Darrell shares a firsthand account of taking a job under financial pressure, ignoring red flags he recognized in the moment, and landing in a toxic environment within months. What follows is a structured set of interview questions across 6 categories, from leadership self-awareness to what happened to the last person in the role, designed to help you separate the job offer from the job reality.More
Tag Archives: career goals
216: How to stand out as a candidate with AI prep, portfolios and tools (The Martech job hunt survival guide, part 2)
What actually moves the needle when you’re searching for a role: building the portfolio that almost no marketing ops professional bothers to save, navigating the AI experience question, knowing when to take a contract role instead of holding out, and skipping the AI job-search tools that make you look like everyone else.More
215: How to find hidden job opportunities (The Martech job hunt survival guide, part 1)
This episode is a guide for martech and marketing ops professionals navigating one of the toughest job markets in years. Phil and Darrell cover the tactical mechanics of finding roles most candidates never see. From the Ashby Google search hack to VC job boards, staffing firm pipelines, and stealth startup cold outreach, the counterintuitive moves are the most useful ones here.More
207: Building a career that doesn’t hollow you out (50 Operators share the systems that keep them happy, part 3)
Treat your career as something you design, not something that just happens to you. You’ll ship a lot of stuff in your life. You only get one self, one mind, one body, and a short list of things that genuinely light you up. Building a career that does not hollow you out starts when you let those things set the terms. More
156: Chris Golec: The Godfather of ABM is on his 3rd company and he’s solving attribution for B2B marketers with AI
The Godfather of ABM takes us through his humble beginnings in Detroit’s industrial trenches to category creation and entrepreneurial expeditions. His journey spans building magnetic company cultures, cracking the code on remote work, sharing candid hiring wisdom, and transforming marketing failures into fuel for growth. Now building Channel99, he’s rewriting attribution with a touch of AI engineering, predicting marketing ROI, using a white box approach.More
148: Stephen Stouffer: Understanding AI’s role in customer journeys and messaging
AI can transform your marketing without overwhelming you. Start with one use case. Watch the results, and go from there. You don’t need to master data science to add AI value, but you need to be willing to experiment, keep what works, and let the tech do the heavy lifting.More
147: Nataly Kelly: Making global feel local through the power of marketing localization
Global expansion is a wild process that connects brands to the unique vibe of each market, it’s not just creating a website or translating content. Moving into international territories means showing up prepared, with a localization strategy that’s flexible and has a ton of local insight. Marketing Ops and RevOps both play a key role in localization as a strategic partner, organizing data and decision-making to fuel growth across departments.More
146: Jim Williams: The strategic role of marketing ops in annual planning
Forget version control spreadsheets and stale budgets, Jim’s take on marketing planning is about putting purpose behind every dollar. Instead of throwing darts at a board, focus on creating a blueprint that connects goals to actual business impact. For him, goals shouldn’t be handed down from the top like a royal decree but hammered out together with practitioners so they’re ambitious… but you know, grounded in reality.More
122: Emily Kramer: The rise of pi-shaped marketers and picking future unicorns
Emily explored the convergence of marketing, investment, and startups. When picking future unicorns, she attributed timing and luck but stressed the importance of selecting startups that value marketing. She also highlighted the need for “pie-shaped” marketers who combine deep expertise in at least 2 areas but also have a broad foundation.More
93: Tara Robertson: Cost-Effective Growth and Creative Attention in B2B
Use personal biases to create targeted campaigns and ignore buzzwords and rigid MQL definitions. Tara’s strategy—act on active interest immediately—cuts through the noise and boosts efficiency. Whether it’s career or marketing, it’s all about authentic, effective action.More