Marketing Career Tips: Resume Glow-Ups, Recruiting Wins, and Digital Secrets
This week, we got to hear from some of our very own Labbies who are making an impact in the workforce and the lab. Our President, Alena Black, Lab Consultant AJ Wilson, and VP of Brand Marketing Kate Stagg each shared insights from their experience and expertise. Together, they covered resume glow-ups, marketing mindsets in recruiting, and digital marketing hacks, showing how marketing skills can shape both your career and your life.
KEY TAKAWAYS
A resume that gets noticed is backed by data.
Marketing mindset applies to every role (even finance).
Know the digital marketing secrets and maybe score a few discounts.
Marketing Career Tip #1: Craft a Resume That Gets Results
Elena has been a TA for top career advisors at the BYU Marriott School, recently worked in brand management at Whirlpool, and just accepted an offer at General Mills. Safe to say she knows her stuff when it comes to crafting a strong resume.
Here are some of her best tips:
Use a Job-Specific Template
The Marriott School of Business format is familiar to recruiters at career fairs and events.
Highlight Tools and Software
Include software and research tools like HubSpot, Qualtrics, and Prolific to show practical skills.
Quantify Your Impact
Add numbers that reflect engagement increases, ROI improvements, or new client growth. If you are unsure of your impact, follow up to find measurable outcomes.
Vary Your Action Verbs
Avoid repeating words like "led" or "used" and keep your bullet points dynamic.
Tailor Your Resume for Each Job
Adjust your bullets, keywords, and experiences to match each position.
Seek Feedback and Use Tools
Try VMock or AI assistants to refine your resume, and get feedback from peers, TAs, or the Marriott Career Center.
Marketing Career Tip #2: Think Like a Marketer in Any Role
AJ Wilson doesn’t come from a traditional marketing background but has used marketing principles in roles at American Express and Toyota. He shared three key lessons about how a marketing mindset can elevate any role, especially in recruiting.
Understand Your Consumer
During his interview with Toyota, AJ answered a financial question in a way that reflected Toyota’s values because he had researched them like a marketer studies a customer. That understanding helped him receive an offer in three days instead of three weeks.
Marketing is Valuable Everywhere
While working in a financial role at American Express, AJ used marketing insights internally to help his team grow from a 24-person consulting group to one that hired 10 new managers and 30 analysts in a year. Marketing skills like positioning, storytelling, and audience understanding translate across departments.
Know Your Advocates
AJ keeps a note section on his contacts so he can follow up on milestones and big moments. It has helped him build authentic relationships and open doors throughout his career.
Marketing Career Tip #3: Understand the Secrets Behind Digital Marketing
Kate Allen is our resident digital marketing genius. She has worked at 97th Floor, an award-winning digital agency, for over a year and specializes in everything from SEO to email strategy. Here are a few "secrets" from the digital world that most marketers don’t talk about.
Secret 1: Abandoned cart hack
Leave items in your cart long enough and you will often get a discount email. So if you are eyeing something but not in a rush to buy, let it sit for a bit.
Secret 2: Mystery Links
Long URLs track your clicks and where you came from so advertisers know what content to send you next. The way around it is simple: delete the extra text after the main URL before hitting enter.
Secret 3: Dark social
Over 80% of sharing happens in DMs, texts, and private messages. This type of sharing, called dark social, is invisible to analytics. Brands cannot track you when you share content this way.
Secret 4: Retargeting and remarketing
Click on one product and you will see it everywhere. If you want to get rid of the flood of ads, either do not accept cookies or clear them regularly.
Secret 5: First-time shopper loophole
"First-time" offers do not actually verify if it is your first visit. Use a new email if you want to grab that first-timer discount again.
final thoughts
This week’s insights showed how marketing principles go beyond campaigns and ads. Whether it is crafting your personal brand or building connections that matter, every skill you grow in marketing can shape your future.
Ready to start applying these lessons?
