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How do I better highlight my marketing experience on my resume?

There were always marketing aspects in my past several jobs. Now I want to apply to marketing-focused jobs. The job description asks for 5 years of relevant marketing experience. The 5 years of experience I have are not consistent, and my job title does not sound marketing related. How do I better highlight my marketing experience in this situation?

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#resume #job-experience #marketing #resume-building #job-applications

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Thank you comment icon Judy Park's answer: 5 years of experience does not mean 5 consecutive years! It's all about experience. Also, every company's title can be misleading! I wouldn't embellish or lie about your what you do, but you can change the title on your resume to better explain what your role is. Always be honest. CareerVillage Office Hours
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Anne’s Answer

First, look at the job description and the skills requested then map the things you have done in various jobs to the skills required. Don't let the "year of direct experience" deter you. Have you written a newsletter, blogs or articles, even for internal purposes. Do you actively participate on social media in a professional capacity. Have you done any event planning such as a company party or a special team event? Those are all things that require writing, planning, collaboration, time and budget management, and promotion.

Also, highlight your versatility and your ability to learn new things. Hope this helps.

Anne recommends the following next steps:

You can always take some type of marking/social media certification program to refine your skills.
Join the American Marketing Association
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Joe’s Answer

Hello,

This is a great question, and the answer involves some tailoring your resume to show you are the answer to this organization's marketing pain or need. Yes, you will want to highlight the marketing aspects of your previous experience at the top and tailor to meet the needs of the job description or job requirement listed in the posting. If you have the skills they are looking for, then you need to highlight those near the top to make it easy for the recruiter or manager to know you are a safe candidate to consider and bring in for an interview. I would try to avoid listing skills or experience you don't like to do if possible, since just because you have done it, doesn't mean you want to continue to. Sometimes if it important to tailor your message specific to the employer with the opportunity, so they realize you did not just provide your general resume and that your customized it to meet their needs. This is marketing yourself as the solution to their problems. I would also reinforce this with providing or attaching a cover letter that echoes the message that you are the best solution to their problems or need. Ending with a call to action that you are available for interview at a time that work for them

Best of luck!
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Shannon Shae’s Answer

Most skills are transferable between jogs. Focus on the skills you have gained, rather than the tactical components to the role and demonstrate how those skills ladder into the requirements within the job description.
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Wendy’s Answer

One thing that you want to call out is the outcome and business impact of the marketing experience you've had. Whatever programs you've delivered, make sure you tie it to the business outcome, such as driving awareness, driving revenue, or grow the user base. Don't just stop with listing the tactics.
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Chitra’s Answer

Be cognizant of the fact that recommended experience may not be a deciding factor for choosing a candidate over another. Building over that journal of what you learned with your professional journey reflecting on accomplishments, skills, milestones, key take aways which will distinctly identify your strength to an interview panel.

In a resume, call out those specific marketing related experience in an objective / summary section. You can also portray you customer story / course work that you had recently completed relevant to the job, which will add weightage to the candidacy
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Don’s Answer

Don't forget the FAB (Features, Advantages and Benefits) of your experience! You may not have a ton of direct Marketing roles on your resume, but you've likely performed marketing functions within other roles. So use your resume to show, don't tell. Show examples of what you did, why it made an impact, and what that impact was for your organization.

Did you grow your company's Facebook page by 1,000 followers? Did you help target a specific audience that increased sales? Did you project manage a community event that raised brand awareness? There are a ton of great examples you could use to show off your skillset, and help companies understand how they'll benefit by hiring you.

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Brian’s Answer

One of the most important skills to have in marketing is to be able to tell a story, whether that's a product narrative or a brand vision, and this can apply to how you write your resume. Since you are passionate about pursuing a career in marketing, there are probably many instances in your life whether it's through past careers, school, or your personal life where you have exhibited the traits of a marketer. Weave together this story to show prospective employers how your unique life experience, even if you haven't directly held a marketing role before, makes you a perfect fit for their company.
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Simeon’s Answer

You'll want to put bullet points under the titles that you've held in the past and talk about what skills and software experience you have that are relevant for the job that you're applying for. It's your job to clarify specifically how your past experience is helpful for what you're working on.
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Hanne’s Answer

It is always good to focus on your accomplishments. Think of specific projects you lead or worked on that would be related to the job you are applying for. Stats related to that is also very helpful. I accomplished an x% increase in website visits that resulted in an x% of conversion. Be specific rather than general.
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Dustin’s Answer

There are a few ways to approach this:

- Make your resume a Functional Resume. This is a great approach to highlight skills and experience as opposed to in-depth job roles & responsibilities.
- Look at the job description and read between the lines. What are they looking for? What terminology are they using? Re-word your resume to account for specifics they call out.
- Use this to call out not only the marketing aspects you did do, but how that impacted the company/business. This takes a good resume to great.

And yes, don't stress on the years. :) Also, agree with above that enrolling in a course or two could also help your resume!
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Tiffani’s Answer

Even if you don't have direct marketing experience, but you can recognize marketing skills in your past roles, you can use the work you have done and highlight that in your resume for the role you're applying for. I would would look at different ways to structure your resume. You might find it more useful to use a structure that is based around skills needed for the job, and then use bullets underneath that give specific examples of how you have excelled in those skills in the past.

For example:
Marketing
- In my role at XYZ Company, I redesigned the flyer for an event we were hosting and created a social media page which increased event attendance by XX%

You can also look at highlighting the transferable skills you learned in your previous roles and demonstrate how those skills would benefit the role you're applying for.

Tiffani recommends the following next steps:

Research transferable skills and incorporate into your resume
Restructure your resume to focus on skills instead of roles
Use your cover letter to explain how you've grown in the skills the job requires and how you will work to learn additional skills for the job
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Annie’s Answer

I made a transition from sales to marketing several years into my career, so this is a very relevant question to me. As others have suggested, reorganize your resume into a skills or functional-based one vs a traditional chronological one. You can search for examples online. This lets you place more emphasis on the skills and projects you've worked on that are relevant to marketing and places less emphasis on job titles. When I made the switch, I also took some free certifications such as the ones Hubspot offers to pad my skills. Additionally, I was in between full-time jobs so I was able to take on an internship at a marketing agency for a few hours a week to build experience, as well as a part time job helping a friend who was a small business owner with her marketing. Those all gave me additional, direct experience to speak to on both my resume and in interviews.

I should also note that in making this career switch, I had to take a bit of a step back in terms of where I was at in my career and start in marketing at more of an entry level position. While it was hard at the time, ultimately all the experience I had built prior to making the switch to marketing helped me accelerate my career much more quickly back to the level I had been at (and surpass it)....and more importantly, I was much happier because I was doing something I truly enjoyed.
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