Finding the right marketing talent

Finding great marketing talent has always been difficult and never more than in today’s marketplace.

“It is a candidates market at the moment” commented Linda Jones, Principal at Recruit Direct. “We have seen a significant gap amongst middle management roles and finding people with the right level of experience is difficult – this was a main driver for starting Suit School with ADMA in an effort to up-skill marketing and advertising graduates”.

This issue is exacerbated in direct marketing roles, which require technical proficiency skills which are rarely taught as part of a standard Marketing Degree and usually need to be acquired ‘on-the-job’ or through additional training. For this reason, many prospective employers are turning to overseas markets, shipping in talent from the UK, Europe, the US and Asia to fill vacant positions.

Steve Bianchini, Principal Consultant with Mondo Direct believes that more and more companies are shifting marketing resources online with a resultant excess demand for expert digital marketing professionals.

“Despite traditionally trained marketing executives re-training on the job and playing catch-up to the available digital technology, the gap between demand and supply does not appear to be narrowing. Social media is now omnipresent and is the new tradition in interactive marketing engagement. Despite the acceleration in the quantity of digital marketing channels, there is some hope when the Gen Z’s enter the workforce in three to five year’s time. In the meantime, finding great and available digital marketing professionals remains a challenge”.

ADMA is supportive of growing and enhancing industry talent – the ADMA Careers Centre and Jobs Board has grown significantly since its launch in September and the ADMA Mentor Program which gives tomorrows marketing talent access to and guidance from Australia’s leading marketers will call for nominations for 2012 later this month.