to their mission. Read their mission statement, 5 blog posts, their latest PR, troll their social media, etc. Then reach out directly via LinkedIn or email, making courageous connections with people who work for the brand to discover about their experience and career journey. Prepare questions to further understand the company’s goals, culture, and challenges. For these informational interviews, show up prepared and stay curious. Yes, all of this before even applying!

MORE: Chapter 2 — Landing a Position at Creative and Media Agencies