Why marketers move jobs

As we creep towards the end of 2018, you might start to wonder whether your year was spent in the job you want to be in next year.

When you’re happy at work, you feel enthusiastic, motivated and engaged. But if there are a few issues concerning you about your current job, you probably wouldn’t waste much time moving on to your next opportunity.

Earlier this year, Marketing Week revealed that 81% of marketers are looking to leave their current role within the next three years. While 75% were definitely or very likely to stay in marketing for the next five years, the majority were planning on leaving the current company they were at.

So why are so many marketing professionals jumping ship? Below, we look at the findings.

Better financial remuneration emerges as the key reason for a change (65.1%).

This figure is similar to the results we found in one of our recent surveys completed this week. We asked 300 marketers when they last received a pay rise. The results showed that 76% of marketers had not received an increase in their salary in the last 6 months.

In fact, 42% of marketers told us they hadn’t had a salary increase in 1-2 years.

40% told us the last time they received a raise was 2+ years ago.

An overwhelming 76% told us the reason they were looking for a new job is because their salary doesn’t reflect their skills.  

Following in close second was that the person was looking for a new challenge. This is similar to what we found in one of our recent surveys with jobseekers, where 50% of marketers told us their biggest motivation to find a new role was looking for a new challenge.

The next biggest reason was looking for a new challenge (54.9%), followed by limited opportunity at current company (37.4%). 34.5% moved roles for a promotion.

Further down the list was a better workplace culture (26.3%), increased responsibility (25%), location change (20.5%), broader experience or a sideways move (20%).

Flexible working took up 18% of the survey. In Marketing Week’s survey, flexible working was one of the lowest reasons why marketers decided to move jobs. In the Simply Marketing survey,  we found that while flexible working wasn’t the biggest motivation to find a new job, it was one of the biggest benefits marketers looked for when considering a new role. More specifically, 42% said they looked for flexible working.

Better industry sector (16.8%) and better chance of winning awards (1.5%) were at the bottom of the reasons why marketers moved jobs.

We caught up with Alana Walden, Marketing Manager at Brand Recruitment. Alana shared her thoughts of why marketers move jobs:

“Each week Brand register hundreds of talented marketers who are looking to change jobs. Ambitious by nature, we find the most common reason marketing professionals want to leave their current job is down to lack of progression/career advancement. Findings from our most recent Marketing Salary Survey also showed that this was the case. In addition, our survey found that seeking a new challenge and remuneration were the second and third main reasons marketers gave for wanting to move jobs.”

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