What’s new, Marketing?

Marketing & Growth-related positions cover a huge area. It takes time & knowledge to become a specialist in a market like this. Over some time now, we have built and created a team focusing on and recruiting for companies with high demands for talent in Marketing and Growth.

Today this team consists of four Talent Sourcers, Fathia, Ann Hege, Patricia, and Kari. Together they have done an outstanding job in recruiting and securing valuable talent for companies like Airthings, Plateful, Risika, Oda, Kahoot!, Allente, Circle K, Inspera, and many more.

Looking into the changes of the market and teams’ ability to adapt within it, I had the chance to sit down with them and talk about their work, challenges, and insight into the Norwegian Marketing & Growth-Market. 

Compared to our other teams, IoT & Analytics, Team-Marketing has a wider area of operation. What kind of positions and levels are you specializing in?

Fathia: “It’s been positions from content writers up to VPs & CEOs. We do all positions in our area of expertise, everything, mid junior level to management positions. But the trend is leaning towards more and more senior roles like COOs & CEOs in growth related areas.” 

Ann Hege: “I have worked on almost everything marketing and growth related. Ranging from sales executives, risk managements roles, CEOs to UX designers, all over the place.”

Patricia: “Even though we are specialized in commercial, growth marketing and design, these areas are wide and can hold many different opportunities. Making the variety of positions we work with and candidates we contact big. Every time we take on a role, we know that the exact definition of that profile is always different form company to company.”

Ann Hege: “Also, when working with sales positions it is most often for a SaaS company.”

Seems like you are covering a broad spectrum! Given that you have worked in this area now for some time, how is the market for those positions in Norway now and how did it change over the last years?

Ann Hege: “I feel the change is more to insecurities, people are hesitant to change. Meaning they don´t tend to jump into the blue and take a risk with a new job, unlike a year or two ago. Candidates now want to know more about the financial situation of companies they might end up working with.”

Fathia: “The candidate profiles companies are looking for are more established, having a family, house, bigger responsibilities. Therefore, it is not easy to convince candidates to join a Start-up. The more established a company is, the more traction a position gets. Star candidates are often in multiple process. This drives a higher pace in the hiring process and the high demand is pushing the salary up.”

Ann Hege: “This competition has made it harder to recruit for smaller start-ups.”

Fathia: “Yes! But outside of Norway, the UK even Sweden, the situation is a little bit different. Especially when looking for SaaS Sales candidates, some countries have a bigger pool of potential candidates because of previous SaaS Sales experiences.”  

What kind of candidates are rare right now?

Ann Hege: “Fathia already brought it up. Good SaaS salespeople with Start-up experience.”

Fathia: “Product marketing managers are a rare kind. The more niche the trickier. It`s a lot of digging to find contact information and to get in touch with the right candidate.”

Ann Hege: “Specialist competency people are as wanted as technical people. Even if you look at the salary, it is almost the same. It is a good time to be in sales.”

Patricia: “In this moment UX/Product Designers are difficult to even get into a conversation with. If the product, the company, and its values are not personal fits, a Digital designer these days rarely even engages in polite conversations. This points to the fact that they are being contacted a lot and that it’s a market where the demand is bigger than the Norwegian market can provide.”

What is a must have for any Marketing/Growth position at the moment?

Ann Hege: “Why people should join the company, besides salary, worktime & place. Also ask the candidate what they want and need to succeed. You have to turn the interview questions around.”

What are your tips for companies recruiting Marketing, Design and Leadership positions right now?

Fathia: “That is different from company to company. But flexibility, find out what motivates your people. I saw a post on LinkedIn where a company is applauding their employees if they are sleeping enough. They even received a voucher when they were fully rested and energized at work. People also tend to move to a company with a meaning, green tech or similar.”

Ann Hege: “Good onboarding! Making your hire feel comfortable and providing a good starting ground. The hiring is as important as nurturing people, competitors are always knocking on the door.”

Patricia: “My best tip is transparency and being honest about expectations, future plans, salary and internal growth possibilities. It is also important to involve future close colleagues, immediate leads, and or close management in the hiring process, allowing the candidate to feel if this is a team they want to become part of.”

But recently your team grew. You are now a Team of four with Kari joining. Do you already have some tips for the companies out there?

Kari: “It is important to give realistic position expectations. Onboarding is key, be honest realistic. To attract, show personality. Show the human sight during the interview process and make candidates feel comfortable with you.”

Thank you very much for taking time in your schedule to share your ideas, insight, and knowledge.