I would be fired as a Head of Marketing
Probably in the first week
Hi there,
Every now and then, I get a LinkedIn message that goes something like this:
It’s always really nice to be thought of — especially knowing how tough the job market is right now — but honestly, I’m very confident I’d be fired pretty quickly.
Probably in the first week. Maybe even the first standup. That’s assuming I even made it through the interview process.
Despite what my profile screams — growth, growth, growth!!! — I still get sent marketing roles.
Which is why my unofficial life mantra seems to be: growth isn’t marketing. Should I release merch with this slogan? Or get it as a tattoo? Let me know.
But let’s take a slightly more self-deprecating look at it this time… and explore exactly why I’d get fired.
Why I’d be a terrible Head of Marketing
Let’s take a typical Head of Marketing role, I picked the first one that popped up on Indeed in London.
Here’s the first part of the job description:
I reckon I’d be fine with the performance and analytics side of things. But then it says:
Own the brand
Create content across channels
I have zero experience in any of those areas. Most Heads of Growth don’t. And it doesn’t stop there, as it also lists PR and SEO experience further down. Still a no from me.
I’ve worked across CRM, paid, and user research, so there’s some overlap. However, honestly, most of this job description doesn’t match at all.
(Side note: How ridiculously long is this list of responsibilities?)
Marketing and growth are not interchangeable titles. Sure, there’s overlap. But they require fundamentally different mindsets and skill sets.
A Head of Marketing is typically measured on brand awareness, share of voice, lead generation, and campaign ROI. Their focus is on building demand.
A Head of Growth? We look at systems, analysing the entire growth model to identify key levers. We work across product, data, engineering, performance, and lifecycle teams, focusing on what will move the needle fastest.
So, what happened in week 1?
Day 1:
Realise there’s a brand book. Try not to cry. Google “tone of voice guidelines” while secretly mapping out their growth model in Miro.
Day 2:
They ask for a Q3 content calendar. I ask for funnel data and retention curves. No one makes eye contact in the meeting.
Day 3:
Pause all social media activity. Funnel that budget into a new onboarding experiment. PR agency sends a passive-aggressive GIF.
Day 4:
Asked to “sprinkle some brand magic” on a campaign. I continue focusing on the onboarding improvements.
Day 5:
CEO gently says, “We love your energy, but this… isn’t quite what we meant by marketing.” Strangely, I’m having trouble accessing Slack or email...
Recommendation
In every edition of Growth Waves, I also share a related resource to check out related to the week's topic.
I realised more people were struggling with this when my original LinkedIn post on the topic “Growth Isn’t Marketing” years ago went viral — or at least as viral as you can get being a growth nerd.
After reviewing the feedback, I took the time last year to revisit and refine my explanation of why the roles differ.
I definitely recommend checking it out if you want a deeper dive into how growth and marketing really differ.
After I posted about being sent a Head of Marketing role, some folks messaged me saying, “What’s the big deal? You can just say no.”
Fair enough, I deserved that. And sure, I can, and I do.
But for all the light-hearted joking about it, for me, it’s a symptom of a deeper problem: We still conflate marketing with growth.
Worse, many companies think they’re hiring a growth lead, but what they’re actually getting is a marketer in disguise. Then they wonder why they’re not seeing traction in product, retention, or monetisation.
As Sean Ellis put it in the comments of the post about receiving that job role:
“I can’t imagine going back into a marketing role.”
Not because marketing isn’t valuable. It’s crucial. But it’s not the same job.
What would get you fired from a Head of Marketing role?
Until next week,
Daphne