Navigating the B2B Marketing Job Market with Rocio Osuna

In The Business of Marketing Podcast by A. Lee Judge

What the Hiring Freeze Really Means for Marketing Professionals

The Business of Marketing podcast is entering Season 5 with a new co-host. Rocio Osuna, a marketing professional whose personal brand has been growing as she navigates the job market firsthand, joins host A. Lee Judge to bring a fresh perspective to the show. In this kickoff episode, the two dig into what’s really happening in the marketing hiring market, why employers are making short-sighted moves, and what job seekers can do to stand out when the odds feel stacked against them.

The Market Is Oversaturated, and Employers Know It

Large-scale layoffs at companies like UPS, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla have pushed thousands of qualified marketing professionals into an already crowded job market. The result is a buyer’s market for employers. Companies can afford to wait for the perfect candidate because the talent pool is massive.

This power shift has created some concerning patterns. Some companies are posting director-level roles at coordinator-level salaries, banking on the fact that someone out of work will accept it. And while that may fill a seat in the short term, hiring experienced talent at below-market pay rarely produces long-term results.

The “no fire, no hire” trend compounds the problem. Companies are hesitant to let people go, but they’re also not replacing those who leave. That creates a stagnant hiring environment where job seekers are left waiting for movement that may not come for months.

Ghosting Is a Brand Problem Employers Don’t See Coming

One of the most common frustrations among job seekers is being ghosted after multiple rounds of interviews. A candidate invests time, preparation, and emotional energy into a process, only to hear nothing back. As Rocio points out, “If that company doesn’t complete the circle and say, hey, we’re moving on to someone else, the ghosting is going to stay in that person’s mind.”

That memory has consequences. A candidate who gets ghosted may eventually land a role where they have purchasing power. If that former employer shows up as a potential vendor, the unfinished experience could cost them the deal. Ghosting is a branding failure, and most companies don’t think about it that way.

Lee shared a personal example where he was seemingly ghosted after three rounds of interviews with a global company. Months later, the company came back with a higher-level position that was a better fit. Had he lashed out publicly about the silence, it could have killed the opportunity entirely. The takeaway: how you respond to frustration is visible, and potential employers are watching.

AI Gets Too Much Credit for the Hiring Freeze

It’s easy to point to AI as the reason companies are cutting roles. And yes, some repetitive positions have been reduced. But the bigger driver behind the hiring freeze is economic uncertainty. Lee put it plainly: “AI is a cop out. I think there’s a lot more going on with the economy.”

Businesses affected by tariffs and shifting regulations can’t confidently plan their budgets past six to eight months. If a company doesn’t know how much revenue it will have, it can’t commit to headcount. That uncertainty trickles down to every open position that stays unfilled and every hire that gets delayed.

On the positive side, some companies are adjusting their job requirements downward. Where postings once demanded 10 years of experience for mid-level roles, many are now listing three to five. Part of this is practical. Candidates with a few years of solid experience can use AI tools to close the knowledge gap. As Lee notes, “Maybe three years of experience is enough. You may not know everything, but you have enough experience to utilize AI as your coworker to make up for that difference in time.”

What Job Seekers Should Be Doing Right Now

Rocio’s advice to anyone in between roles is simple: be vocal. Sitting quietly and hoping someone notices your resume is not a strategy. The people who are getting traction are the ones showing up, both online and in person.

“You have to be visible on LinkedIn. You have to show up to networking events. You have to start volunteering things. You really have to exhaust every single avenue you can think of. And it’s so sad to say that you have to go through all these things, but as someone that’s living it and has done it, it really does make a difference.” — Rocio Osuna

That said, there’s a balance between being visible and being reckless. Your personal brand lives online for years. Venting about a bad experience might feel justified in the moment, but a potential employer will find it. The better approach is to frame setbacks as learning experiences and share what you’ve gained, not just what went wrong.

Networking plays a huge role as well. Rocio described how people regularly reach out to her after seeing her LinkedIn posts, asking what she’s doing to get referrals and make connections. Those conversations often lead to new strategies that job seekers hadn’t considered before. The job search is exhausting, but the people who keep pushing through every available channel are the ones who land the next opportunity.

Continuing the Conversation

Rocio Osuna joins the Business of Marketing as co-host for Season 5, bringing a fresh perspective from someone actively navigating the marketing job market. Connect with her on LinkedIn to follow her story. For more episodes and marketing insights, visit Content Monsta.

Thanks for listening to The Business of Marketing podcast.

Feel free to contact the hosts and ask additional questions, we would love to answer them on the show.

Full Transcript

Rocio Osuna [00:00:00]:
It really takes so much grit to find a position in this very wild job market. You have to be visible on LinkedIn, you have to show up to networking events, you have to start volunteering things. You really have to exhaust every single avenue you can think of. And it’s so sad to say that you have to go through all these things, but as someone that’s living it and has done it, it really does make a difference.

A. Lee Judge [00:00:23]:
Welcome to the business of marketing. I’m a Lee Judge. We’re entering our fifth season of the Business of marketing and I’m so excited because it’s going to be very different this time. There’s someone that I met through LinkedIn whose story has inspired me so much that I want a co host. I want somebody who we can talk marketing together, we can interview people who are in the marketing world, in the business world together. And this person struck me because of their grit and their, the personal brand they’re building. And the interesting part is the brand is being built while they’re in between careers setting up. So I think, well, I may not have it for very long, but at least during the journey we’ll learn a lot together.

A. Lee Judge [00:01:02]:
So welcome the new co host of the business of Marketing, Rocio Osuna.

Rocio Osuna [00:01:07]:
Hey, thanks for having me, Lee. It’s a pleasure. Honestly, the DM that you sent to LinkedIn was awesome. It was really great meeting you at Content Marketing World. And who would have thought? X months from now, here we are.

A. Lee Judge [00:01:23]:
Yeah. Yeah. And I’m glad that, you know, I’m a bit of an introvert in public. Despite being on stage, when I’m off stage, I’m not the one to walk up to people. And so I’m glad you walked up to me and I got a chance to meet you in person and it made this, this Internet connection real. And I’m looking forward to the conversations and this episode. I want to talk about something that is really on a lot of folks minds right now and that you’ve become, um, somewhat of an expert in because you’re going through this phase, you’re building this personal brand which may not have been your purpose, but because of your grit and the way you’ve been sharing the learning experience of looking for the next phase of your career. You’ve learned a lot and you’ve been sharing a lot and it’s so valuable to others who are in that same position that I wanted to ask you about that, get your take on what’s going on in the market right now and maybe even inspire some Folks who are also in the same phase to understand what’s going on.

A. Lee Judge [00:02:22]:
And so tell me, what have you seen out there as you’ve been out in the jungle, trying to see what the next phase in your career is going to be?

Rocio Osuna [00:02:31]:
So it’s the Wild West. I think we’ve seen it all. If you, if you spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, you’ve seen the posts where layoff after layoff, right? 2025 is pretty huge with layoffs. And then 2026 continued with that, you know, large companies, I was taking numbers, you know, UPS, Amazon, 16Aslee, 16K, Meta, and Tesla. Keep going. So it’s just one of those things where the market is so insane. There’s so many people applying for one role. You know, very talented people that are, you know, suffering through this layoff that is obviously something that they didn’t bet on, something that everyone’s suffering through.

Rocio Osuna [00:03:14]:
And it’s just creating this huge saturated market of incredibly talented folks. And then obviously it’s a, for lack of a better term, a seller market. Right. So employers are now out there able to kind of wait for that unicorn. But also with that, so many people are just not even getting a second chance or any kind of chance whatsoever. So it’s really quite an insane job market right now.

A. Lee Judge [00:03:44]:
I was, I heard the phrase this morning that we’re kind of in a no fire, no hire phrase phase. Like, you know, we’ve had a lot of firing, a lot of layoffs, but at the same time, companies are being slow to let go of people and then they’re not replacing people who, who are leaving. So what are you seeing in terms of, what, what’s your, what are your thoughts on that in terms of companies, the turnover and the job openings? And do you think, I guess you have some insight when it comes to, like, what kinds of jobs are opening?

Rocio Osuna [00:04:17]:
Yes. So what I’m seeing is I feel like everyone’s kind of afraid of AI is going to take your job. Right. So the whole idea of, you know, layoff saying that AI has really come in and gotten rid of some repetitive positions, but I feel that that’s going to suffer because, you know, a lot of people are going to see that, okay, I can do a certain thing, but next year or the next couple of months or whatever it might be in time frame, we’re gonna have to rehire for those job because AI isn’t 100% right. So a lot of the jobs that I’m seeing, I’m in the marketing industry, obviously. Lots of other industries are still looking, but marketing manager jobs are still open. Director jobs are still open. I am seeing that weird positions where there’s companies are opening, Director mid level positions and position positioning them at a salary range of a coordinator.

Rocio Osuna [00:05:10]:
So it’s really interesting to see all of these positions sometimes with companies knowing that unfortunately there’s a lot of people out there, someone’s going to take it, right? But as you know, you’ve been in marketing sales, when you’re giving someone who’s an entry level position, the salary of a coordinator like that’s not really going to do well in the long term, right?

A. Lee Judge [00:05:30]:
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A. Lee Judge [00:06:06]:
Now back to the content. I think a lot of what is going on with from the employer standpoint is that, well, the problem of you can’t hire somebody at a manager level if they’ve never been through the first levels. Which means that, you know, how does somebody become a manager if they don’t have the experience of being a first year marketer, intern or whatever. But at the same time you got folks who had that experience who are out there and they should be getting these manager even you know, director VP positions. But perhaps the price of what’s being paid is being drawn down by this, this I guess temporary, I hope, belief that they can get people for less, for less money without paying for the experience.

Rocio Osuna [00:06:55]:
And there’s obviously a huge, huge amount of people out there that are talented and able to fulfill that role obviously at a correct salary. But it’s really insane to see a lot of the things that are happening that, you know, I speak to a lot of other people that are in between as well and what they’re seeing, and I’m seeing the same thing, you know, the. There’s people that are ghosting. I think one of the things that I see a lot is the anger on LinkedIn posts where people are very angry about ghosting in the sense that, you know, they apply for a role and they go through several rounds and then never hear back and they think that’s not Very empathetic. That hurts the company. You know, as a company, that person’s going to eventually find a role. If that company doesn’t complete the circle and say, hey, we’re moving on to someone else, the ghosting is going to stay in that person’s mind. And what if down the line that person comes up with that company as a potential vendor and they ignore the vendor because they have that experience? So the ghosting thing in my marketing brain is always thinking, close the loop.

Rocio Osuna [00:08:00]:
You’ve already started someone in the process. And two, it’s a branding thing too for the company. You know, they don’t think sometimes long term about that effect they have on the person immediately and in the future.

A. Lee Judge [00:08:15]:
So speaking of long term, what does that do for the person who’s applying? And then they get vocal on somewhere like LinkedIn about being ghosted. Couldn’t that harm them in the long run if they’ve already spoken out about a company or about being ghosted? Like how does that, what’s the perception of that person if they lashed out about being ghosted?

Rocio Osuna [00:08:35]:
I think personally for me, you know, everyone has control of their personal brand and can say whatever you know, they can say about their experiences. But with having opinions, you really have to be safe about what you say, right? If an employer searches you, they’re going to find that. Right. So you have to really position yourself in a safe way as well. You have to really be careful. You really have to know that these things live online for a long time. So really be careful about what you say. If your whole personal brand is, you know, I’m going to say everything and anything and that’s who you are, then that makes sense.

Rocio Osuna [00:09:09]:
But if you are going to be working for a company, not yourself, you might have to really safeguard what you say and be safe. Personal brand will live on for years.

A. Lee Judge [00:09:17]:
I’ll tell you a story along those lines where the last job that I actually worked in corporate, I interviewed in September. I have one, two, I think three interviews between September and the early, early October with three different levels of management in three different countries. Cause it’s a global company. And so I’m thinking, okay, I’ve done made, I’ve made round three, I’ve talked to the VP and all these different levels and they ghost me after all that three interviews I had to prepare for and be nervous through and give three interviews and they ghost me early October and then I reach out to them late October, I guess, early November and say, hey, what happened? I mean, we had all these Interviews, I haven’t heard from you in weeks. What’s going on? And they said, well, we’re, we’re doing some restructuring. We haven’t forgotten about you, but we’re thinking we’re looking at other positions. I didn’t know what that exactly meant, if that meant other people or, you know, whatever. Still ghost me the rest of November, beginning of December, they called me up for another interview and I’m like, why am I interviewing again? They didn’t exactly explain it on the first and second additional interview.

A. Lee Judge [00:10:29]:
So this is really the fourth and fifth. The sixth interview I was, it was explained that it was a different division of the same company that had a better, higher up position available that they thought I was better fit for. So the reality was my first three interviews were they found out that I was overqualified for what they interviewed me for, but they did want me somehow or another. And so then they started up another round for a higher position and they hired me like mid December. So from September to December, I was strung along, so to speak, and they said, oh, by the way, since it’s so late December, just start January 1st and can you be in Switzerland the 6th? I was like, what? You know, I get hired and I haven’t got my badge yet and I’m already getting a ticket. And so that was a case where if I had lashed out or been vocal about being ghosted, which I certainly felt like I was, if that had gotten the rounds to those people that I said that about, it would have definitely squashed that opportunity when it came up, because I didn’t know who was looking at my LinkedIn profile, for example, during that time. But it would have been a pretty bad stain to say, this person we’re trying to hire was out there saying, ugh, woe was me, or saying that this company ghosted me. So I would say to anybody applying, be careful what you say online.

A. Lee Judge [00:11:59]:
Even if you don’t name the company, it’s a. It shows your personality.

Rocio Osuna [00:12:03]:
I would say, yeah, your reaction is definitely something that shows your colors, right? Your true colors. With any kind of situation I go through, I always try to see it as a learning lesson, not just for me, but for other people are going through it. So if, for example, I never hear back from certain rounds, I’ll say, you know, I, I was really excited. Here’s where I learned the key takeaways and hope anyone else that’s going through the same situation learns from what I’ve gone through.

A. Lee Judge [00:12:31]:
I wanted to ask you, are there any standout weird things you’ve seen in job requirements. I remember at one point, and this is years and years ago, but I remember seeing Things like required 10 years Social media experience at a time when social media was five, six years old. So you know, or like someone saying now, you know, required, you know, seven years of AI experience when you know, nobody especially marketing has been thinking about AI for seven years unless you’re a data scientist. So have you seen any things that you think are maybe at least unreasonable in some of the job descriptions lately?

Rocio Osuna [00:13:09]:
The one that I’ve always seen is the remote. I feel like the positions that I apply to in 2025, I get more success on in house roles. Remote is more competitive. Right. Because there’s so many people from out of state that can apply. So it might be marketing manager, parentheses remote, but all the way to the bottom it says, you know, in person. So that’s not really a remote role, that’s a hybrid role potentially. Right.

Rocio Osuna [00:13:33]:
So being clear about what you really mean, and sometimes I feel like when they do that it’s because they get an influx of people applying. Right. You’re going to get a really great set of people applying and, and you can just filter out who you want.

A. Lee Judge [00:13:45]:
Yeah. And I guess test them. Marketing the job versus just being blunt about what it is because even job posts have SEO. Like we’re going to look for things that, oh, I’m looking for a remote job and this job comes up because it says remote, but then the fine print remote, but I need to be closer to come in on Thursday. Like that’s not quite remote, that’s local. They should call it local remote. Like you know, you have a certain number of days you have to come in and just hit obviously local remote versus just completely remote.

Rocio Osuna [00:14:13]:
Yep. And going back to your points there, the things that I’ve seen is sometimes I think people are getting wiser. So back months ago when I started applying to positions, they used to have what you had, example, six years of AI when it really hasn’t been that much. Now they used to do like 10 years of an entry level position to be, you know, an entry level marketing manager. But now they’re lowering it. I’m seeing that now they’re lowering instead of, let’s say 10 for, for a mid level marketing manager, it’s three years, five years. So I don’t know what the strategy is on that. Maybe they learned from last year, but I’m seeing a lot of them not lowering the bar, but just opening up to more people.

Rocio Osuna [00:14:56]:
Maybe to the fact that there’s, you know, a lot of people out there going through layoffs. So maybe they’re leaning into being nicer to having more applications. I don’t know.

A. Lee Judge [00:15:08]:
I think they’re probably finding people who are qualified just don’t have as much time in. I mean, especially considering we hop, we hop positions more often than we used to. Especially the industries like for example, if you’re a marketer in the industrial building field or whatever, you may not have three years in industrial building, but you may have five in marketing. And I know some, some resume or some job descriptions would have a certain number of time in that industry where it’s pretty much irrelevant as long as you have the time in your, your field of marketing, for example. But that’s interesting that that’s shortening. That’s good because I mean, some of that experience, some of that time is time and learning. And from a positive standpoint, when it comes to AI, you may not have to learn as much. You just have to understand more like have experience.

A. Lee Judge [00:16:01]:
Maybe three years of experience is enough. You may not know everything, but you have enough experience to utilize AI as your, your coworker to make up for that difference in time.

Rocio Osuna [00:16:10]:
Yeah, that’s true. That’s probably, that’s probably where it’s going, which is good. You know, I, I really believe that we have a group. You know, it’s an unfortunate situation with the layoffs, but there’s so many talented people out there that hopefully the jobs will open up more so that everyone gets, gets filled into a new position in 2026.

A. Lee Judge [00:16:32]:
And I think that for a lot of it, AI is a cop out. I think there’s a lot more going on with the economy and with, you know, whenever there’s job security, there’s also business security. Like the businesses are insecure on what’s going to be next. I was listening to someone this morning talking about if you’re a business is, can be affected by tariffs, then you can’t make a plan to spend X number of dollars in the next year because you don’t know what you have to spend. You don’t know what’s going to be imposed on you. So if you’re looking at your budgeting and it’s okay, how many dollars come in, how many can be allocated to employees, you can’t even plan that past six, eight months because you don’t know what that money is, which leads to this hiring freeze because they just don’t know. And that’s the real trickle down. The trickle down is that if companies don’t know what to do, they don’t know who to hire, and that leaves employees or potential employees waiting for them to make a move.

Rocio Osuna [00:17:33]:
Great. It is. Hopefully the hiring freeze unfreezes because there’s a lot of really, like I said, really amazing people out there. And I’ve seen it. I’ve personally met so many great people off LinkedIn who messaged me after seeing one of my posts and say, hey, you know, your post resonated with me. What is it that you’re doing, you know, to get you referrals or whatnot, you know, and then I go ahead and meet with them on Zoom or on video and I share what I’ve done. And it really allows them to kind of think through their different strategy of how to go ahead and try to find a job themselves with something they didn’t even think about before.

A. Lee Judge [00:18:11]:
Well, Rosie, I want to kind of wrap up on this note. I mean, I reached out to you knowing or feeling in my heart that I won’t have you for long. And so I’m looking forward to this, this season of having conversations with you and us both, inquiring, asking other people questions during the show, and learning more about marketing and sales together as we talk to the industry and share with others. I’ll tell the audience, given what I’ve seen of you and your grit, you won’t be available for long. But I hope that even after somebody snatches you up, you’ll still work with me on this show because it’s going to be great. I really look forward to it. What. What kind of parting words do you have for.

A. Lee Judge [00:18:54]:
For this episode before people who are out there on a job hunt right now and who don’t know whether to just, you know, send resumes or boost their personal brand or be vocal or be quiet. What do you think some of the best routes to go would be?

Rocio Osuna [00:19:11]:
Be vocal. I feel like a lot of people, you know, I’m seeing my feed on LinkedIn with people finally saying, you know, I’ve been laid off. You know, I need help. The first thing is to ask for help. If you’re just kind of in the background hoping that someone will notice. You really have to be vocal about your situation and what you need, whether that’s reaching out to coworkers or someone that you might know. It really takes so much grit to find a position in this very wild job market. You really need to be not, obviously doing everything you can by calling all your potential networking folks.

Rocio Osuna [00:19:47]:
You have to be visible on LinkedIn. You have to show up to networking events. You have to start volunteering things. You really have to exhaust every single avenue you can think of. And it’s so sad to say that you have to go through all these things, but as someone that’s living it and has done it, it really does make a difference. You have to exhaust every single avenue you can think of and sometimes even keep going when you think that’s it. Because you know the end goal is to find employment. So you have to keep going.

Rocio Osuna [00:20:14]:
It’s just an exhaustive situation, but I know that everyone’s going to find a position. I know there’s people out there that have been looking for months, years. It’s going to happen. Don’t give up. It’s going to happen.

A. Lee Judge [00:20:27]:
Awesome Mic drop. So this is where we would normally say, you know, I would ask a guest how can they find you? But the audience listening right now, they will find you on the business of marketing going forward. So I look forward to and thank you for joining me. I just want to tell you thank you for not joining for one episode, but joining as a co host. I’m looking forward to it and it’s going to be fun.

Rocio Osuna [00:20:51]:
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate the time and I appreciate all our conversations. I can’t wait to learn from all our guests and from you. Thank you for listening to the Business of Marketing Podcast, a show brought to you by ContentMonsta.com, the producer of B2B digital marketing content. Show notes can be found on ContentMonsta.com as well as Alead.com.