We’ve had some strong and opinionated responses so far to our Content Strategy Recruitment Trends survey – particularly when it comes to the topic of hiring a content strategist.
Finding a good match isn’t easy, particularly in a field which is still trying to define itself and its tasks, and in an industry where content is still having to justify its place at the strategy table.
So what are the problems for content strategy hirers?
Our survey results so far suggest frustrations around the lack of technical or related content skills, as well as other general issues, such as being unable to keep pace with agency life.
But the most common complaint is one that may be particular to content strategy. One respondent summed it up as follows:
“People who claim to be content strategists couldn’t strategise their way out of a box.”
Others were less strongly worded but cited similar problems, such as content strategists having “too much of a focus on the text and not enough on analysis” or the lack of “ability to pull content apart and rework it to meet the overall vision”.
Why the content/strategy imbalance?
So why the missing strategy skills? Here are some of our thoughts – we’d be interested to hear what others think about this, too, and any solutions they can suggest.
* Is it because more people are transitioning into content strategy from areas such as journalism, writing and marcomms – as shown on Richard Ingram’s beautiful survey graphic showing The well-trodden paths towards content strategy ?
* Are writers and editors too tied up with sorting out the hands-on content mess to make broader decisions about the content they work with? Or is it that there is a missing career component for editorial types with few opportunities to learn about or train in the business/strategy side of content?
* Would a higher take-up from management consultants and IA/UX people redress the imbalance and fill the content strategy hiring gap? Or would employers find them to be similarly lacking, i.e., too much strategy and not enough in-the-field content knowledge or skills?
* Is content strategy itself part of the hiring problem? As leaders in the field try to bring the content strategy remit under one umbrella, is this placing too much of a burden on an individual content strategist to know/do everything?
* Are employers expecting too much from job candidates? Last year, for example, we spent the summer collecting and reviewing 30 content strategist job ads. The resulting post. What do employers want?, highlighted the split between marketing and UX/IA content strategy roles. It also found that employers wanted both head and hands work, not only asking candidates to create a content strategy but also manage and deliver it. Should this be split into different roles or do employers need help to understand more about different content strategist backgrounds/experience?
* Finally, is it that job candidates are just calling themselves content strategists because of the buzz around the field and in order to get a better job/rate? Something that was seen around the title of ‘social media consultant’ in 2008 when Twitter and social media marketing exploded into the mainstream.
What do you think?
What has been your experience as an employer, hiring manager or HR person? Have your hires fallen short? Do you wish there were set qualifications and training in content strategy, or other recognised standards to measure against to help you get the right person in?
If you are a content strategist going for interviews or being employed in a content strategy role, what has your experience been? Has all gone well? Or have you faced your own frustrations?
As ever, we’d love to hear your views in the comments or, preferably, to help us get a bigger picture, in our quick content strategy hiring trends survey.
The survey is anonymous – to encourage more openness, more honesty and more respondents. It’s also short – it’s on one single page and very quick to fill out.
We will be keeping the survey open for a little while longer and we appreciate the help of everyone who takes part. We want to get as many views as possible!
And, of course, we will feed back the results here on the Firehead blog.
