I've spent the last eight months watching marketing directors pull their hair out over unfilled vacancies. The talent drought is real. Every agency lunch I've been to since April has devolved into the same conversation: where have all the good marketing people gone?
Spoiler: they're still around. But the rules of engagement have changed dramatically.
After climbing from Social Media Executive to Head of Digital at a London agency that shall remain nameless (OK, it was in Clerkenwell and had exposed brick walls - narrow it down), I've been on both sides of the hiring table. And what worked in recruitment even 18 months ago is failing spectacularly now.
The candidates with actual skills are inundated with opportunities. The rest are getting really, really good at faking it. So how do you cut through?
1. Portfolio Challenges That Actually Matter
I'm so tired of "marketing challenges" that involve creating a hypothetical campaign for a made-up brand in 48 hours. Nobody does good work that way, and it weeds out people with actual jobs and responsibilities.
What's working better? Paid micro-projects. Several London agencies I know have shifted to offering £300-500 for a 3-hour specific challenge that candidates complete on-site (or via video if they're remote).
This isn't speculative work - it's a legitimate consulting session where the candidate offers solutions to a real business problem you're facing. The good ones immediately show their strategic thinking, not just execution skills.
In one session I observed, a Content Director candidate completely reframed a struggling campaign's messaging in 90 minutes. They hired her on the spot, and the client never knew their campaign had been rescued by someone who didn't even work there yet.
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2. TikTok-First Job Postings
If you're still leading with text-heavy LinkedIn posts for marketing roles, you're fighting the last war. The best marketing talent spends more time on TikTok than any other platform. That's where their creative juices flow.
Some of the smartest hires I've seen this year came through 60-second job posts where marketing leaders showed their actual workspace, introduced team members, and spoke candidly about what the role really involves.
A D2C brand in Manchester tripled their applications for a Social Content role by having the team create a "day in the life" TikTok that showed what the job actually entails - including the frustrating client feedback sessions. Authenticity wins.
3. AI-Augmented Skills Assessment
Let's be honest, the old "how would you improve our social strategy?" interview question is dead. Anyone can ask ChatGPT for a decent answer.
What's replacing it? Assessment protocols that measure how well candidates can use AI as a force multiplier, not how well they can hide their use of it.
One London tech firm now explicitly provides candidates with access to Anthropic's Claude and Microsoft's Copilot during interviews. The assessment isn't whether they can produce the content, but how effectively they can direct, refine and enhance what the AI suggests.
This isn't about basic prompts, but seeing whether they can identify what the AI gets wrong, where human creativity still matters, and how to turn algorithmic suggestions into something with a genuine creative edge.
4. Neurodiversity-Optimised Interviews
This one's personal for me. I spent years masking my ADHD in interviews, burning mental energy on maintaining eye contact and not fidgeting instead of showcasing my actual strengths.
The smartest marketing teams have finally figured out they're losing incredible talent with neurodivergent thinking patterns because their interview process is testing for neurotypical social performance, not marketing brilliance.
Here's what's working:
- Providing interview questions 24 hours in advance
- Offering choice in communication format (written, verbal, visual)
- Creating structured interviews with clear expectations
- Focusing assessment on portfolio and demonstrable skills, not "culture fit"
A retail marketing team in Leeds implemented these changes and ended up hiring a strategic planner with autism who spotted market patterns nobody else had noticed. His campaign increased their conversion rate by 18% in a category that had been stagnant for years.
5. The Reverse Trial Day
Sick of candidates who interview brilliantly but disappoint when they start? Flip the script.
Instead of candidates trying to impress you, make day two of your interview process about you impressing them. Have them shadow the team for half a day, sit in on (non-confidential) meetings, and get a genuine feel for how you work.
After watching dozens of hiring processes up close, I've noticed something consistent: the best candidates are evaluating you just as rigorously as you're assessing them. They want to see your actual working environment, not the sanitised interview version.
One content agency in Brighton takes this further by actually paying candidates to attend a half-day collaborative working session with the team they'd be joining. It costs them a few hundred pounds per final-stage candidate but has virtually eliminated bad cultural matches and early departures.
What Didn't Work: Gimmicks That Need to Die
Here's a controversial one - personality testing in marketing recruitment needs to be put out of its misery. I don't care if your Creative Director is an ENFP or your Social Media Manager is a "yellow". The correlation between these assessments and actual job performance is abysmal.
Equally useless? The trend of "surprise challenge" interviews where candidates are deliberately stressed to "see how they perform under pressure". This measures stress response, not marketing ability. Unless the job primarily involves being randomly ambushed with impossible tasks, this approach selects for people who are good at handling artificial stress, not good marketers.
6. Community-First Hiring
This might sound counterintuitive, but the best marketing hires I've seen this year didn't come through traditional job applications at all.
Smart companies are building talent communities long before they have openings. Regular virtual coffee chats, portfolio review sessions, even paid consulting gigs with promising talent - all before there's a specific role available.
When a position does open up, they already have relationships with people who understand their brand and working style.
The recruitment team at The OHub refers to this as "warming the talent pool" - building relationships before you need them, rather than frantically searching once someone resigns.
7. The Working Interview with Cash on the Table
The most effective (if somewhat controversial) approach I've seen recently comes from a creative agency in Liverpool. For senior roles, they've replaced final interviews with a paid week-long project.
Yes, it requires candidates to take a week off from their current job. And yes, that limits who can participate. But they pay £1,500 for the week, give candidates a genuine brief, and see how they actually work rather than how they say they work.
Is it perfect? No. Does it filter out brilliant people who can't take a week off? Absolutely. But for those who can participate, it's eliminated the posturing and performance that plagues traditional interviews. Both sides see exactly what they're getting.
Three agencies I know have adopted variations of this approach for senior creative and strategic roles. All report better retention and faster productivity from new hires because expectations were crystal clear from day one.
The Intangible That Makes All The Difference
The most successful marketing hiring strategies I've observed this year share one common trait: radical transparency about the difficult parts of the job.
Candidates know when you're hiding something. The challenging client. The outdated tech stack. The approval processes that strangle creativity.
One Marketing Director I respect enormously starts second interviews by outlining the three biggest frustrations the successful candidate will face. She says it scares off some applicants - but the ones who stay are prepared for reality, not a glossy recruitment fantasy.
This approach requires confidence. It means acknowledging your organisation isn't perfect. But it's the difference between hiring someone who lasts three years versus three months.
After placing dozens of marketing professionals and being placed myself several times, I'm convinced that transparency about challenges - not just opportunities - is what builds lasting teams.
Of course, these approaches require more effort than posting a generic job description on LinkedIn. But in a market where genuine marketing talent remains scarce, the extra investment pays dividends in reduced turnover, faster onboarding, and better cultural alignment.
What recruitment approaches are you seeing work in your corner of the marketing world? The landscape keeps shifting, and today's innovation is tomorrow's tired cliché.
