Gone are the days of circling the Help Wanted ads in the newspaper.
Job hunters today are blessed with the extensive wealth of information that is The Internet. However, due to the sheer size and overwhelming number of options, it might be tempting to view this as a curse rather than a blessing.
This past week I spent some decent time putting popular job-hunting sites to good use. It was exhilarating, exhausting, excessive, and exciting all at once. (I don’t know why that little alliteration just happened, but let’s roll with it for now.)
The goal was to use a variety of search methods in order to find ten entry-level job openings that seemed interesting to me. I ended up finding much more than that, which is exciting but also overwhelming.
Without further ado, the process.
What I did
During this exercise for future employment, I utilized five different job boards. These were LinkedIn Jobs, TheMuse, AngelList, SimplyHired, and Indeed.
In each site, I adjusted the search parameters to include as similar of a search as possible, because I wanted to compare and contrast the findings of each site. Though each one had different filtering ability, the gist of my search was for entry-level marketing and/or operations positions at startups or small-to-medium sized companies. I also only included jobs that had been posted within the day or the week, depending on the filter options.
On a couple sites (Indeed and TheMuse) you were required to enter a geographic location. On Indeed I kept things to a specific city, while on TheMuse I just entered “The United States” and that worked just fine. Most of the other sites allowed you to search by a certain area, but didn’t require it.
I started a Google Sheet to keep track of all this information—a new tab for each job site. It was super simple to copy and paste links and keep things streamlined that way. I like using Sheets for stuff like this because it has the tab feature, which I love. I also used conditional formatting to make any lines with “marketing” in it turn blue, while any containing “operations” turned yellow. (Because sometimes color-coding just makes the world a better place.)
Whenever I found a job on a job search site, I’d look up the company that was hiring and look at their careers page to see if there were any other positions open that sounded interesting. It was as much an exercise in learning what’s out there as actually finding a job.
If I liked the job description, the copy on the website, and overall feel of the company, I’d oftentimes look them up on Glassdoor to see what the people were actually saying. Many times I’d find companies that weren’t hiring for anything even remotely close to what I could do, but I saved their information for future reference.
For me, it’s less about the job title/description/duties as it is working somewhere that I’ll be able to grow, learn, and truly be passionate about the work I’m doing. It was exciting to find some of those kinds of places.
What I found
So many insurance sales jobs. Why? I have no idea, but it was really annoying.
It was interesting to find that even though I was searching primarily for marketing positions, literally every other job description in the history of the universe also popped up at some point (who knew you could apply to be the President of the United States on Indeed).
I noticed that there was definitely variety within marketing positions. Lots of the more analytical, data-driven positions were available, but also a lot of the design and creative-based positions. Some descriptions, especially from smaller companies, included the whole range in their job requirements, while others focused on one or the other.
It was also interesting to see how social media and content marketing are a very large, and distinct, place within marketing as a whole. A very large number of the listings I found were from marketing agencies that run social media marketing for other companies—it was sort of an endless cycle of more and more marketers marketing marketing.
Although the span of requirements was pretty consistent, there was still a wide range depending on the kind of marketing role it was—SEO knowledge, experience with graphic design and the Adobe Suite, all kinds of social media in general, video editing, MailChimp, Marketo, and working hard and fast.
However, the single most consistent and significant requirement was strong communication—both in written and verbal form. So many of the job duties involved writing in one form or another, it was an almost staggering amount.
If you are wanting to get into marketing, learn how to write and speak and be clearly and efficiently.
What I learned
One of the biggest revelations was that there are so many opportunities out there. Coming from a small town with limited options, it was a breath of fresh air to discover what the world (and by world I mean just the US) has to offer.
I also discovered (again) that I love people and parties, and some of the positions that got me the most excited were community-related positions that had little-to-nothing to do with marketing. Unfortunately, there were less entry-level positions directly related to community/people-organization. It mostly just gave me really great incentive to get a marketing position, freaking c r u s h it, and then take those skills and experience to get me a people-oriented position that could also play into my hospitality and facilitation strengths.
I also found it interesting to find how many companies didn’t even remotely pretend to want a college degree. Many times it seemed like a soft preference, if it was even mentioned. I’ve not been a degree-basher, and I’m not planning on becoming one, but it was a very interesting observation.
Lastly, the variety in the startup world is amazing! It’s not all sales software and AI taking over the world. There’s also bed sheets, windowsill mushroom growers, and car-sharing without using keys. You don’t ever have to feel like you’re relegated to one industry.
So what?
As always, how and why should this information apply to anyone other than myself? What’s the point of all this?
For one, I’m just doing my thing and taking you along for the ride.
For two (that’s a thing, yeah), I want everybody else in the world to know that there are options. You have zero excuse to stay trapped in the same old thing if you hate it! There’s a time and a place for doing things you don’t enjoy in order to gain skills/grow experience, but if you’ve been working the same dead end job for 7 years and you hate the job and yourself and life in general, move on—please.
It might be hard, it might require a move, it might require a pay cut. But my friend, there are so many options. So many. And if those uncomfortable things result in growth or learning or feeling like you’re actually doing something meaningful with your life—by golly, I think it’s worth it.
Even if just for six months.