Latest / The Marketing Career Podcast with Fexingo: Marketing Jobs, Skills, and Career Growth / How Mid-Career Marketers Use Side Projects to Get Hired
Transcript
- Lucas: There's this assumption that once you hit mid-career in marketing, your resume speaks for itself. You've got the titles, the tenure, the campaign wins. So the job search should be straightforward, right? Luna: Except it's not. I've talked to a bunch of senior marketers who feel like they're competing against a stack of almost identical resumes — same agency brands, same 'drove 20% growth' bullet points. Lucas: Exactly. And the thing is, the people who are actually landing those roles — the ones who get multiple offers or skip the line — have started using something that breaks the pattern entirely. They're building side projects. Not as a hobby. As the centerpiece of their candidacy. Luna: I've seen this becoming a real trend in the last year or so. But I want to get specific. What does a 'side project' look like for someone who's already a senior brand manager or a marketing director? Not a fresh grad building a blog. Lucas: Right. So let me give you a concrete case. I spoke with a senior brand manager at a midsize CPG company — household name, think shelf-stable grocery goods. She spent about 18 months in that role and felt stuck. The next step would be group brand manager, but those roles were few, and internal mobility was slow. Luna: Classic mid-career plateau. Lucas: Exactly. So instead of just updating her resume and waiting for LinkedIn messages, she started a side project. She created a public Notion library called something like 'The Grocery Aisle Playbook' — a collection of marketing analyses of CPG brands: packaging changes, pricing shifts, in-store promotions. She'd spend about 20 minutes a day during her commute, which was a train ride, just documenting what she saw. Luna: So it was almost like a field journal. But public. Lucas: Exactly. Six months in, she had about 40 entries. And when she started applying for product marketing roles at startups — specifically Series B consumer goods companies — she included a link to that Notion library on her resume and in her cover letter. She told me that in every single interview, the hiring manager or the recruiter had opened the library before the call. It became the most-discussed item in her interview loop. Luna: That's a huge signal. They're not just reading about her past work — they're seeing how she thinks in real time. Lucas: Right. And the result: she got an offer for a product marketing role at a Series B startup with a 30% salary increase over her CPG role. The hiring manager told her directly that the side project was the differentiator. They said they'd interviewed several other candidates with similar CPG backgrounds, but none had shown that level of intellectual curiosity or the ability to synthesize observations into frameworks. Luna: I love that. And it's not just about the content — it's about the format. Notion is a flexible canvas, and it's public by default. It shows you can organize ideas, that you're comfortable with tools that aren't just PowerPoint. Lucas: Right. But the deeper point is that a side project signals high-agency behavior. It says, 'I don't need my employer to give me permission to learn or to demonstrate expertise.' And that's incredibly attractive to hiring managers, especially at startups and high-growth companies where resourcefulness matters more than pedigree. Luna: So how does someone pick the right side project? Because I imagine not every project works. There's probably a version that feels like busywork. Lucas: That's the key question. I think there are three criteria. First, the project should be public and permanent. A blog, a Notion site, a GitHub repository — something that lives beyond a single application. Second, it should align with the role you're targeting, not just your current role. The CPG brand manager built a project that demonstrated product marketing thinking — category analysis, competitive positioning, consumer behavior — not brand management execution. Third, it should be sustainable. You can't put 20 hours a week into something that's supposed to complement a full-time job. Luna: That third one is where people usually fall off. They start ambitious, burn out, and then the project sits half-finished. And a half-finished project probably hurts more than it helps. Lucas: Absolutely. The sweet spot is something you can do in 15 to 30 minutes a day, consistently. A weekly newsletter analyzing one industry trend. A series of short video breakdowns of your favorite marketing campaigns. A curated list of tools you've actually used with honest pros and cons. The key is consistency over scale. Luna: And what about the one mistake that makes side projects backfire? You mentioned that earlier. Lucas: The biggest mistake is making the project about yourself instead of about the audience. I've seen marketers create side projects that are basically extended resumes — 'My Career Journey' or 'My Marketing Philosophy.' Hiring managers don't care about your philosophy. They want to see you solve a problem or explain something useful. The CPG brand manager's project was useful to anyone in grocery marketing. It wasn't about her. It was about the shelf. Luna: That's a great framing. It's almost like a customer-centricity test: if you were hiring for a role, would you want to read this project? Or would you click away after two seconds? Lucas: Exactly. And that brings me to another thing. A lot of people worry about giving away too much proprietary knowledge or stepping on their employer's toes. But you can always anonymize or generalize. The value is in the framework, not the specific numbers. The CPG brand manager never revealed confidential sales data — she described what any shopper could see by walking into a store. Luna: Right. And honestly, if your employer considers your general observations about the grocery aisle to be proprietary, you probably have a bigger problem with company culture. Lucas: Agreed. So the playbook here is pretty clear: pick a domain that intersects with your target role, choose a format that plays to your strengths, and commit to a tiny daily habit. Then put the link everywhere — your resume, your LinkedIn bio, your email signature. Make it impossible for a hiring manager to miss it. Luna: I want to push back a little bit. For someone who's really time-starved — maybe they have kids, or they're already working 50-hour weeks — is a side project still realistic? Or is this only for people with spare bandwidth? Lucas: Fair question. I think the key is to lower the bar. A side project doesn't have to be a Notion library with 40 entries. It could be a Twitter thread once a week analyzing one ad. It could be a LinkedIn series where you critique three campaigns a month. The format is less important than the signal of intentionality. And honestly, the people who say they have no time usually have 15 minutes they could repurpose. The CPG brand manager did her project on her commute. That's time that was already there. Luna: True. And if these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used — a tactic, a framework, a mindset shift — a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going. Buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Lucas: It really does make a difference. And we don't run ads or have a corporate sponsor, so listener support is what keeps the show independent and focused on this kind of concrete advice. So thank you to anyone who's chipped in. Luna: Yeah. And on that note — let's get back to the practical side. I've been thinking about the timing of a side project. Should you start it before you even begin a job search? Or is it something you launch when you're actively looking? Lucas: Start before. Ideally six to twelve months before you plan to look. Because the project needs depth to be impressive. A one-week project doesn't signal sustained curiosity. A six-month project signals commitment. And also, you don't want the pressure of needing the project to land a job immediately — that creates anxiety and leads to shortcuts. Build it when you're comfortable, then use it when you're ready. Luna: That makes sense. And what about the risk that your current employer finds it? Could it backfire if they think you're preparing to leave? Lucas: It's a real consideration, but I think it's manageable. First, most employers don't monitor your public side projects. Second, if the project is clearly about your personal professional development and doesn't compete with your current company, it's usually fine. In fact, some managers see it as a positive — it shows you're engaged and growing. But if you're worried, you can use a pseudonym or keep the project disconnected from your current employer's industry. Luna: Good point. So to wrap this up: side projects are a high-leverage move for mid-career marketers because they demonstrate high agency, they provide concrete evidence of your thinking, and they differentiate you from a pile of similar resumes. The key is to start small, stay consistent, and make it useful for others. Lucas: Exactly. And the next time you're in an interview and they ask 'Tell me about a time you went above and beyond,' you can point to something living, breathing, and public. That's a lot more powerful than a story from three jobs ago. Luna: Absolutely. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. That's it for this episode of The Marketing Career Podcast. We'll be back tomorrow with another angle.