Ever wonder what it takes to work with the #BestCoworkersinPA?
Our awesome talent acquisition (TA) team took the time to answer a few of the most common questions we receive from candidates.
If you want to join our team of top-notch Internet marketers, just keep reading for some exclusive tips!
Meet our TA team
First, let’s meet our powerhouse TA team.
Patty Price – Director of Human Resources
Fav FX memory: Being named the Best Place to Work for the 5th year in a row and getting to share it via Facebook Live with the whole FXFamily!
Fun facts: My degree is in fashion design, and I’m an avid thrift shopper (a la Macklemore). I have a 10-year-old Chiweenie named Stiggy, and I set a middle school record in shot put (that still stands today)!
Emily Livingston – Senior Coordinator
Fav FX memory: Being able to attend the BPTW ceremony! We all know that WebFX has the best coworkers around, but it’s such an awesome opportunity to celebrate the FXFamily that we’ve built and the work that we love to do!
Fun facts: I’m a wannabe foodie and bookworm!
When I’m at my desk, I’m usually jamming out to oldies.
Laura Passmore – Prospective Candidate Researcher
Fav FX memory: The day we celebrated our fifth #1 title as the Best Place to Work in PA! It was so cool to be able to celebrate such a team-wide win with such awesome coworkers!
Fun facts: Avid reader, aspiring author, amateur genealogist, cat mom, and lover of long phone conversations with potential future team members!
Mary Shirey – VP of US & Global Talent Acquisition
Fav FX memory: The first year we won BPTW because we weren’t expecting it at all! We were all going crazy and just so excited (of course we are excited every year) but that first year it was completely unexpected, and I will never forget how crazy we all went jumping up and down and screaming out of excitement!
Fun facts: I am absolutely obsessed with crossword puzzles and do them in the paper every day (yes I know so weird that we still get the paper lol), I love to bake and experiment with different recipes (especially with my daughter 🙂 ) – I’m obsessed with baking shows, and it’s all I follow on social media!
Heather Thomas – Happiness Manager
Fav FX memory: Organizing our big FXFamily & Friends company-wide summer block party where the entire team came and brought their friends, roommates, significant others, in-laws, siblings, kids, parents, and more.
Guests drove in from all over for it, and everyone was so proud of their FXers. It was incredible to meet all the special people that helped make our team who they are!
Fun facts: I worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC for several years after college and happened to walk in on celebrity Stephen Colbert filming the most ridiculous sketch for The Colbert Report at the time. Fast forward to today and I’m a mom to 2 little ones and enjoy baking and sampling every type of chocolate chip cookie available in the tri-state area, working with my husband on our fixer-upper, and finding any excuse that I can to wear a ridiculous costume to our work events.
Hailey Toth – Talent Acquisition Coordinator
Fav FX memory: That is so tough because every event and celebration is so memorable!
I would have to say when we hit our BHAG 1500 client milestone and the annual WebFX golf scramble!
Fun facts: I am left-handed and I was a Starbucks barista for almost seven years!
Celeste Osayi – Talent Acquisition Coordinator
Fav FX memory: The OPS Team held a holiday-themed lunch, and we had a gingerbread house contest!
Fun facts: I’ve played the clarinet from 4th grade to my senior year in high school. During college, I was a member of the West Chester University Incomparable Golden Rams Marching Band for three years!
Julie Gardner – Talent Acquisition Coordinator
Fav FX memory: Making it to the final rounds of the company cornhole tournament and also hitting our BHAG goal of 1500 clients!
Fun facts: I love to cook/bake/try new recipes, especially when I get to do so for others! I am the youngest of 6 kids with a Brady Bunch-style family, and I’m lucky enough to be the aunt of 12 nieces/nephews!
Emily Buseck – Talent Acquisition Specialist
Fav FX memory: Getting to experience my first FXFest after joining the
TA team and meeting FXers from all over the world!
It was so exciting to
create memories with everyone who visited and learn more about where they
come from while showing them some of the things we love about the
Harrisburg area!
Fun facts: I’m a middle child, a foodie, I adore cats (and all
animals, really), and due to my love of different genres of music, I’m
pretty good at song-guessing games!
Our hiring process
Now that you met the team, let’s get down to business and answer your burning questions!
Q: Can you give an overview of the hiring process at WebFX?
Patty: The hiring process is designed to allow both our candidates and our hiring team to ensure that WebFX is a great match. It has to be a mutually beneficial partnership! We have several steps in our process because of this, all focused on getting to know our candidates better and giving them the opportunity to do the same with us.
Q: How is our hiring process different from other marketing companies?
Patty: While many companies focus on skills, experience, and accomplishments, we look at intrinsic skills, values, and culture match.
We have an incredibly comprehensive training Bootcamp that every FXer completes during their first 120-days on the team, where they are trained on all the hard skills necessary to be successful in their positions. Since the hard skills can all be taught, what’s most important to us is how closely a candidate mirrors our culture and values.
What makes a successful FXer?
Q: What are some qualities you look for in candidates?
Patty: Attitude, effort, and interest — these are my top 3!
Emily: In interviews, I really look for strong soft skills. We’re looking for a great addition to our team and are happy to teach the right person how to be an industry expert.
If a candidate is excited, I’m excited, too!
Laura: A genuine passion and excitement for what you do, plus a positive attitude when it comes to approaching challenges!
If you want to learn more about what it takes to succeed in your career at WebFX, check out the video below.
Resume and interview tips
Q: Any tips for creating a stellar resume?
Patty: Build your resume for the position that you want. You should have several versions of your resume in order to show experiences of yours that directly relate to the needs of a position. Definitely, don’t fluff your resume with false information, but rather place your skills, experiences, and interests next to a job description, and ensure that your resume highlights why you would be a great fit.
Emily: Keep it simple.
Don’t worry about fancy colors or graphics, let your accomplishments take center stage!
Laura: If possible, always sleep on it! If you tailor your resume for each new position you apply for, errors will almost always creep in during the edits — from typos, to funky formatting, to information that accidentally gets deleted. I would always recommend setting an edited resume aside before coming back to it with fresh eyes and making sure everything looks right.
Not only can this can cut down on those clerical errors, but it can also help you feel confident that the resume you submitted was the best one possible.
Q: Advice for nailing the interview?
Patty: Cliché answer alert. Be yourself! Most interviewers have been interviewing for a long time, and will be able to tell when you’re giving them an answer that you found in a Google search for “best answers to interview questions”.
Be honest, be transparent, be positive, and don’t be afraid to admit to hiccups that you’ve had throughout your career. Just be ready to explain how you bounced back from them!
Emily: Be yourself. The interview is all about learning what makes you, you!
If you’re nervous, that’s okay. We’ve all been in your shoes before.
Laura: It sounds cheesy, but the best advice is always to be yourself. I think it’s really easy to slip into the mindset that interviews require us to “put on a show” and act like a totally different version of ourselves, but the truth is that we usually make a much better impression when we’re just being ourselves.
Certainly, you want to be polite, look sharp, and probably avoid certain conversation topics, but otherwise, just be yourself! Not only does this make a great impression, but it can also help you feel more at ease during the interview!
Q: What are some common resume or interview faux pas you see?
Patty: Effective communication is key, so make sure to be prompt and respectful in your responses via phone, text, email, etc.! Skip “predictive text” or acronyms, please!
(lol)
Emily: It sounds silly, but don’t forget to include your phone number and email address on your resume! You want to make sure an employer can get in touch with you if they want to set up an interview. Also, create a LinkedIn profile if you haven’t already!
It’s a great place to elaborate on your achievements.
Laura: For resumes: Font size and formatting! If your text is too small, or if the paragraphs are too crunched together, it can be really difficult to read and doesn’t create a great first impression.
Career starter resources
Q: Do you have any career starter resources for people looking to break into digital marketing?
Patty: Almost too many to count! The beauty of the web is the sheer amount of resources there are out there, but the challenge is to cut through the “noise”.
You can’t go wrong in following Moz and taking advantage of any free courses, whitepapers, or webinar resources that they have available. Looking into certifications like Google Analytics, Google Ads or Bing Ads are always resume boosters! If you have access to LinkedIn Learning, or can purchase courses through Udemy- literally take every course that they have available on digital marketing!
Codeacademy has a great basic coding course. Follow thought leaders on social media/join their mailing lists- being able to “talk the talk” is hugely influential in the industry! Search Engine Land, Moz, and WebFX of course (shameless plug)!
Emily: Any certifications with Google, Hootsuite or HubSpot are great ways to learn about the industry (and they’re an awesome resume booster!).
Moz blog is a great place to start, too!
Laura: You can’t go wrong by exploring industry blogs, podcasts, and more. But on top of that, I would always recommend taking advantage of your own personal network! Even if you don’t personally know anyone who works in digital marketing, try asking around.
Maybe your roommate’s sibling or your freshman year classmate works in internet marketing. Pick their brain about what it’s like to work in the industry, or even ask you could shadow someone in their department! Talking to someone in the industry is a fantastic way to get a better feel for whether it’s something that might be a great fit for you!
Upcoming events
Q: Any upcoming events for candidates?
Catch us at the following locations we plan to attend later this year!
- Penn State
- Penn State Harrisburg
- Bloomsburg
- Kutztown
- Shippensburg
- York
- Elizabethtown
Where do I apply?!
Want to join the #1 Best Place to Work in PA? You’re in luck — we’re hiring!
To learn more and apply for an open position, visit our careers page. If you can’t get enough FX, you can visit InsideFX for the latest scoop and give us a follow on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
We’re excited to hear from you and grow our FX fam!
-
Emily is WebFX’s Content Delivery Lead. She holds an M.S. in digital marketing and leads the FX content team, along with strategy, implementation, and evaluation for WebFX’s key revenue channels. Her work has been featured by Social Media Today, Campaign Monitor, Reader’s Digest, Yahoo, and more. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, road trips, and exploring new cities. Follow her on Twitter @emcarter16 or connect on LinkedIn.@emcarter16 -
WebFX is a full-service marketing agency with 1,100+ client reviews and a 4.9-star rating on Clutch! Find out how our expert team and revenue-accelerating tech can drive results for you! Learn more
Join our mission
to provide industry-leading digital marketing services to businesses around the globe – all while growing as an individual and leaving the world a better place.
I Want to Apply!
Share this article
Looking for More?
Get expert ideas, industry updates, case studies, and more straight to your inbox to help you level up and get ahead.
"*" indicates required fields
Join our mission
to provide industry-leading digital marketing services to businesses around the globe – all while growing as an individual and leaving the world a better place.
I Want to Apply!
