If you could choose, what would you choose instead of marketing?

One of my favorite questions in job interviews, which I usually ask when the candidate is relaxed enough, is ‒ WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU DIDN'T DO MARKETING.

The answers usually come right away and without any problems, and I can’t wait to hear them. That answer tells me much more than the answers that we all, more or less successfully, recite in such situations. People who know what they would do in another world, know how to fantasize and know where their passion lies. They are creative and able to imagine options that do not exist in the so-called reality.

And most often, those passions are also useful for the work we do. I would (shockingly!) write TV shows. A colleague who is an Account Manager would organize everything that can be organized (this is a woman with developed dreams of a diverse organization, and was lucky to be in the right place and position). Someone wants to design jewelry, take photos and promote their brand. These people are mostly in the creative part of the agency. We dream of anything and everything, but most often it is related to our agency business.

What I am checking with this question is whether a person can channel their passions into responding to the demands of the position for which they are applying.

I don't know many people in agencies who entered marketing out of love for sales, but I know a lot of them who chose marketing because they enjoy persuasion ‒ using words, presentation skills, or both.

I believe that we do not get inspiration for the best campaigns by watching old campaigns, but by following what interests and fascinates us. After all, we are addressing people and their needs, and in order to understand their passions, we must be passionate ourselves.

Passion is also the only path to originality.

In the end ‒ it is necessary to hire people who honestly like things outside of marketing. They will bring their perspective to the business they are engaged in. It will bring diversity. It will bring a balance between work, on the one hand, and life and hobbies, on the other, which is necessary for any fresh idea to be born. And when they get tired of work, and they will, because we all have phases, and when they doubt their abilities, and they will, because it happens to all of us, they will manage to find the strength to overcome bad periods in the things they love.

Without that, we get employees who are inevitably moving towards burnout, and we don't want that for anyone.

Author: Natalija Jovanović, Senior Content Manager