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For most of us, the start of 2010 brings with it a flurry of regret for the missed opportunities of the past 12 months. This is particularly true when it comes to our current employment, and January is the peak period for jobseekers putting themselves on the market.

Many marketers had a tough year in 2009; they were saddled with significantly reduced budgets and unachievable targets meaning that Christmas bonus payments were meagre at best. As economists wax lyrical about the green shoots of recovery, arguably, now seems like the perfect time to start looking for fresh challenges.

However, Mhairi McEwan, co-founder and joint managing director of consultancy Brand Learning points out that it is not always necessary to jump ship to get ahead. ‘The key is not to leave your job just because you feel hard done by or just for the sake of it - there may be roles in other parts of the business where you can excel,' she says. Indeed, for marketers aspiring to the chief executive's job, gaining exposure to other parts of their business is essential.

There is still growing dissatisfaction among mid-level marketers who have found their career progression stalled by a superior's inability or unwillingness to move on. This means that some brand managers are not only working with smaller budgets, but are also expected to put up with a pay freeze coupled with increased responsibility.

‘We aren't recruiting assistant brand managers any more, so most of us at the brand manager level are facing a bigger workload,' says one brand manager at a major FMCG company. ‘It gets to a point when you have to ask yourself, is it really worth it ?'

Selective approach

This has led many marketers to put job-hunting at the top of their agenda in 2010. As a result, many recruitment agencies are reporting unexpectedly high levels of business. Jack Gratton, chief executive of Major Players, advises marketers not to deluge consultants with applications. ‘People are applying to six or seven recruitment agencies and then apply-ing for multiple jobs,' he says. By not being selective, candidates are betraying a lack of clarity about what they want to do and risk looking desperate.

Marketers would be wise to think of job-hunting as akin to online dating. They should be selectIve about the brands and recruiters they approach.

Ali Wallace, managing director of specialist recruiter Dynamic New Allian-ces, believes the mood of caution, which has caused many marketers to stay put recently, is starting to ease. ‘Generally, many businesses aren't paying bonuses and this is prompting talent to look for new opportunities,' he says.

The question remains, however, as to whether there are enough opportunities for this growing band of dissatisfied marketers. Wallace warns that ‘at the top end there aren't so many positions, so candidates will need to spend even longer securing a position', but adds that ‘this has always been the case'.

At the same time, there are skill gaps in some areas and so some positions are proving very difficult to fill. ‘Graduates assume there aren't many jobs, so the number attending job fairs and graduate recruitment days is going down,' says Gratton. While there are still more graduates than positions, the expected influx of fresh talent from the battered financial sector has failed to materialise. Those graduates with their eyes on the prize of cold, hard cash are still flocking to big City institutions.

The lack of graduate recruitment dur-ing 2009 will only exacerbate the lack of competent mid-level mark-eters, particul-arly in the digital arena. Gratton advises junior marketers to build up a good level of experience in search and the tech-nical aspects of digital marketing. ‘There is clearly a skills shortage in these areas and its becoming even harder for brands to recruit,' he says.

Greater flexibility

This context is familiar to Matt Anderson, managing director of Hays Marketing, who indicates that, over the past year, the demand for highly experienced and specialist marketers has grown sharply. ‘We are seeing increased recruitment for roles such as head of brand, head of customer insight and marketing managers within the construction and aggregate sectors,' he says.

In addition, companies are becoming more flexible when it comes to hiring marketers. There has been a notable rise in short-term roles, which can be a good option for jobseekers. ‘An interim position can offer a marketer a broader range of experience of different projects and organisations,' says Anderson.

There has also been a surge in internships, which are often unpaid. Such positions have long been one of the less appealing aspects of marketing industry practice, but one of the unfortunate consequences of the current downturn has been to increase their prevalence.

Marketing and creative agencies are reliant on this approach, which some believe is exacerbating the lack of diversity in the marketing industry. For many graduates lacking an additional source of financial support to sustain them during the early years, starting a career in the creative industries is simply not affordable.

In this climate, it is understandable that some marketers prefer to sit tight and ride out the recession. However,  McEwan advises them to look beyond the downturn and instead focus on creating a vision of where they want to be in five years' time. ‘Financially, things aren't suddenly going to get better,' she says. ‘Not only will competition be tough, but the expectations placed on marketers will be greater.'

However, Wallace warns that some businesses are underestimating the speed with which the recovery could arrive and suggests they could lose between 10% and 20% of their work-force. With many marketers poised to jump ship at the earliest opportunity, firms that failed to look after their staff during the recession may come to regret their short-sightedness.

Top 10 tips for netting your dream job

1 Write in plain English

Marketers may have their own trade language, but recruiters say it is best
to leave out the technical jargon until the interview.

2 Tailor your application

A generic one-size-fits-all approach just doesn't cut it any more. Consultants recommend tailoring both your CV and covering letter to the specifics of each individual position for which you apply. Copying and pasting may well be easier but putting in the extra effort is vital in order to secure an interview.

3 Make sure there are no typos

Triple-check your application and get someone else to read it before you send it. Recruiters will tell tales of copywriters and marketers boasting about their ‘eye for detail' in applic-ations littered with simple errors.

4 Sell yourself online

Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date and check that the privacy settings on your Facebook account prevent strangers from viewing embarrassing pictures taken on nights out, for example. After all, you want to make sure pot-ential employers see your best side, not your backside.

5 Do your research

There is no point in claiming to be pass-ionate about a sector and then turning up to an interview knowing nothing about it. You must be familiar both with the brands you are seeking to work for and their key com-p-etitors.

6 Avoid the scatter-gun approach

Don't apply aimlessly and register with every recruitment consultancy under the sun. This can make you appear desperate, which means recruiters will be less inclined to take you seriously and put you forward for plum roles.

7 Use your contacts

Being out of work or disenchanted in your job can be isolating, so get out and talk to as many people as possible. It is always good to get another view-point and expand your network.

8 Show some personality

This is clearly a tricky area - while some potential employers may be drawn in by quirky style, others may find it a turn-off. A candidate who lists her interests with the one-word explanation, Beyoncé, may well be limiting their appeal.

9 Blow your own trumpet

While it has never been a traditionally British trait, ensuring you assert ownership over your creative ideas and campaigns is crucial. Many marketers' careers have been built on taking the credit for the ideas of others. Make sure you don't end up on the wrong end of this.

10 Never underestimate the importance of good manners

Pity the team of creatives that found itself pitching to a client who had, in a previous incarnation, been at the sharp end of its agency's sorry excuse for a graduate.