Does Your Next Marketing Hire Really Need Sector Experience?

Employers often limit their recruitment pool to marketing candidates who have specific sector experience in industries like financial services, telecommunications, professional services, retail and FMCG industries, but at what cost?
By resolutely choosing candidates with sector experience only, employers could be losing incredible opportunities to develop, inspire, evolve and lead their own marketing teams and strategies in new, positive ways.

What Are the Benefits of Hiring Within Your Sector?

Skilled candidates with specific sector experience are likely to:
  • Add immediate value and hopefully deliver ROI on their marketing activities early in the new job
  • Understand the client and customer groups they’re working with
  • Have a solid grasp of the competition and challenges in the industry
  • Give employers confidence that they can replicate success in a similar industry if they’ve already delivered impressive results in that sector
In reality, with many skilled candidates often vying for the same marketing jobs, employers have the luxury of picking from a wealth of talent to find just the right combination of skills and experience they’re looking for.

What Are the Problems With Playing it Safe?

By only recruiting candidates with certain sector experience, organizations could be:
  • Stifling their own creative pool and restricting the scope of new, transferable skills in the team
  • Losing out on highly motivated, experienced and valuable talent through an irrational fear of the “outsider”
  • Missing valuable opportunities for innovation and new ideas from cross-sector insights and experience
Marketing candidates who feel frustrated at their inability to shift into new roles and diversify their experience may leave the marketing space altogether, draining the marketing talent pool of enormous potential and experience.

Why Look Outside the Sector?

Candidates with cross-sector experience can often inject a well-needed boost of creativity and offer a new way of thinking about marketing strategies.
They may also be more malleable and flexible in their approach, meaning they are open to being trained and shaped by employers to fit the needs of the business, rather than arriving set in their ways.
In challenging or uncertain economic climates, businesses need to innovate, grow and adapt to survive – rather than simply sticking to what they know. To harness the skills of talented marketing professionals and encourage true development, forward-thinking employers will be more open-minded. By adopting a more flexible approach to sector experience, companies may find that an industry outsider could be just the remedy and burst of fresh insight they need.