The traditional roles of marketers are broadening and changing every day as technology plays a bigger part in how consumers access content and buy products. And not only are traditional roles changing, but new positions are also being added to marketing departments to meet new and existing needs.
Many of these new roles are highly technical positions that require professionals with very specific skill sets. While the increased demand for these technical marketing positions is great for the job seekers who possess these specialized skills, it’s not good news for employers looking to hire these talented individuals. The scarcity of top talent combined with high salary costs makes it difficult for employers to hire the talent they need.
Keep reading to discover which marketing positions are difficult to fill, why employers are having trouble finding top talent for these openings, and creative ways to hire these professionals.
Data Scientist
The role of a data scientist stems from a business or data analyst role. Both data scientists and business analysts have backgrounds that typically consist of a solid foundation in computer science and applications, statistics, analytics and math. However, the difference between a traditional data analyst and a data scientist is that the data scientist has a strong business acumen and the ability to communicate and address business problems that will have the most impact for a company. Data scientists will sift through data from multiple sources to spot trends and recommend ways to apply the data.
There’s no doubt that data scientists are a very in demand position, but this sense of scarcity makes it difficult to hire talented professionals to fill this position. The Harvard Business Review described the data scientist position as the sexiest job of the 21st Century and a recent CareerCast report shows that roughly 6,000 companies are expected to hire for 4.4 million jobs related to data analysis in 2016.
One thought is to hold out until a new generation of data scientists emerge and there are more candidates to choose from and are less expensive. The problem with this reasoning is that companies risk falling behind as competitors soar ahead. But there is another solution. Hiring data scientists on a contract basis means only paying for these professionals when you need them. For example, you could a data scientist on a contract of 4 days a month, instead of a full-time salary ranging from an average of $120,000-$170,000, and up to $250,000 for very skilled professionals.
Product Manager
A product manager is another difficult role to fill. As with data scientists, an ideal product manager has a combination of business acumen and technical skills. Oftentimes this person is the bridge between finance, engineering and marketing departments. Not only does this person need good business skills, but they need good technical chops as well.
There are not many professionals who are well-rounded and have experience in these facets so it makes it very difficult to find the right person. The best thing you can when looking to fill this position is to broaden your candidate pool. For example, if you’re looking to find a product manager for a technology company, look for someone who has a strong technical background with technology companies, but doesn’t need to have industry experience. A good product manager should be a quick learner and adaptable, so not having industry experience shouldn’t be a problem. Instead, focus on finding someone who can translate customer requirements and has a technical aptitude.
Designers – UX/UI
User Experience Designer is another marketing job that is difficult to fill. UX design is basically experiences created and shaped through technology and how to make them happen. For example, look and feel is extremely important when designing a website, but it’s even more important for the site to be intuitive and have the right flow for users.
Many companies have a hard time filling this position because they are unclear of what exactly this position entails and how to evaluate candidates. The best way to determine if a UX designer candidate is a good fit is to really go beyond the surface and dig deeper into how they think and make design decisions. Don’t get enamored by how stylish their portfolio appears. Ask them to explain the decisions they made and how their designs invoke specific actions from the user. Another common pitfall is hiring a designer who has more experience with print than digital design.
As new marketing roles are created it becomes harder to find talented individuals to fill these roles. One way around the high salary cost required by these professionals and the scarcity of these individuals is to hire them on a contract or part-time basis.
