I was in a conversation the other day with a mid-career woman in between jobs. She has been successful at a variety of companies with brands we know – in both tech and CPG. With the job market in tech as it seems to be these days, she is considering a shift from brand to product marketing. It seems there are more product marketing opportunities. She expressed the concern about being looked over by hiring managers due to a lack of product marketing experience.
NOTE: this post is not just for brand or product marketers.
It occurred to me, too often, recruiters and hiring managers look at a resume for vertical skills and experiences in whatever the subject matter may be, AND the boat on potentially GREAT employees can be missed by merely looking for cookie-cutter subject matter experience.
Subjects can be learned by anyone committed to learning. True strengths that can complement or catapult a team to greatness can be hard to come by. Take it from me. I very clearly remember the time when after 9 solid interviews, a recruiter told me there was hesitation to hire me because I was “considered a luxury”. I didn’t exactly know a lot about the bits and bytes of the product. But I do build lasting and trusting connections with enterprise customers and sellers, I tell memorable stories, and I had proven that I could offer and execute on high impact, creative ideas that helped a product or a team to stand out. Fortunately for everyone, the EVP/GM doing the hiring decided to take the risk, and it worked out.
This wasn’t the first time this had been the case in my career. There was the time when I was in a corporate product marketing role and wanted to go into the field selling deep tech to enterprises. There was the time I shifted from media sales to global OEM sales at a storage networking company (back then I didn’t know a network switch from a light switch). There was the time when I went from a large global networking company to a start-up selling to the CGI and visual effects community - about which I know nothing at the time.
My point is, in none of these cases was I a subject matter expert. All I had was a willingness to learn and my own unique superpowers. So, really, for job hunters: if you’re serious about a role and know you can do it, if the will is there, there is always a way. Don’t count yourself out because someone told you that you need subject matter experience.
If I am to draw from my own experiences, here are a few rules to follow:
1) You are selling Product YOU. And who you are BEING as you go for the role matters more than your experience on paper. This is about mindset & how you choose to show up! And it is a choice. Are you exuding confidence, assertiveness (not cockiness), and the belief that you ARE the one who will bring the most value to a role (despite cultural norms)?
2) Be a detective and an active and curious listener. And by curious listener, I mean, listen with all your senses before and during interviews (what you hear, observe, intuition) to understand what a company may need most from this role. Ask what’s important about the role. Be a detective and paint a picture of what it would look like to add the most value to this role. This is a VERY important step, because again, you are about to SELL YOU as the one who the hiring company believes can best address their expressed and unexpressed needs!
3) Know your unique strengths and map them to the role. Are you a connector? Are great with data? Are you a storyteller? Are you a team leader and productivity motivator? Are you a quick learner and a great writer? Are you a great cross-functional collaborator? Are you a creative problem-solver? Are you a critical thinker? Make a list of your strongest attributes and your most interesting examples. How do these attributes make you a great fit for this role – even more than the person with loads of subject matter experience?
4) Be authentically you. In the whole world, there is only one you! Too often interviewees look to emulate someone else because they believe ‘that’s’ what looks like someone successful in a role. And perhaps someone else IS successful – in their version of the role. But only that person can be the best version of themself. Only you can be the best version of you! So, own it!
For companies: MIT studies have shown that teams with the highest levels of collective intelligence are not the ones with the same ideas and perspectives being shared by one or two people. They are teams where all people get the opportunity to share, and even more so, teams with different backgrounds, perspective and strengths. (In fact, as an extension to this work, MIT studies have shown that more women on a team augment collective intelligence.)
So, whether you are interviewing or hiring, avoid the trap of subject matter experience as the primary gauge for determining fit. There is a sea of outstanding people out there with a tremendous amount of value to bring to a company – especially in today’s unpredictable workplace! Whether you’re doing the interviewing or the hiring, instead, prioritize mindset, unique strengths, and potential to unlock true value for your most important goals.
Comments