Professionals around the world use LinkedIn to network, share their accomplishments, and discover new career opportunities.

I’ve personally used LinkedIn to land multiple interviews and job offers and, as a recruiter, to source candidates for open marketing roles.

That’s why I was excited to have the opportunity to speak with Catherine Linn, a Sr. Product Marketing Manager at LinkedIn, to learn more about her career journey in marketing and how LinkedIn can help marketing job seekers land their next role.

Catherine has over five years of experience in the product marketing field and has also worked for companies such as Tripadvisor and Upwork as Product Marketing Manager.

Catherine has experience in B2B and B2C product marketing, but she didn’t start out as a product marketer. In our chat, she discusses her career journey and shares tips for job seekers looking to transfer into product marketing or from B2B to B2C marketing roles.

In this interview, you will learn:

Pros and cons of B2B and B2C marketing from a product marketer’s perspectives
The importance of negotiation and relationship building skills in product marketing roles
Tips on how to transition into product marketing and skills needed to be successful in product marketing roles
How keeping your LinkedIn profile up-to-date can lead to networking and career opportunities
Great marketing resources that help her keep up with the marketing trends

Here’s a glance at this interview…

[2:15] Lydia: What made you change into the product marketing field?

Catherine: I can give you a little bit of background on how I started in marketing. In college, I studied communications and media, and I had always intended to go into the marketing advertising field …

[6:55] Lydia: Can you share all the pros and cons when you work with B2C products and B2B products, because I think that background is really interesting and I’m sure lots of marketers are trying to switch maybe from B2B to B2C or vice versa. So I would like to hear about your perspectives on this?

Catherine: I think with B2C, it was a lot more about creating this narrative of who you are and why you would want to purchase or use the product I was working on…

[11:04] Lydia: What would you say is your favorite part in your current role?

Catherine: There’s a lot, I really love Product Marketing Manager (PMM), which is why I’ve decided to continue doing it. But I would say that PMM is a very collaborative role, so I enjoy having the opportunity to work with people from all across the company in all different kinds of fields…

[15:43] Lydia: For people who may want to start to switch to the product marketing field, what kind of challenges does this kind of role face, and maybe you could give some tips or advice for people who are considering joining the product marketing field.

Catherine: The one thing that took me a while to learn, because I didn’t really have a mentor coming into product marketing, I was just learning on my own, but the one thing that I would say is having your own vision or thoughts on what you think a product should be…

[18:15] Lydia: How did you land your job at LinkedIn? Do you have any job search tips, or maybe career advice, that can help people who want to join LinkedIn?

Catherine: I was actually recruited by LinkedIn for a role at LinkedIn; my tip is having your profile updated to whatever it is that you’re currently working on, skills that you want to focus on, the type of role that you want to have in your career…

[21:25] Lydia: Do you have any resources you can share with marketing professionals to help them keep updated with marketing trends or maybe just keep learning about what’s new in marketing?

Catherine: If you find some people who are in the space you want to be in and start following them, and also if they produce enough content — there are always content creators out there who are talking about different fields that they’re in…