With so many businesses struggling to find permanent marketing hires, many are instead filling the gaps with temporary hires. The resulting boom in temp marketing roles is a great opportunity for qualified candidates. But, how do you know if marketing contract or temp work is the right career move for you, instead of further permanent work?

Temporary, contract or interim marketing work could be the start of an exciting new phase in your professional life and give you the opportunity to develop an incredible new skill set. Here’s how to decide whether a marketing temp position is right for you:

What are the benefits of marketing temp work?

Taking on a temp role in the marketing sector comes with some huge benefits to your professional growth. Here are some of the highlights:

• Gain experience. It gives you the chance to work on interesting and varied contracts, increase your experiences and develop new skills in a relatively short space of time.
• Dive straight in. If you’ve been hired for a specific role or project, you’re unlikely to get bogged down in the bureaucracy and office politics that can affect permanent job roles, allowing you to really focus on getting things done.
• Make a difference. You’ll have the opportunity to drive change and demonstrate clearly what you’ve achieved by the end of the contract.
• Create opportunities. Contracting is a great way to get a “foot in the door” with organisations and sectors you may be interested in. Temporary roles can sometimes lead to permanent offers, and it’s a useful opportunity to test the waters in different sectors.
• Control your schedule. You’ll have the flexibility to take time off between contracts – ideal if you have family commitments, study, or a dream holiday planned.
• Always learning. The ability to demonstrate your skills in challenging situations with marketing temp work means you’ll soon get used to picking things up quickly and getting to grips with new challenges. This level of initiative, drive, resilience and people skills is highly attractive attributes to employers.