Sara Pion's Interview Tips for Marketers to Avoid Working in a Toxic Environment

Apr 21, 2023

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According to an MIT study, a toxic work culture is the number one reason why people say they’ve left their jobs.

Whether it’s a micro-managing boss or an uncooperative team, a toxic work environment can make it dreadful to go to work on Mondays and prevent you from doing your best work.

Marketers have it worst.

Everyone has an opinion on what the marketing team should be doing, which means people could become over-critical and (sometimes) abusive to marketers.

So how do you avoid working in a toxic environment?

One way is to nip it early by asking smart interview questions. Remember—you’re interviewing the company as much as they’re interviewing you.

Enter Sara Pion, Head of Web Experience at Dandy. She has worked as a marketing leader at some of the fastest-growing tech startups, including Dandy, Voiceflow, Alyce, and Drift. Sara has seen way too many marketers get burned by a toxic environment.

Here’s why:

There are a lot of leaders out there who think that they have a concept and a grasp of what marketing is. And then, if a leader comes in and their ideas do not align with their ideas, there's going to be a lot of friction. Ultimately the CEO in that situation usually believes that they are correct. And that's why the average tenure for marketing leaders is under two years.

Today, Sara shares 5 interview questions every marketer should ask to avoid working in a toxic environment.

In this Marketing Powerups episode, you’ll learn:

Red flags to watch out for during the interview process.
Questions to ask interviewers about work culture.
How to get out of a toxic work environment.
One power-up that’s helped accelerate Sara’s career.

The Sponsor
I want to thank the sponsor of this episode, 42/Agency.

When you're in scale-up mode, and you have KPIs to hit, the pressure is on to deliver demos and signups.

And it's a lot to handle: demand gen, email sequences, revenue ops, and more! That’s where 42/Agency, founded by my friend Kamil Rextin, can help you.

They’re a strategic partner that’s helped B2B SaaS companies like ProfitWell, Teamwork, Sprout Social and Hubdoc build a predictable revenue engine.I

f you’re looking for performance experts and creatives to solve your marketing problems at a fraction of the cost of in-house, look no further.

Go to https://www.42agency.com/ to talk to a strategist to learn how you can build a high-efficiency revenue engine now.

🎉 About Sara Pion

Before joining Dandy as Head of Web Experience, Sara Pion led marketing teams at brands like VoiceFlow, Drift, Alice and more. She was even part of an experimental marketing team at Drift. She’s spent her career fine-tuning the way companies serve their customer base through innovative strategies and a customer-forward mindset. When she’s not leading the industry in community growth and support, she’s either admiring the oxford comma, boxing or co-hosting her professional growth and development podcast “Self Control & Cheese.”

🕰️ Timestamps and transcript

[00:00] Introduction
[01:54] Spotting red flags during marketing interviews
[08:21] Marketing red flags: Tips to avoid toxic companies
[12:05] The importance of trust in marketing and leadership
[13:19] What to ask during a marketing interview
[15:53] Setting expectations for marketers in the workplace
[17:17] Implementing employee feedback at a business level
[19:14] 42 agency - my number one recommended demand Gen agency
[20:02] Questions to ask before joining a company during layoffs
[26:31] How to survive in a toxic marketing environment
[32:38] Tips on career growth: How to structure one on ones
[36:22] Tips for career growth in marketing

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