Stand Out in Your Search: Proven Strategies from a GTM Recruiter
Stand Out in Your Search: Proven Strategies from a GTM Recruiter
Advice on today's job market from someone who works in it every day
Max Spanier spent 7+ years in software sales and business development, culminating in his role as an Enterprise AE at Marketo.
In his time selling software, he started to hone in on the fact that without a knowledgeable champion, it can be difficult to close a deal. He says, “In some of my deals, I was seeing that organizations were trying to hire someone to come be the admin for their new Marketo instance. The success of filling the position often had a direct impact on my ability to close the deal, and the chances that the company would be successful in their Marketo implementation.”
Realizing an opportunity to leverage his GTM experience and network, Max started his own recruiting company, Sloane Staffing, and has helped organizations fill over 700 roles since 2019.
I recently had an opportunity to chat with Max about the current hiring environment, challenges for job seekers, the trends he’s seeing in the GTM organization space, and advice for those looking to land their next role.
What is it like to be looking for a job today?
This isn’t going to surprise anyone at this point, but the job market is more crowded and competitive than ever. GTM operations roles are not immune to this. There is a perfect storm of factors making this one of the most challenging times to be looking for a new role. Job seekers are facing:
A lack of new roles due to a cloudy economic future
An ever-increasing group of highly talented and qualified Ops professionals contributing to more competition for each role out there
The ultimate wildcard - AI. Will this mean that companies won’t need to hire as many people? Which roles will be most impacted by AI? How will AI change who needs to be hired in the future?
I have seen repeated examples of the broader Marketing and Revenue Ops community coming together to help impacted individuals find new roles. It’s been rewarding and exciting to see individuals that I’m connected with ultimately be able to land a role through their hard work and dedication.
There are still quite a few people trying to find work, though.
Max highlights, “Companies are putting even more focus on trying to find the “right” person for the role because they know a lot of talented people are available. They also know that they might only be able to hire one or two roles at the most this year, so they’re taking the time to get right.”
Because it’s a better market for hiring, longer timeliness and more thorough evaluations are becoming the norm.
So with all of this going on, what steps can someone take to stand out and show how qualified they are for a particular role?
Data + Storytelling (Focus on Outcomes)
When I asked Max about standing out, he had a few immediate recommendations.
“One of the first things I always tell candidates is to get better at “storytelling”, essentially connecting the work that they led or participated in and the positive outcome it had for the business,” Max says. “You should always be ready to not just talk about what you did, but why you did it and the quantifiable results and impact.”
This is a key skill for a professional in any role, but certainly worth focusing on for Operations pros.
Max goes on to say, “Crafting a narrative that weaves together your professional journey, challenges overcome, skills acquired, and the impact you've made is crucial. You should leverage this wherever you have a chance to introduce and talk about yourself.”
I’ve written about the importance of documenting and sharing wins. It can be beneficial for your current role, but as Max says it can also be key to setting yourself apart from other candidates in a hiring process.
Capturing this information soon after it happens is important, as it allows you to make sure that you’re remembering the entire scope of your contributions to the project, as well as specific details about the impact, even including feedback from stakeholders and your manager.
Ops pros can sometimes find themselves at a disadvantage in these types of exercises because their work is often in support of another team directly hitting their goal. This is why it’s important to clearly illustrate the connection between your efforts and their success. In a previous OpsScale interview, Cody Guymon talked about how it’s important to focus on enabling others to be successful.
The application and interview process
Max mentioned a couple of common mistakes he sees when people apply for jobs.
“One thing I recommend avoiding is using the same approach for every role you apply for,” says Max. “You want to make sure that you’re spending time to customize your outreach and tie your skills and experience to the job description.”
In the days of “LinkedIn Easy Apply” and companies using similar application tools and forms, it can be easy to optimize for speed and volume, especially with an operations background. There’s also certainly a feeling of wanting to cast a broad net to increase your chances of getting hired, but a single well-targeted and aligned application outweighs a dozen that are more of the “spray and pray” type of approach.
When it comes to the actual interview, a little preparation can go a long way. While most Ops roles of similar titles have the same basic scope and responsibilities, there are enough nuances and differences that it’s helpful to have additional information to shape your conversation.
Max recommends, "frame your answers in the context of the value you can bring to the organization. Use the interview to uncover some specific projects or responsibilities the role you’re interviewing for will be involved with and illustrate the value of your experience in those contexts."
I can relate to this. In recent hiring processes, I have been surprised by how unprepared some candidates have been, even knowing how competitive the process would be. One way that this manifests itself is in the questions the interviewee asks - not having any questions at all, or asking very basic, high-level questions can illustrate a lack of preparation and in some cases, caring, about the details of the role itself.
Even basic preparation like reviewing the website and social media channels for the company you’re applying for can be enlightening. You can review the hiring manager's and other interviewer’s social media profiles as well to gain additional insights.
If and when rejection comes along, it can certainly be discouraging. If you can manage it, Max advises, “Use rejection as a learning opportunity. Ask for feedback and use it constructively to improve your approach." Learning from each experience will hopefully accelerate your ultimate successful hiring as you optimize your approach.
What about gaps in my career timeline?
For a variety of reasons, gaps between roles are becoming increasingly common.
Max recommends being prepared to discuss these gaps honestly but doesn’t see a need to proactively bring them up.
“I think that most people are fairly understanding when they see a gap in someone’s resume timeline,” Max says. He continues, “I don’t see a need to bring it up or point it out, but be willing to talk about the circumstances and answer questions. At this point, it’s seen often enough that it’s not necessarily a concern for hiring managers.”
It can be helpful to highlight what you did during these gaps, demonstrating proactiveness and a desire to improve.
If you find yourself in a gap right now, it can be a great opportunity to add to your skillset and increase your attractiveness as a candidate. A great place to start is the OpsScale Course Database, with details on over 50+ GTM courses available - check it out here.
As the oft-quoted proverb goes, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, but the second best time is today.”
This is true when it comes to building your network and support group. If you’re currently employed, you must invest time in building your network intentionally.
Max says, “We often see that a hiring manager will have a few candidates in mind initially, and they’ll get a head start on the process. This is why it’s so important to build a personal brand and network.” He goes on to say, "Focus on building meaningful relationships rather than collecting contacts.”
If you’re not sure what to do, finding a way to help others is a great way to start. Not many people are going to turn down a connection request or a lunch conversation that has something in it for them, and it helps you build a positive reputation in your space.
Getting noticed - make that LI profile shine
Optimizing your LinkedIn profile is a must. Max recommends considering your profile as one of the main ways you talk to hiring managers and recruiters.
"LinkedIn is more than a resume; it's a platform to share your story - highlight what you actually did in each role,” says Max. “I often see individuals who don’t take full advantage of the space on their LinkedIn profile because they don’t fill it out, or they just include basic information about the company they’re working for.”
As a platform, LinkedIn functions very much like a search engine for recruiters like Max. While we’d like to think that there’s some altruistic algorithm recommending us in searches, the truth is much more technical. It comes down to the content on your profile. LinkedIn allows recruiters to search by things like job titles and specific keywords. These keywords can show up almost anywhere on your profile.
So what does this look like in practice? If you’re skilled in Marketo, then make sure that it shows up on your profile. If you’ve led multiple large ABM campaigns or were responsible for building out a marketing data warehouse, write about it!
Max says, “Many recruiters, especially those working in-house, are dealing with the unfortunate limitations that they only know what they know - only what they’re told from the hiring manager. Many of them don’t have GTM experience, so they’re reliant on the keywords, job titles, and tool names the hiring manager passes along.”
What this means is that recruiters aren’t going to spend time reading between the lines - you’ve either used a tool or you haven’t, and you’ve either led a Salesforce implementation or you haven’t. They don’t have the context to understand what a typical “Director of Marketing Operations” role means if they see it on your profile.
Take a page out of the SEO optimization playbook and spend time making sure that your LinkedIn profile includes both mentions of the tools you’ve used and the skills you have, and can illustrate the connection between your work and the outcomes it resulted in.
Keeping LinkedIn up to date can be a challenge for some of us introverted Ops folks. It can be uncomfortable to be self-promoting or cheerleading for yourself. Ultimately, if you’re being honest about your experience, you’re only putting yourself at a disadvantage if you don’t leverage the discoverability and connections a platform like LinkedIn can provide.
Wrap Up + Resources
If you’re currently looking for a job, hang in there! You can do this - and you have a whole community behind you. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m absolutely open to helping where I can - if there’s something I can do, please reply to this email and let me know. Let’s connect on LinkedIn to get the ball rolling.
Max and his agency, Sloane Staffing, work both with companies trying to fill roles as well as individuals trying to get hired, so certainly reach out if you’re interested in some legit assistance in getting hired or filling an open position. You can reach out to them directly here. At the very least, I’d recommend doing some networking work today and connecting with Max on LinkedIn, and reaching out to introduce yourself. He’s very well-connected and very responsive.
I shared some other ideas and tactics for setting yourself apart in an earlier version of the newsletter, including a link to a video walkthrough of how you can source opportunities AND hiring managers on LinkedIn to give yourself another avenue to set yourself apart when applying for a role.
One of the other webinar panelists was Hana Jacover, who was interviewed in this newsletter a few months ago and shared some valuable insights into advancing in your career.
Ethan Evans, who worked for years as a VP at Amazon and now spends his time helping others level up their career had some recommendations for those looking to stay off of layoff lists.