How to hire & get hired in 2026: The guide to the Gen Marketer skillset
Plus 25+ things you can do right now to gain these skills
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As I proclaimed back in September, we’re in the era of Gen Marketers™. Gen Marketers are generalists who are fluent in generative AI, and who are ready for the generational shift we’re seeing in marketing.
But “Gen Marketer” isn’t another job title. It’s the new baseline skillset marketers need to succeed in 2026 and beyond. No matter your role in marketing, you will benefit from gaining a Gen Marketer skillset.
In other words, how we build B2B marketing teams has fundamentally changed in the last 2 years. And if you’re still hiring, interviewing, or organizing teams the old way, you’re probably struggling to keep up with the pace of change.
Candidates need to bring different skills to interviews (and to their roles!). Hiring managers need to evaluate candidates against new criteria. And Heads of Marketing need to evolve their org charts and practices.
This newsletter will help you get hired and hire in 2026. It’s your guide to the Gen Marketer skillset: the foundational capabilities every marketer needs to be effective now. It covers what types of candidates are most needed in the AI era and how to tactically gain those skills if you’re on the job market—or if you just want to stay competitive in your current role.
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In this newsletter:
Part 1: The skills all marketers need (and need to hire for) in the AI era
Part 2: Actionable steps to learn these skills and become a highly in-demand candidate
Part 3: Interview questions to assess these skills—whether you’re practicing or hiring
Conclusion: How to network like it’s [almost] 2026
This newsletter is a companion to the Gen Marketer Summit next week!
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But, if you’re currently unemployed, you can get free access to the event. Fill out this form (passcode: 1010) to RSVP.
Part 1: Skills all marketers need right now, in the AI era
If you’re job searching, these are the skills that will make you stand out. If you’re hiring, these are the capabilities you need to evaluate for—not just nice-to-haves, but fundamentals that determine whether someone can operate effectively in the AI era.
Do you need to abandon everything you ever learned and just focus on this skillset? Of course not. But since publishing my Gen Marketer newsletter, I’ve had many conversations about what this means for specialists. So let me be clear: This isn’t about abandoning specialization. If you’re a killer demand gen marketer or a product marketing expert with deep domain knowledge—great, keep that. But that specialization alone isn’t enough. You need to layer generalist skills on top of your depth to stay valuable in 2026 and beyond.