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This past August, CareerBuilder and Harris Interactive conducted a study that surveyed 921 full-time workers in the United States who were laid off from their jobs within the last 12 months.

Here are the highlights:

People Are Finding Work:
Since June 2009, 48% of workers who were laid off found full-time positions.  This is a 7% increase from March of 2009.  Although less workers have found part-time positions quarter over quarter, Brent Rasmussen, President of CareerBuilder North American contributes this to “part of this job search is related to workers expanding career options to new industries and locations.”  And that leads us to our next statistic…

Changing Industries May Help:
38% of the workers who found new full-time jobs after being laid off said they found new work in a different industry/field than before.  A majority of these workers also said they were enjoying their new roles.

Not Everyone Is Taking Salary Cuts:
One of the most promising findings in the study was that 56% of workers who found new full-time positions were able to receive a salary that was either comparable or higher than their previous salary.  The other 44% took a pay cut when negotiating their new salaries.  However, the good news is that this is an improvement over March of 2009, when 48% took a pay cut.

Change Of Scenery Can Be Good:
More workers are willing to move to new cities for full-time work.  One out of 5 workers (20%) of the 48% of workers who found new jobs after being laid off within the last 12 months relocated for a job.  44% of those who have not been able to find work yet say they are willing to relocate for work.

Self Employment Becomes Viable Option:
29% of those workers who have not been able to find work since being laid off are considering starting their own business.   In March of 2009, this percentage was only 25.

Just the other night I was catching up with old friends, when someone asked me what exactly I did for a living? I replied with my usual response “I help run the marketing department at a marketing consulting company.” I went on to tell everyone about the current projects I was working on and what that entailed. I must have bored them because a friend looked at me and said, “Gosh, I thought PR was supposed to be fun.”

At first, I tried hard not to laugh, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized there are many people who look at marketing as one-dimensional. They might believe marketing communications means buying promotional items or planning events and parties. In reality marketing is one of the more broad-ranged and diverse professions.

Maybe there is a big misconception that marketing is all fluff. The general public usually only sees the end result of a marketing effort: the funny commercial, the elaborate website, the eye-catching packaging, the YouTube sensation. But, really there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes!

Let’s use creating a commercial as our example.

People forget it took creative marketers to come up with the winning idea. It took copywriters to write the script for the commercial. It took strategic planning marketers to develop a story board. It took marketers with project management experience to coordinate the sound technicians, the videographers, and the producers. It took marketing researchers to determine the appropriate target audience. It took marketers skilled in marketing analytics to develop a strategy for testing the effectiveness of the advertisement. It took social media marketers to make the advertisement a viral success online.

My point in all of this is that marketing is a multi-faceted discipline that takes the personalities and traits of a diverse group of people. Marketing isn’t a one-man job where well-executed campaigns magically appear. It requires many people, countless areas of expertise, and thorough planning/analysis.

Has anyone shared a similar experience?

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This is always a tricky topic.  Everyone has their own ideas and philosophies about building a better resume.  Ask five people and you will get five different opinions on how your resume should look.  Here is one more opinion; follow these eight rules and you will spruce up your resume.

1.    Bullet points are your friends, not enemies

2.    Give a short description of your past employer

3.    Create organization, not chaos

4.    Spell check, spell check, spell check, and then proofread again.

5.    Use action words and quantify when applicable

i. Increased sales revenue 90%.
ii. Directed email marketing campaign with 50% open rate.
iii. Developed public relations campaign with 100 online newspaper hits.
iv. Conducted market research on effectiveness of distribution channels, ultimately saving company $500,000 annually.

6.    Do not leave unexplained gaps in your resume

7.    Tailor your resume for specific jobs

8.    Keep your resume to a maximum of two pages

What do you think?  Do you have any tips you would like to share with everyone?

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Following our last post, I got an idea which seemed like a stroke of genius. I’ll write a blog post that precisely explains how marketing consultants can help companies do “THINGS” better. Everybody will read it. Everybody will love it. Everybody will realize they need to complement their current efforts with a marketing consultant.

Wrong.

As I sat down to think of what those specific “THINGS” might be, I realized there was not one exact list of “THINGS” that every business needed. Different companies have different methods and different problems. It’s not logical to put everyone in the same box and say “you need this” or “you can’t possibly run a company without this.” I would suppose that the Mom and Pop shop down the street has very different issues than a large publicly traded company.

What I did discover is that, often times, identifying what those “THINGS” are can prove to be a challenge. Organizations are ever changing, and subsequently these “THINGS” may change as well. As mentioned previously in our “Who Needs Marketing Services? Everybody” post, many companies and organizations don’t take the time to regularly analyze their strengths and weaknesses, or at least give it a thorough look. The good news is that McKinley Marketing Partners is trying to make this an easier task to complete on a recurring basis.

At the end of this post you will find McKinley’s Marketing Checklist Form. We divided marketing specialties into five different categories, which makes looking at your overall marketing strategy seem a little less daunting. If you simply fill in the check list with either Excellent, Average, Needs Help, or Not Applicable, you should soon have a better handle on your company’s overall marketing landscape.

Having trouble figuring out what it all means? Need help filling in your company’s marketing gaps? Send your sheet to clientservices@mckinleyinc.com and we will help you with your marketing resources.

McKinley’s Marketing Checklist Form.

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It happens to even the most successful people, companies, and organizations.  The skilled and knowledgeable commonly neglect their own needs to focus on providing their expertise for others.

Working in the marketing consulting industry, consultants, by default, are always on my mind.  So I got to thinking about how marketing trends today are ever changing, can be complicated, and very specialized.  Keeping up with these trends is a daunting task for any marketing department.  Sometimes you might not have the marketing resources or simply the time to keep up with the latest and greatest.

So, what does any good marketer do?  They look for help. Throughout my career, it seems that the best marketers are the ones who step back, take an objective look at their department, and find ways to make improvements, taking it the next level.

You can hire a consultant to come in and actually do the work or hire someone to teach you.  In my opinion, companies that look outside to marketing consultants for help on the inside, are the ones able to keep up with trends and continue to see growth year after year.  McKinley lives by this motto, as we recently entered into marketing partnerships with two Interim Marketing Managers^sm(IMMs^®), Ronan Keane of UpClick Marketing and Colleen Sutton of Red Jacket Communications.  Ronan is teaching us about search engine marketing and Colleen is helping us with our public relations efforts.

While this isn’t universally applicable, try to stop and think: “Am I practicing what I preach?” You may be surprised what you find out.

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Given today’s economy, it would be an understatement to say that we are all looking for value in our dollar.  Hiring managers are not looking for candidates who can simply get the job done and produce average results.  Companies are looking for resources that go above and beyond.

Now the big question, how does one find these rare gems?  It is easy to be fooled by some professionals who appear to talk the talk, but in the end, cannot walk the walk.  Below are some of our tried and true steps to uncovering these resources during the interview process.

Up-to-date Skill Sets

Some leniency is to be expected in the more technical fields and industries where things change frequently.  But most people need to have updated skills at all times.  This can be a good way to judge if the candidate is dedicated to positive career advancement or even gainful employment.

Did They Dominate the Interview?

If you find your head spinning from listening to a candidate talk in circles, you should encourage them to use specific examples of what they accomplished.

You should be wary of the candidate who dominates the interview, only talking about him/her self and unaware of the audience, especially if the job you are trying to fill is a client-facing position.

Leader or Followers?

It is easy for someone to say they managed a staff of five or they oversaw direct reports.  Did it mean they actually conducted the research to develop a comprehensive a report or did it mean they delegated the work to folks on their team?  Determining the difference between delegators and doers is critical in properly filling a position.  Delegators can be great doers but you must be sure that the related work is not too distant a memory for the candidate.

Job Stability

It is unrealistic to think someone will stay with a company forever, but at the same time, it is realistic to question ones constant movement. If a candidate has had five jobs in six years there should be a red flag.  We all want loyal staff members but we also know that history repeats itself, so what better way to predict future behavior than to consider the past.  Candidates with certain skills might warrant frequent job changes and economic conditions can also explain job hopping, but once those reasons have been explained, bigger issues become very clear.

Experience in Multiple Industries

Interviewing a candidate with experience in multiple industries can indicate 1.) That they are willing and able to learn new industries and 2.) Possess the kind of personality that meshes well with different kinds of corporate cultures and environments.  When asked what the number one quality or characteristic is in any marketing resource, I always say flexibility.

Knowledgeable About Your Organization

This is the most basic indicator. The minute you realize that a candidate has not done his/her homework, you know all that you need to know.  The ease of which a candidate can retrieve information today leaves little room for excuses. A well prepared candidate shows interest in the job and the organization.

Next time you find yourself interviewing potential candidates, remember these simple rules and we can almost guarantee that you will find yourself a desirable team member.

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After attending an industry seminar this past week in Florida, I was pleasantly surprised to read the March 2009 edition of Staffing Industry Report.  After asking for years to be measured independent of Professional Services, the marketing segment finally earned its very own segment!  Not only did they address the economic outlook on the marketing/creative segment, they also mentioned McKinley Marketing Partners!

As a recap of the article, it was estimated that the marketing/creative segment “generated $1.4 billion of domestic revenue in 2008.”  The growth of this segment was attributed to the growing trends towards Internet advertising.  Even though marketing budgets are being cut in today’s economic climate, there is still a need for talent who has the in-demand skill sets.   McKinley has definitely seen the impact of the movement towards online marketing as we are receiving more requests for Internet marketing managers and search engine optimization experts.  These companies need candidates who have multiple skill sets in the realm of marketing/creative services.

The organization is also predicting that this segment’s revenue will decrease by a minimum of 4% in 2009 due to the declining state of the economy and the reduction of advertising budgets.  Although I hope this is not the case, I understand the rationale behind the prediction and only hope to be proved wrong.

The article went on to define the segment’s competitive landscape.  Aquent was recognized as the largest private provider of creative services, with revenue reaching $200 million in 2008 and “some of the larger providers of staffing in the segment are FILTER, The BOSS Group and McKinley Marketing Partners.”  I was gratified to see McKinley included as one of the major players in the marketing services industry.  It is definitely a proud moment for Team McKinley.

All in all, I found this article to be extremely informational and useful.  Although McKinley has made similar predictions/estimates in our daily business, it was nice to get an educated outlook on the industry as a whole.  

I encourage you all to take a look at the article here.

Let us know your thoughts and opinions!

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Remember that shoemaker who was so busy making shoes for everyone else, yet his kids were barefoot?

McKinley can relate.  We have been so busy placing marketing consultants, making sure other’s marketing needs were taken care of, that we’ve been neglecting some of our own needs. The time has come for McKinley to put on its first pair of social marketing shoes.  As part of the embracing process, we are beginning here, with The Summit, our company’s blog.

My team asked me to write the introductory blog post, which left me with a feeling of writers block, or should I say bloggers block?  Did I want to be witty, professional, educational, informational, or direct?  Or all of the above?  After contemplating, I resorted back to my old journalism tendencies and came up with the basics.  After all, aren’t we all trying to get back to simpler ways?

Who: McKinley Marketing Partners, Inc. and you, our loyal reader. We are the premier provider of experienced marketing resources to Fortune 1000 firms, emerging businesses, trade associations, and/or government agencies for interim assignments, contract-to-hire, or permanent placements.  And you, the one who is going to help drive this conversation.

What to expect: So I tweaked it a little bit.  With The Summit, you can expect weekly conversations on a wide range of marketing and consulting topics.  It’s our dedication to bring you ideas that spark your creative brain, quench your intellectual side, and entertain your inner comedian.

Where: Our website http://blog.mckinleymarketingpartners.com, your RSS feed, or your inbox.

When: Multiple posts a week.

Why: We have created this blog, not for our personal gratification or to increase our page rank on Google (although that would be nice) but rather to serve as an industry leader and resource for marketing professionals.  As a marketing consulting company, run by marketers, we get it.  We understand this field and wanted to create an arena where professional individuals could come to learn.  More than that, we wanted to create an online community where marketers could talk about marketing trends, current obstacles, funny you tube videos, and anything in between.

We know we can’t do this without all of you and hope you will take part in our weekly conversations by contributing your thoughts and ideas.

We look forward to blogging in 2009!

Click here to read our first blog post.

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