Marketers from all over Utah gathered together in Salt Lake last week in Club 50 West to kick off SLC | SEM in 2018. Elisabeth Osmeloski, co-founder of SLC|SEM, started the meeting going over industry statistics between males and females. There was gender comparison of education, experience, and salaries across the industry.
A survey was sent out and received data from 217 respondents in the 2017 DMC. 68.7% men responded and 29.6% female, the other 1.7% preferred not to specify. Looking around the room while at the event, those statistics rang pretty true. With women making up roughly 30% of the audience while the rest was men.
60% of those surveyed have a four year degree, and 16% have a professional or graduate degree. The results showed that more females had a four year degree than their male counterparts.
94% of people surveyed work full-time, the rest were freelance/independent or worked part-time.
Titles were also looked at and broken down into: entry level, associate, manager, mid-senior level, director, and executive. Entry level to associate covered 1-3 years experience, while manager to mid-senior level covered 3-7 years experience. The data showed that more females were in the range of entry level to manager, but there were more male executives.
Women were split 50/50 for how satisfied they were about how much they were getting paid. 65% of males not satisfied with their pay. Base salary was 61,000 and average was 69,000. The national average salary for digital marketing was 78,000 for 3-5 years experience in the industry. Average salary for men is $75,000 and average salary for women is $55,000, median salary for men was $70,000 and $50,000 for women. 40% of males have some form of paternity leave as part of their benefits package.
Panel Discussion:
On the panel for the evening was Trinity Paulson, Senior Account Executive, at TekSystems Digital; John Knotwell, CEO of Utah Technology Council; Nathan Rawlins, CMO at Lucid Software and Elisabeth Osmeloski.
Is there a talent gap here in Utah .... and not being able to hire the right people, or getting inexperienced people in too high of a position. From your perspectives, have you seen a talent gap? Do you see companies struggling to fill marketing rolls?
Trinity: "Yes... the answer is yes. There is a very large talent gap within marketing, within technology. What I have seen over the last several years is that companies have gotten a lot smarter on how they retain their people... they've raised the salaries for a lot of their employees, they offer a lot more benefits than before.
I pulled some data analytics to give you guys an idea... looking at SEM, when I pulled the report it shows 99 active candidates on the market and 674 jobs posted right now, and that's within a 50 mile radius of Salt Lake City. For SEO there's 246 candidates and 1400 jobs posted. For Social Media, now I don't think this one is entirely accurate because I think there's social media in a lot of job titles and job descriptions, but there's 675 candidates and 5,000 job postings. So... there's definitely a gap."
John: "There's a talent gap in every position that every employer is looking for. We have 2.4% unemployment in Utah, it's the lowest unemployment in the country. We have a super hot economy right now that is just bursting at the seams. In addition to having a gap in talent, we have just a general need of a workforce that is highly trained, highly capable with a diverse background. And I think one of the keys to success, if I was sitting in your shoes, thinking "hey, what can I do for my next gig," would be continuous improvement, continuous skills enhancement, has got to be a native part of who you are. I firmly believe we never stop learning, we're always reading something, always looking for the next opportunity to network, to change our skills, to grow individually and find a way to differentiate yourself. So when you do go to find the next gig, you are prepared to do that."
What are you seeing companies doing to find the right people to hire?
John: "They might be here, looking right now. What I've seen in my experience, it really is who you know. And they are looking for referrals from within their company...some use recruiters and have used the same recruiters for a long time. Don't be afraid to give your resume to headhunters and recruiters."
What do you look for in a candidate? What are some tips in standing out in this market?
Nathan: "Some of the things we look for go beyond your typical resume. By the time I sit down and interview someone, I'm pretty confident that they are at least technically capable of the job. At that point I'm looking for a handful of things... I'm looking for someone with a self-awareness that can say this is what I am really good at and here's where I'm not quite as good. Then we can understand if this tetris piece is really gonna fit in and ensure that this person is really successful. We also look for, do we have shared values? Is this someone who is going to build up the team and ensure that the company wins. And while they do that, that they are going to grow and they're going to be successful. But that they won't put their own success above and beyond the rest of the team. It's those sorts of things that we look for. It's a combination of technical skills and aptitude, along with some of these key values."
While there were a number of additional questions and responses, suffice it to say that there is not only a gender gap in the marketing industry, but a talent gap as well. It is a job seekers market out here in the Salt Lake area. There is no shortage of jobs, and networking definitely makes a difference. So make sure you come to the SLC | SEM events because there are jobs posted, and it is a great way to introduce yourself and network with other professionals in the industry.