Role Overviews
Role-Specific Overviews
Technical & Acquisition Roles
SEO Specialist Role Overview
Technical SEO, content strategy, and the core competencies that define top-performing SEO specialists
Entry-Level
- "What is SEO?" (testing basic understanding)
- "How do you learn new skills to help your SEO career?"
- "What interests you about starting a career in SEO?"
"SEO is a never-ending learning process. You can learn a lot from someone's way of acquiring knowledge." - Nick Reijmerink, Lead SEO
Senior/Director
- "How do you think the latest Google updates will change SEO?"
- "What's your biggest SEO fail?"
- "What do you think the impact of AI Overviews will be on SEO?"
"I want to know if they've tied the search ecosystem to the commercial realities of running a business." - John Skinner, Creative Director
Common Case Study Formats
Strategy Presentation
"Produce an SEO strategy in PPT format detailing how you would drive organic search growth. Include a roadmap for year one."
Technical Audit
Analyze a portion of the company's website and identify technical issues, prioritized by impact.
Content Brief Creation
Create a comprehensive content brief for target keywords including structure, intent, and competitor analysis.
Competitive Analysis
Analyze competitors' SEO strategies and propose differentiation opportunities.
PPC & Paid Media Role Overview
Platform expertise, account management, and what separates good PPC managers from great ones
Must-Nail Question:
"How has Apple's iOS 14 update affected your paid social strategy?"
Strong Answer Covers:
- Impact: Low ATT opt-in rates (~25% worldwide initially, lower in the US, rising somewhat over time), weaker retargeting, unreliable reporting
- Conversions API (CAPI) for server-side event tracking
- First-party data strategies through email signups and CRM
- Broader targeting approaches replacing hyper-targeting
- Increased creative testing to compensate for reduced signal
- Advantage+ campaigns using AI to optimize despite reduced data
Most common practical exercise: Review a Google Ads or Meta account (anonymized) and present findings within 30-60 minutes.
Key Insight:
"The questions they ask are just as important as the audit itself." - Traktion.ai
Audit Framework:
- Does account structure support business goals?
- Is conversion tracking set up correctly?
- Is there wasted spend to eliminate?
- Are there signs of success and scale opportunity?
- What's the impression share situation?
LinkedIn Ads (B2B Roles)
- "Have you executed previous ABM campaigns on LinkedIn?"
- "What audience size do you target for LinkedIn campaigns?" (Min 300K; many practitioners target larger audiences)
- "How do you personalize and target ABM campaigns?"
- "What's your approach to LinkedIn lead gen forms vs website conversions?"
Growth Marketing Role Overview
First-principles thinking, SQL proficiency, and the mindset that separates growth marketers from traditional marketers
Growth marketing interviews assess a different archetype than traditional marketing roles. Andrew Chen and Reforge network hiring managers use deliberately ambiguous questions to test first-principles thinking.
"The Golden Gate Bridge"
Elena Verna, Head of Growth at Lovable
"Tracking is down for the Golden Gate Bridge. You need to estimate weekly toll revenue in 15 minutes with only a blueprint. How would you approach this?"
Tests: Problem-solving with incomplete data, estimation skills
"The Bullshit Test"
Andrew Chen
"Get on the whiteboard and draw out how YouTube grows - the entire user flow, growth loops, and where you'd make improvements."
Tests: Surface-level vs genuine depth of knowledge
ICE Framework
Impact x Confidence x Ease
- Impact: How much will this move the needle?
- Confidence: How sure are we this will work?
- Ease: How quickly can we implement?
RICE Framework
(Reach x Impact x Confidence) / Effort
- Reach: How many users affected per quarter?
- Impact: Score from 0.25 (minimal) to 3 (massive)
- Confidence: Percentage based on evidence
- Effort: Person-months required
A
Acquisition
How users find you
A
Activation
First value moment
R
Retention
Users coming back
R
Revenue
Monetization
R
Referral
Users bringing others
Growth roles at most tech companies require SQL proficiency for cohort analysis, funnel metrics, retention curves, and experimentation analysis.
Common Interview Tasks:
- Writing cohort analysis queries defining users by signup date
- Computing retention by cohort week using window functions
- Funnel analysis with conversion rates between stages
- Growth rate calculations using LAG() for period-over-period comparison
Meta Interview Question:
"Write a SQL query to compute a frequency table of a certain attribute involving two joins. How would you GROUP BY some attribute? How would you account for NULLs?"
Questions to Ask Growth Hiring Managers
Brian Balfour (Founder/CEO, Reforge) recommends:
- "What does retention look like? What does LTV look like?"
- "What are the biggest drop-offs in your funnel?"
- "If I wanted to make X type of change, what would the process look like?"
- "How many times has the homepage been optimized in the last 6 months?"
- "Are there dedicated engineers/designers for growth?"
Strategy, Brand & Content Roles
Product Marketing Manager Role Overview
The bridge between product and market. GTM strategy, positioning, and cross-functional leadership.
Marketing Aptitude
Structured marketing plans using STP, 4Ps, Jobs-to-be-Done frameworks
Communication Skills
Explain complex technical concepts to both novice and expert audiences
Product Sense
Deep understanding of customer problems and product-market fit
Analytical Capabilities
ROI calculations, statistical significance, A/B test interpretation
Cross-Functional Leadership
Influence without authority across product, sales, engineering
Creative Execution
Draft viral video scripts, positioning statements, campaign concepts
B2B PMM (Cloud, SaaS)
- Complex buying committees understanding
- Longer sales cycles and nurture strategies
- Technical depth for product marketing
- Case studies and ROI demonstrations
- Sales enablement materials
B2C PMM (Consumer)
- Consumer psychology understanding
- Performance at scale (millions of users)
- DAU/MAU, engagement, retention metrics
- Creative and messaging development
- Mobile and app marketing expertise
Brand Marketing Role Overview
Brand strategy, campaign evaluation, storytelling, and the metrics that matter for brand roles
Brand Strategy Development
Positioning products in consumer minds, differentiation, emotional connections beyond functional benefits
Campaign Evaluation
Critique existing campaigns, assess creative effectiveness, message clarity, brand consistency
Storytelling Ability
Craft compelling narratives, develop campaign concepts, bring brand platforms to life across channels
Brand Metrics Fluency
Awareness, consideration, preference, NPS. Connect brand building to business outcomes.
- "What's your favorite brand and why?" (reveals understanding of effective branding)
- "Name a recent [company] campaign. How would you make it more effective?"
- "Pick a consumer product you like and articulate its value proposition, target segments, and an example ad campaign"
- "What is an advertising campaign you found effective recently? Why?"
- "How would you measure the ROI of a brand campaign?"
Content Marketing Role Overview
Content strategy, AI integration, editorial planning, and the writing skills that define the role
- "How would you approach developing a short- and long-term content plan?"
- "Walk me through how you'd create a quarterly content calendar"
- "How do you balance long-term content pillars with short-term campaign demands?"
- "How do you measure content marketing success beyond pageviews?"
AI in Content (Hottest Topic)
Expect questions like:
- "How do you ensure AI-generated content is accurate and reliable?"
- "How do you handle situations where AI content is not well-received?"
- "Share an example of how you effectively used AI to improve marketing strategy"
Strong Answers Discuss:
Using AI for personalized content at scale, reducing production time, combining AI efficiency with human oversight for quality and brand voice, AI as draft generator not final output.
Siege Media (which has hired 100+ content marketers) uses a short 200-word writing prompt before interviews.
Trap Alert:
Topics often include traps where highly-ranked Google sources are wrong, testing research quality alongside writing ability. Don't just parrot the first search result.
Community & Analytics Roles
Social Media Marketing Role Overview
What separates professional social media marketers from enthusiasts, plus crisis management expertise
The Question That Separates Pros from Enthusiasts:
"What does success look like on social media?"
According to Sendible, if your answer is just "likes and shares" without connecting to business outcomes, it's an immediate red flag.
Standard for mid-level and senior roles:
- "Tell me about a time you had to handle a social media crisis"
- "How would you respond to a user harassing our company's accounts?"
- "How would you respond to a negative comment about our company?"
Expected Framework:
- Respond within 1-2 hours (faster responses significantly improve sentiment recovery)
- Pause scheduled content immediately
- Assess the 5 W's (Who, What, When, Where, Why)
- Document everything
- "How do you approach building and nurturing relationships within a community to foster engagement and loyalty?"
- "How do you handle conflicts or negative interactions while maintaining a positive environment?"
- "How do you identify and leverage advocates and brand ambassadors within the community?"
TikTok/Reels
- Algorithm-driven discovery
- Authenticity over polish
- Trend participation critical
- Sound-on environment
- Professional context required
- Thought leadership focus
- Employee advocacy programs
- B2B lead generation
Marketing Analytics Role Overview
Attribution models, measurement frameworks, data storytelling, and technical proficiency expectations
- "How have you improved the KPIs of markets you previously managed?" (requires specific quantified results)
- "What metrics would you track to measure success for [product or campaign]?"
- "How would you measure the ROI of a brand campaign?"
- "Walk me through your approach to campaign measurement and reporting"
Last Click
Simple, clear
Ignores assist touches
First Click
Values discovery
Ignores nurture
Linear
Fair distribution
Oversimplifies
Time Decay
Values recency
May undervalue top-funnel
Position-Based
Balanced approach
Arbitrary weights
Data-Driven
Most accurate
Requires scale
Interviewers expect structured approaches: top-down, bottom-up, or comparative. Not wild guesses.
Example Questions:
- "How many videos are there on YouTube?"
- "How many beds will be sold in the UK next year?"
- "Estimate the number of Google searches per day globally"
- "How large is the addressable market for [product]?"
Technical Proficiency Expectations
Tools to Know:
- Google Analytics 4 (event tracking, audiences, explorations)
- Google Tag Manager
- Looker Studio / Data Studio
- SQL for data extraction and analysis
- Excel/Sheets for modeling
Concepts to Understand:
- Statistical significance and p-values
- Confidence intervals
- A/B test design and interpretation
- Cohort analysis
- Incrementality testing