Interested in Recruitment Marketing and Employer Branding, but not sure how to drive your career in that direction? Look no further! We interviewed three professionals who have successfully created bright Recruitment Marketing careers to find out how they landed their first gig and how you can too.
Here are our interviewees and each of their top three tips to become a Recruitment Marketer:
Lane Sutton is a RallyRM Mentor and a Recruitment Marketing superstar. Lane discovered Recruitment Marketing at Sprinklr in 2015. Today, Lane supports Recruitment Marketing initiatives for Disney while finishing his degree. Lane works on content planning, strategy, as well as talent market research. Lane’s also a sought-after and highly regarded speaker, who has shared his insights at numerous Marketing and Talent Acquisition conferences.
Tip #1 – Marketers, jump right in!
Lane’s career initially started out in Marketing. His first internship was with HubSpot, where Lane boosted his social savvy. At Sprinklr, the team was keen to have Lane apply his social media marketing skills to their recruitment needs.
“I was hesitant about this at first,” admits Lane. “I didn’t know a thing about HR. However, I decided to jump in and caught on really quickly. Recruitment Marketing is basically all about applying the marketing tactics and strategies you already know to candidates instead of customers. If you come from a Marketing background, the transition isn’t hard.”
Tip #2 – Start networking
“Reach out to people already working in the space,” advises Lane. “Many will be willing to speak with you about their role, their career journey and the company they work for. You’ll get valuable info and build your network so people can start to think about you for future opportunities on their teams.”
One way to make a Recruitment Marketing connection and gain some insider intel is to apply to the RallyRM Mentor Program. The free program matches people who want to develop their Recruitment Marketing skills with mentors like Lane, who help others to grow their careers and confidently lead new strategies.
Tip #3 – Weave Recruitment Marketing work into your current role
“There are more and more entry level Recruitment Marketing jobs becoming available,” Lane says. “If your company doesn’t have someone doing Recruitment Marketing yet, this is your opportunity! Start taking on projects to build a case for developing a role like this at your organization.
“For instance, if you’re a Recruiter or Recruitment Coordinator, you could ask your manager if you could try addressing and improving a particular candidate experience issue. If you’re in Marketing, you could connect with Talent Acquisition to see if you can help them improve their Careers content strategy.”
Lane says being able to show leadership the takeaways from your work could lead to the creation of your dream role – or at the very least it will help you to build up transferable experience that can give you an advantage when applying for a Recruitment Marketing role at another organization.
Delaney Rader is a Recruitment Marketing Specialist at Vanguard, where she manages the Careers blog by defining strategy, and sourcing and creating great content. Delaney attended the University of Arizona before joining Vanguard. During her time at the University of Arizona, Delaney worked as a Marketing Assistant for the Campus Recreation Department, while also interning with Vanguard’s Employer Brand & Recruitment Marketing team.
Delaney’s top tips:
Tip #1 – You might have hidden Recruitment Marketing experience
Reflecting back on her pre-Vanguard days, Delaney realizes that she had Recruitment Marketing experience before becoming a Recruitment Marketer.
“During college, I was part of a business fraternity,” explains Delaney. “I helped create and distribute flyers to recruit new members every year. I would encourage anyone who’s looking to start a career in Recruitment Marketing to think if they might have experience they could leverage to open a door for themselves.”
Tip #2 – Meet the team and pick their brains
“If you work for an organization that has a full Recruitment Marketing team or even one person who manages Recruitment Marketing, see if you can meet with them to ask questions and start learning. Put yourself on their radar so they know you’re interested in what they’re doing. Passion goes a long way, and they may think of you for their next opening!”
Tip #3 – Develop your skills and get your feet wet where you are
“Some of the key skills Recruitment Marketers need can be developed in a ton of ways,” points out Delaney. “Consider how you can improve your communication skills, as well as how you can gain any marketing experience. If you belong to a club or team, could you manage a social feed for them? Could you help with the website or volunteer to organize an event? These are all great skills and solid experience that can add up to help you evolve into an ideal Recruitment Marketing candidate over time.”
Ted Nehrbas is a Talent Brand Marketing Specialist with Thomson Reuters. In his current role, Ted executes on a range of strategies to attract talent to the Thomson Reuters brand, including managing all of the company’s careers-focused social media accounts. Prior to working at Thomson Reuters, Ted was a Recruitment Marketing Specialist with SmashFly. His first real foray into Recruitment Marketing was with a startup called Happie as a Recruitment Marketing Intern in 2015.
Ted’s top tips:
Tip #1 – Recruiters can also become Recruitment Marketers
There are many career paths that can lead to Recruitment Marketing. Hands-on recruiting experience is also excellent to have.
“During my internship at Happie, I spent time actively recruiting,” explains Ted. “That recruitment experience provided some of the most valuable insights for my later Recruitment Marketing roles. I learned how candidates think, what their pain points are, and how to sell them on my organization. These are all areas that inform my work today too.”
Tip #2 – Grow your own brand and social media following
“Get on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, and start being active,” suggests Ted. “The skills you learn that take you from 0 to 300 followers are the same types of skills you’ll use in social media marketing for recruitment purposes.
“I’d also recommend getting familiar with free tools like Canva [for graphic design], Crowdfire [for social strategy], and stock photo sites like Picjumbo and Stockvault. These tools will help you produce content marketing assets, like blogs and social posts, which are becoming increasingly valuable for Recruitment Marketing strategy. Content marketing attracts candidates and communicates why they should consider joining your company.”
Tip #3 – Remember your own candidate experience when applying for jobs
“Consider the first thing that piqued your interest about a company. Note the things that irritated you about the application. If you start to consciously consider your own candidate experience, you’ll come up with tons of great ideas that you can use to get ahead when interviewing or positioning yourself for Recruitment Marketing roles.”
The bottom line is that there are many ways to gain experience and become a Recruitment Marketer! People from just about any professional or academic background can be great in Recruitment Marketing if they dedicate time to developing relevant skills in social media and content marketing, networking with people in the industry and finding a mentor, and developing their personal brand.
Lastly, thanks to all of our interviewees for their time and tips! We hope the insight is helpful and we’re excited that you’re considering becoming a Recruitment Marketer. This is an exciting new profession and the more amazing talent we have, the more we can Rally forward and positively impact the Talent Acquisition industry!
