I hire kick-ass marketers. 

Not only do I love to do it, but I’ve built my career on it. With over 2 decades of building truly amazing marketing departments at consumer packaged goods companies, I’ve developed a very simple formula for interviewing marketing talent (across all levels) that I thought I’d share.

In the interview stage, I am looking for 3 qualities only.

DRIVE

Drive shows up a couple of different ways. 

First is ownership: Does this person feel personal responsibility for personal and business outcomes?  Do they feel like they can and should control the quality of their output?  Do they have a tendency to empire-build? (Yes, this can get toxic, but how many VPs/C-suite execs do you know who aren’t empire builders?)  Are they motivated by being the place where the buck stops? 

In role, ownership will show up as: accountability for results, creative problem solving, lower need for external motivation.

Second is curiosity:  How does the candidate react to not knowing the reason for something (anything, really)?  During times that they haven’t performed well, what was their reaction?  When faced with an obstacle of any kind, what is their automatic response–to give up, to immediately try another tactic, to push through with brute force, or to consider why the obstacle exists in the first place and how they might work around it (or even use it to their benefit somehow)? While I admire the triers and the brute force individuals, the curious candidates are the ones I want on my teams. 

In role, curiosity will show up as superior analytics, efficient action, and a systemic ‘innovator’s mindset’.

DECISION QUALITY

When interviewing, I’m not looking for someone who has never made a poor decision in their life–quite the opposite, actually.  What I am looking for is an ability to connect goals to action and a deliberateness of decision-making. As a person has made decisions in their life, their career, or in the course of their projects, did they have an objective in mind and then make decisions that seemed (to them) to be aligned with achieving the objective? And can they articulate how their actions/decisions were attached to their goals? 

In role, good decision quality will show up as a knack for business planning, compelling recommendations, and a natural focus on objectives (and resulting metrics).

FIT

This one is the trickiest as it can feel subjective and there is often tension between diversity and ‘fit’. So I tend to think of fit as less of a culture issue and more about 2 questions: 1) is this a person who I will be able to manage effectively (and who will be able to be managed by me), and 2) does what intrinsically drives this person line up with what the company is looking for (note–this may be different than what the company needs). 

In role, a good fit will show up as a marketer who is clear on what the organization expects from them and can operate within the organization with an appropriate level of conflict or frustration (some is necessary, too much is toxic).

And that’s it.  In the interview, these are the primary qualities I’m assessing, and I look for them in Marketing Coordinators as much as I look for them in Vice Presidents. I think each of these is absolutely critical to a successful hire, and much easier to assess within an interview session than skills or education. 

What do you think?