Interactive Marketing Recruiting Booming
Everyone is hiring - at least that's the story from Fortune Interactive and Ad Age.
Interactive marketing is a hot career spot, because everyone wants some of that good old fashioned internet marketing. Online Ad Budgets are up 20%, and agencies are scrambling for talent that quite simply doesn't want to go back to work for an agency.
There is a point where the pay rate for someone with design, development, and marketing skills just can't be matched inside. It's similar to the cap on salaries you see for Java developers who are good, but can't be paid executive salaries if spending is going to be kept under control.
Developers get stuck because it's very hard to go out on your own as a developer - there's just too much to do, and if you're working in a team, being an independent is a huge disadvantage. Internet marketers, including graphic design, branding, Flash, illustration, SEO, PPC, e-mail campaign managers, and copywriters can all sell their talents to a broad audience. It's easy to get work once you have the pedigree, and even agencies will tap you for overflow work.
This creates the talent crunch, both for internal departments and outside firms. Inside corporations, the tend towards talent commodization crushes the life out of creative types, both with salary and with repetitive work. In firms, the pace demanded burns out creatives, even when the money is twice as high as the work that can be found inside.
Now this is all my opinon, of course, and I don't want to speak for Franki - but as a former recruiter, I can tell you that partnering with and outsourcing to independent designers is the only way to shore up interactive marketing efforts.
You can't hire enough college graduates to do the work, and they quickly want to go out on their own, too. The ability to run a profitable business with a laptop, a cell phone, and a portfolio is going to have a long-term effect on larger firms.
And one last word of caution: If you're on the inside thinking of going out - better take a look at the non-compete/non-solicit portions of your contract. If you're on the outside, you should make sure you're reading that clause before you sign up as a partner. This is a problem the recruiting world has, and as the talent crunch gets worse, you'll see it reflected in your contracts.
Nathan Gilliatt provided the links and wrote about this first, which funny enough I had read but not put together in a post. We have to get new OPML files.
Interactive marketing is a hot career spot, because everyone wants some of that good old fashioned internet marketing. Online Ad Budgets are up 20%, and agencies are scrambling for talent that quite simply doesn't want to go back to work for an agency.
There is a point where the pay rate for someone with design, development, and marketing skills just can't be matched inside. It's similar to the cap on salaries you see for Java developers who are good, but can't be paid executive salaries if spending is going to be kept under control.
Developers get stuck because it's very hard to go out on your own as a developer - there's just too much to do, and if you're working in a team, being an independent is a huge disadvantage. Internet marketers, including graphic design, branding, Flash, illustration, SEO, PPC, e-mail campaign managers, and copywriters can all sell their talents to a broad audience. It's easy to get work once you have the pedigree, and even agencies will tap you for overflow work.
This creates the talent crunch, both for internal departments and outside firms. Inside corporations, the tend towards talent commodization crushes the life out of creative types, both with salary and with repetitive work. In firms, the pace demanded burns out creatives, even when the money is twice as high as the work that can be found inside.
Now this is all my opinon, of course, and I don't want to speak for Franki - but as a former recruiter, I can tell you that partnering with and outsourcing to independent designers is the only way to shore up interactive marketing efforts.
You can't hire enough college graduates to do the work, and they quickly want to go out on their own, too. The ability to run a profitable business with a laptop, a cell phone, and a portfolio is going to have a long-term effect on larger firms.
And one last word of caution: If you're on the inside thinking of going out - better take a look at the non-compete/non-solicit portions of your contract. If you're on the outside, you should make sure you're reading that clause before you sign up as a partner. This is a problem the recruiting world has, and as the talent crunch gets worse, you'll see it reflected in your contracts.
Nathan Gilliatt provided the links and wrote about this first, which funny enough I had read but not put together in a post. We have to get new OPML files.
posted by James Durbin @ 4:59 AM PERMALINK
1 Comments:
I'm not sure why, but GOOD talent seems difficult to find. It's out there, but it's booked solid. WHen I need a programmer, it's nearly impossible to find one (they're up to their ears in projects). In my own business, many prospective clients want my services NOW, but the reality is I'm often booked up the hilt and if I take on any more work, I'll do current clients a disservice. Yet, it's a conundrum when you have a potentially lucrative big corporate job coming in who wants me now.
Managing growth is probably the single most challenging aspect of my business. It's a bit of a chicken and egg: I want to land bigger project, but to do so, I need to clear my plate of smaller things. But the smaller things pay the bills now and help beef up my portfolio.
By the way, if you want to share any tips for designers/developers looking to cash in on some of the corporate contracts you wrote about, I'd love to read it ;)
One final thought: the Internet has definitely created a new economy of workers. What's interesting, though, and this relates a bit to a comment that Franki left on my blog about people loving what they do, is that while many creatives strike out on their own and find both happiness and good money, some people venture on their own without a lot of thought behind the business and discipline aspects of doing so. We're seeing a world where there's a diluge of new contractors, but they aren't all necessarily dedicated, skilled or reliable. They see an opportunity to 'be their own bosses' or make more money, and jump ship accordingly. Unfortunately, this leads to a dilution of talent in the system, and I can't blame some companies for feeling antsy about this: after they experience one or two bad contractors, they begin to wonder if all contracted talent will garner them another negative experience.
I see both companies and contractors struggling to find their feet, so to speak, in this emerging way to work. There's both uncertainty AND great opportunity in this new world. With information moving so quickly, both companies and contractors sometimes find themselves knee deep into work without specific boundaries and expectations (e.g. a contract) defined. The faster we move, the more likely we are to miss red flags and a mutual discovery process that is integral to the successful completion of a project.
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