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A former colleague redirected a recruiter opportunity to one Huddler, starting a five-month process that ultimately produced a different role. The company trusted his marketing ability and focused instead on leadership, transformation, change management, and culture. The experience reinforced the value of strong career materials, patience with executive searches, and recognizing when familiar experience creates the right fit.
One Huddler's path to a Vice President of Segment Marketing role began with an opportunity intended for someone else.
A third-party recruiter contacted one of his former colleagues about a Vice President of Product Marketing opening. The colleague thought the Huddler was a better fit, sent him the job description, and he contacted the recruiter directly.
The process ultimately led somewhere different.
The company decided it liked him for a Vice President of Segment Marketing position instead.
Search Snapshot
The Huddler first contacted the recruiter in December. The complete process lasted about five months.
Its pace was far from consistent.
Early rounds sometimes had approximately three weeks between them. Then the ending accelerated quickly, including a flight to meet company executives in person.
Looking back, the timeline itself was one of the surprises.
“I didn’t think it would take this long, even though everyone told me it would.”
Five months did not mean five months of steady activity. Long gaps and sudden acceleration were both part of the same successful process.
The length of the process also changed how the Huddler thought about the beginning of his search.
“I probably would have taken more time in the beginning to really nail my LinkedIn profile and resume, instead of rushing it and constantly refining it.”
The lesson came after experiencing how often those materials needed to support recruiter conversations, networking, and the broader search.
His opportunity itself demonstrates why that visibility matters. A former colleague recognized the potential fit and sent him the opening.
Career materials need to help people who already know the executive understand where that experience could fit next.
The interview process contained another surprise.
There was no large presentation, test, or written case study.
The company already trusted the Huddler's marketing ability. The evaluation concentrated on something else.
“They were really hiring for leadership experience, change management, transformation, culture, etc. They trusted my marketing ability.”
The distinction shifted the conversation beyond proving functional marketing competence.
For this role, previous marketing experience established the foundation. The company then used the process to evaluate how the Huddler had led organizations and change.
The Huddler had initially hoped the next move would represent a bigger career step.
The role he accepted looked more familiar than expected.
“This job is extremely similar to experiences I’ve had. (But in a bigger, growing, more successful organization). Definitely a round peg / round hole situation.”
The similarity became part of the opportunity rather than a weakness.
The organization could recognize the pattern in his previous experience, while the larger and growing environment offered a different context in which to apply it.
That changed the definition of career growth. The next step did not need to require completely unfamiliar responsibilities to represent meaningful progress.
A former colleague opened the path. The company changed the role. The interview timeline shifted from slow to fast. And the final evaluation focused more heavily on leadership than on demonstrating marketing skills through a formal assignment.
The Huddler also credited CMO Huddles programming and community support with providing ideas he could use in interviews and networking conversations during the five-month process.
His retrospective lessons were similarly practical: spend more time getting career materials right at the beginning, expect executive searches to take time, and remain open to opportunities where proven experience creates an especially recognizable fit.
A former colleague received the opportunity from a third-party recruiter, thought it fit the Huddler better, and passed along the job description.
No. The original position was VP of Product Marketing. The company ultimately hired him as VP of Segment Marketing.
No. The company trusted his marketing ability and focused the evaluation on leadership, transformation, change management, and culture.
Spent more time strengthening his LinkedIn profile and résumé at the beginning rather than rushing them and repeatedly refining them later.
CMO Huddles has a dedicated Transition Team for experienced B2B marketing executives navigating what comes next.