What marketers want from new hires

Very interesting! youth, desire to learn, the want for a job, does someone listen when insight & knowledge presents itself, yes grads need a job...listen to what they bring...compact that with people who have the years of knowledge etc and are happily willing to share that for the better of all!...expertise coupled with youth...something is there... attention to detail...blah...devise strategies for people to create within the scheme of things based on their personality and aligned with the paradigm of the company.. And they will pay attention to detail...help and guide to create an interesting and rewarding mechanism that can always be groomed further for the well being of youth and the established.

Jay, I couldn't DISAGREE with you more. First off, to suggest anyone is "young and dumb" is of poor judgment on your part. Do you know these folks? Do you work with them? Secondly, I believe your idea of hiring only "experienced” people is considerable flawed as well. First off, having ability is only one small aspect of building a team. People have to fit in. You can in many respects teach the right person a skill, but you can't team DNA. It's the hiring managers responsibility to ensure you have the right person. Secondly, if you only hired experienced folks (which are a limited subset of the hiring pool), your op ex would scale significantly (thus disrupting your P&L) and in many cases limit the total amount of people you could bring on. If you're an excellent judge of talent, I say, find the right people, give them the opportunity to learn and grow and you'll have a team that won't churn for a few extra dollars of pay.

Jay,

Your response puzzles me, and here's why…

When I started at AccuQuote, I was the entire marketing team. Over the years, I've had to build a world class marketing team from scratch. I've done so by following the format I described in the video interview. The result is that I've had the pleasure of seeing people on my team build their level of expertise within their role. Every year I expect everyone on my team to not only excel in their own roles, but to create new opportunities for themselves through a combination of innovation, hard work, and attention to detail.

Our team operates as a TEAM, not a dictatorship. Everything we do, from our planning to strategy to execution is done as a TEAM. We succeed or fall short as a TEAM, not as individuals. Over the years, I've interviewed many experienced people who lacked the "IT” factor, and I've passed them up. Give me people who have "IT” as described in the interview over experienced people without the "IT” factor any day of the week. One of the reasons I come into work with an abundance of excitement every day is because I have a team full of energy, passion, and a laser focus on execution and results.

Everyone who joins our Marketing team has the tools to excel in their job. "Young and Dumb” is not remotely close to the description of anyone on our team.

Sean Cheyney's comments were exactly what is wrong with this industry

He hires out of college, little or no experience

"Hire em young and dumb" for little money, instead of seeking out people who have the experience and knowledge to get the job done. For the latter he and his firm have to pay.

There is another more telling side to his comments. Instead of hiring people who have the ability to, and experience to make Sean look better, he prefers to maintain a caste system, with him beign the "feudal lord"

Driven, committed, problem solver, not afraid to jump into the fire... Good advice for job hunters but ALSO key attributes to KEEP your job in this tough economy.
I blogged a bit on this the other day @ http://tinyurl.com/cvxkl8