Currently VP Marketing at a 160 person startup. Manage 14 people directly + 30 others that have overlapping responsibilities. Still hands on with everything from SEO, CRO, Paid Acquisition, Affiliate. I have total ownership over my role and all decisions. But, I’m under-compensated (130 + 20)/yr and 150k total options (3 grants over 5 years). Options to me are a lottery ticket so I don’t even look at them as comp. I’ve been promoted every year and given more options but only one cash raise. My current WL balance sucks. I have early morning and late night calls daily 6am onwards and falls to 1-2am. Though, I don’t really have to be in the office at any given time, I still rarely see my wife/kid. I want to make more money and have some sanity but at the same time I don’t want a punchcard job where I show up and collect my paycheck. I want to have some ownership and autonomy. Should I look at FAANG? Is there even a place for me there? Advice would be much appreciated.
Just go to a Faang. You will earn more (how much more depends on the level you land at) with a lot less stress. Yes you will have less responsibility scope wise but your budget will be a lot bigger since products are massive.
Any advice on the hiring process? 9 YOE across SEO/Paid/Affiliate/etc. with 5 years management experience. Doing everything from hands on building ad campaigns to running product for in-house marketing and automation products.
Tap into your network (or your school's) to find contacts to talk, get tips and referrals. See if you can find marketing recruiters in the companies you're interested and schedule a chat with them.
Dude you’re a marketing VP, I’m sure you can market yourself. Use your instincts and above all USE THE FORCE
At your level FAANG won’t be looking for hands on executioner for marketing, they’d be looking for your skills in big picture strategic thinking and ability to empower your team to reach the goals.
This is very true. Be sure to market to market yourself as a strategic thinker who can hire the best. Unless of course if you want to step into an IC role.
Right I’m not saying I want hands on necessarily. Right now I am hands on in addition to driving all strategic vision for marketing our product and acquiring users, building our brand, managing P&L, hiring/firing, professional development. I do this globally. We have 350+ million users across 110 countries. My team is completely international. We run TV in Vietnam and plaster the metro in Berlin in addition to everything we do online.
It’s worth trying the Faang companies, you could get (much) higher TC and exposed to a larger scale of things. You won’t get the title you have had but you will step up to next level in every aspect. Managing 15+ people really doesn’t mean much, some new grad with a few yoe is already managing that much. And 9 yoe in marketing is relatively mid/junior. So you have a lot of room to grow. I’d imagine for your startup the marketing budget is <<$50m per year. In faang, one campaign is usually well over $50m. And you will see proper organization of how marketing should work.
Aside from WLB with the family, if you feel you’re learning more than you could in a higher paid but maybe more siloed role, then stick with it. Your growth (and opportunities) will steepen quicker. If you’re not learning, and not paid well, leave. No brainer!
Yea this has been the saving grace really. I control every marketing channel, get to run campaigns and get users across every major market in the world, work across organizations, own everything I do, and have near complete autonomy for myself and my department. In that sense it’s great but it comes at the cost of WLB and comp. that’s what makes it a hard decision because I do learn a lot and can build a breadth of experience along with depth.
don’t know much about marketing roles but you definitely seem very underpaid. what’s the downside of exploring FAANG+?
The lack of autonomy and ownership over what I do when becoming part of a massive company feels like a step down from what I’m doing. Maybe it’s an ego thing; I don’t know. But, there’s something nice about creating something and seeing it all the way through from concept to direct business impact. I love my work just not the crazy consistent call schedule and low compensation. Writing this out definitely makes me sound like wanting my cake and eating it too.
Lol