What are some of the most common red flags you've come across either on a candidate's resume or initial interview that you'd advise future demand generation managers to avoid?

Here are some red flags for hiring for SEO/Paid in particular: Any highlights of percentages that the individual improved in their organic or paid channels that is suspiciously too perfect. IE. 100% growth year over year or 40% improvement to CAC. What you want is the people who put something like "52.5%" If someone neglects to mention the way their team helped them achieve something. It's a team sport. Anyone who mentions or lists a lot of freelance jobs or short stints at companies. You want s ...Read More

Some of the most common red flags I’ve encountered were around speaking to information on your resume and lack of attention to detail. Here are some examples: Placeholders left such as for revenue. I’ve received resumes that left placeholders such as “$X,XXX,XXX revenue”. While this may seem like a minor concern, attention to detail is necessary for demand generation roles. One small mistake could impact the budget for an ad campaign. While this doesn’t mean mistakes won’t happen, things like th ...Read More

The biggest red flag that I see time and time again from demand gen folks, as well as marketers in general, is the clear absence of results they've owned or driven through their actions. All too often candidates will simply share a list of the 'things' they have shipped or the areas of the business they 'owned', but only the good ones provide real life examples of the results they've driven. At the same time, if their results are all lead/mql-focused, without mentioning pipeline or revenue, that ...Read More

Vagueness is the biggest one. If someone “owned everything” but can’t explain tradeoffs, baselines, or outcomes, that’s a problem. Blame-shifting is another. E.g. pointing at Sales, Product, or budget without showing accountability or learning. I don’t need to see perfect results; I want candidates to show how they think, make decisions and have ownership and accountability. I also watch for smoke and mirrors. Can they actually do the work, or did they only manage it? We’re lean, so everyone nee ...Read More