Month: October 2008

The talent wars, particularly in the digital space, are heating up (again).  And who better to shed some light than Bruce Powell.  Bruce is the co-founder and managing partner of IQ PARTNERS Inc., an executive search & recruitment firm specializing in online marketing, media, communications and emerging technology companies. 

I remember working with Bruce in the early days of internet marketing – before the dot com bomb – he has definitely seen it all.  He sat down with us to offer his perspective on how job hunters can make a go of it these days, particularly in this new era of social media.

OD: You’re seeing a renewed demand for online expertise.  What are the top 3 skill or experience sets that your clients are looking for?

This is an interesting question – with 2 slightly different answers.  Obviously there’s been an evolving niche specialization in online marketing for many years.  Where companies previously sought individuals to oversee their overall ‘online marketing’ spend, they’re now looking for individuals with much more refined skill sets.  And as marketing activities have progressively moved online, whole teams are being built to manage each facet of a company’s online marketing effort. 

Without a doubt, the most sought after skill sets over the past year have been:

1. SEO & SEM
2. Specialized email marketing skills (i.e. dynamic content & CRM integration)
3. Social Media

That said, there’s also clear polarization happening.  While some individuals have developed highly refined technical and functional skills – clients have also expressed frustration at the lack of breadth and awareness on how their specialist skills integrate within the overall marketing effort. 

It’s an ironic catch-22.  At the same time the industry is demanding more specialized skill-sets, it’s also annoyed these ‘specialists’ don’t have a broader understanding of brand-marketing fundamentals and general business-case analysis. 

Within agency environments we’re seeing a similar frustration with increased specialization coming at the cost of declining client-management skills.

There’s a clear message hear – demand for online talent over the last few years has clearly outstripped supply.  Specialists are self-taught, and there’s not a clear pipeline of learning and skill-progression to broaden their skill-set – nor incentive or time to do so.  They’re in demand, and they’re being paid well – why upset the apple cart? 

On the other hand – the world is a dynamic place.  For those few individuals willing able to operate holistically AND dive deep in select areas of specialization – the world will be their oyster.

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