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| HOW TO GET A DIGITAL JOB Some practical tips for determining how marketable you’ll be in the online economy By David Smith Marketing Magazine May 21, 2001 There are 14,000 "digital" companies in Canada–about 300 consumer companies and less than 100 digital agencies of any real size. So how does a skilled director of marketing or a fantastic account director leave an "Old Economy" company and cross over to the "New Economy"? For the sake of simplicity, let's describe the New Economy as e-commerce, emerging media, high-tech, the Internet, IT, telecom and wireless–or, in one word, digital. Over the last couple of years, I've found that many of Mandrake's job candidates now want to get a digital job. To start, let me give you two examples–one good and one bad–of how to move into the digital world. In late 1999, I met with two candidates in the same week who had been downsized from top-tier consumer companies. Both were smart, accomplished marketers and had 16- to 18-month severance packages. To not embarrass the bad example, I won't use their real names. Let's call them Steve and Harry. Harry sat in my office and told me how he wanted to get a job in the digital world. I asked him a couple of simple questions: What is e-CRM? What is a cookie? He had no idea. I asked him why, if he didn't know the simple language of the business, would he want to move into the digital world? "Because it is the future," was his answer. He had the vision, but no idea of what to do with it. OK, this guy sees the future, so I'll help him out, I thought. I offered to set him up with a friend who was running a small business portal. Most start-ups throw nickels around like they are manhole covers, so Harry would get three to six months of on-the-job training and lunch and parking money. Harry politely thanked me and said no thanks. He wanted a digital company to bring him in, train him and pay him what he was making in the Old Economy. Quickly realizing that Harry was delusional, I asked him one question as I ushered him to the door: "The company that just laid you off is willing to invest in you: they just gave you an 18-month package to retrain. My friend's company is willing to invest in you and train you, but you're not willing to invest in yourself?" Now it's 2001 and Harry just called to say he has been working from home as a "marketing consultant" and things have been a little slow–would my friend's company consider taking him on now? A good example of a great crossover is Steve. When his company downsized him, he networked and interviewed by day, took care of his kids from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. made himself digital. Within 16 weeks, he had landed a great job as vice-president of marketing and customer service for a business-to-business dot com. Today Steve has both the old and new economies by the tail–13 years of experience in top-tiered consumer companies and two-plus years in a B2B dot com. He can, and is, writing his own ticket. Keeping these examples in mind, here are 10 sets of questions you should answer to determine how marketable you'll be to a digital workplace:  How digital are you in your
current workplace? Do you use your computer more than 50% of the time? Can
you do your own PowerPoint presentations? (Most digital companies don't
have secretaries.) Do you use e-mail occasionally, sometimes or all the
time? Do you know the difference
between a Blackberry and a Palm Pilot? The difference between a III, V, Vx
and VII? Do you know the difference
between an analog and digital cellular phone? Do you use your VCR to tape
CNNdotCOM on Sundays at 4:30 p.m.? You do know how to use the VCR, don't
you? Are you a member of the
Association of Internet Marketers and Sales (AIMS Canada) and the Society
of Internet Professionals (SIP)? What online zines do you
subscribe to? AIMS (Canada's twice-weekly discussion group), Silicon Alley
Daily and E-Commerce are three of the better free ones. What digital magazines do
you read? Marketing Magazine's Digital Marketing, E-Commerce, Computing
Canada, Silicon Alley Reporter and Silicon Valley North are the five best. What New Economy magazines
do you read? Try Business 2.0, Fast Company, Wired and Red Herring. Have you taken an
afternoon, evening or weekend course about the Internet? Do you attend digital award
shows, including the New Media Awards (May 28) and the second annual
Digital Marketing Awards (Nov. 28)? They'll show you the best Canadian
work so you'll know how to recognize top-quality digital efforts.Your answers to these questions should help you decide whether or not you're willing to invest in yourself and your digital future. DAVID SMITH is an executive recruiter at Mandrake in Toronto, where he leads the Digital Practice. |
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