Everyone who's ever scrolled through industry Telegram channels has seen a media buyer or affiliate manager job posting. But what happens on the other side of the process — how recruiters actually screen candidates, what they really look for in a resume, why people don't make it past probation — usually stays behind the scenes.
To make this material useful and honest, we brought in experts who work in niche recruiting.
Our guests today are Anna Siromakha, co-owner of Rivni — the first official platform for finding affiliate marketing specialists, and Tania Volodarska, co-owner of the recruiting agency IDN Recruitment. They speak with candidates every day, conduct interviews, and help companies find the right talent. In this article, they share what hiring in the affiliate industry really looks like, what employers pay attention to in a CV, which mistakes can cost a candidate an offer, and why even strong candidates sometimes fail to make it through the selection process.
How to Get Into Affiliate Marketing: From Job Search to Interview
Which search channels actually work right now — job boards, Telegram chats, personal referrals? What's stopped working completely?
Anna: Everything works. The key is knowing how to convert a contact into a call and a hire, and understanding the specifics of the position you're looking for. And don't forget about specialized platforms — Rivni, for example 🙂
Tania: I'll sign under every word Anna said — all channels work, just differently depending on the position and level. For junior and mid-level, open job postings genuinely work, and Telegram chats are decent for quick market feedback. But for seniors, leads, and C-level, 90% of the time we go through direct outreach, plus we never forget our personal community. Work with recruiting agencies — we do a huge amount of sourcing every day and build our own database)
What immediately catches your eye in a resume, and what sends it straight to rejection?
Anna: It depends on the position — for some roles, the resume itself doesn't matter that much, media buying for example. There, numbers and results matter more; I always look straight at current cases, volumes, and GEO relevance. If it's a designer, SMM, or PR person, I pay special attention to how the resume is put together, since they'll be working with visuals — for them, the resume itself is about taste. Overall, it's important not to overload a resume with information, not to write ten pages, and to write facts and cases and results, not process. Skills, location, contact info, a relevant photo, language skills, and so on — all of that needs to be there.
Tania: For a media buyer, we look straight at the numbers: spend, results, and real experience with specific GEOs and sources.If it’s an affiliate manager, we look at the quality of their active media buyer pool and the volume of traffic they’ve actually brought in — not just the list of conferences they’ve attended.
For C-level (Head of Affiliates or CMO, for example), it's scale: how many people reported to them, what budget, what stage the company was at. Vague filler instead of facts, a confusing timeline, a template list of responsibilities, and a ton of NDAs — always a red flag 🙂
Do a portfolio and case studies help someone get in without experience, or are the odds close to zero without a relevant background?
Anna: Again — it depends. It depends on the client's request. Sometimes an employer wants exactly that kind of junior, sometimes someone completely green. So there's a spot for everyone ;)
Tania: They genuinely help, especially without experience. It really comes down to what the client is asking for — sometimes they want a junior with potential and are ready to train them, sometimes they need someone ready to start yesterday. Case studies aren't a guarantee, but they definitely improve the odds, especially when it's clear the person can think, not just follow someone else's instructions.
What do recruiters actually check in an interview — and what questions do candidates most often stumble on?
Anna: Numbers, metrics, cases, screenshots, proof, approach, analytics — the factual questions. Those matter the most, and that's where people trip up most often.
Tania: Numbers and proof! And of course, people most often stumble not on "what did you do" but on "why did you do it that way." A specialist might know the tool but not be able to explain why they chose that particular solution and what the alternatives were.
Is it realistic to break into the niche from scratch in 2026, or has the window closed?
Anna: It's always realistic. The market keeps growing, and so do the opportunities. On the other hand, you have to understand — this is a business like any other, and along with its ROI, it's changed a lot since 2020. Approach it calmly 🙂 and responsibly.
Tania: It's realistic, but getting in has become more expensive in terms of time and effort. Players and requirements on the market are changing fast. So the "I just want to be in affiliate" approach doesn't work anymore — you need to understand which specific vertical you're going into, and why.
Hiring Trends Right Now
Has demand for media buyers and affiliate managers gone up or down over the past year?
Anna: Gone up. It's always growing. So are the hiring criteria.
Tania: Demand is growing, especially for candidates with proven results, while juniors are openly sought less often — growing someone from scratch is more expensive time-wise now, and companies have gotten more selective.
Which verticals are actively hiring right now, and which ones are people leaving?
Anna: We don't work across all verticals, so I don't have the full picture. But overall I don't see a trend of the popular ones changing. Search feed has pretty much disappeared, though, and some traffic sources have stopped working — that part's true.
Tania: At IDN Recruitment we mostly work with iGaming, affiliate, SaaS, fintech, and martech, so I see the picture from that angle. I'm not seeing a major outflow from the popular verticals — it's more of a redistribution of teams and budgets across GEOs than a full shift in direction.
Remote, office, hybrid — what do companies actually offer, and what do candidates actually ask for?
Anna: Almost everyone is hiring for remote, and that's what candidates want too. A lot of the trends depend on the geography of the hire — in Cyprus, for instance, people often look for office staff, and there's some of that trend in Poland too. In Ukraine, of course, remote is more in demand. I'd say roughly 30/70 overall, where 30 is office/hybrid and 70 is remote.
Tania: Almost all our clients in Europe are hiring for remote or hybrid, and candidates want the same. Purely office-based roles are more the exception for a specific location or specific team than a general trend.
Do candidates’ salary expectations match what companies are willing to pay?
Anna: It varies a lot. Sometimes it's a great match, often people find the median and move based on consensus, and sometimes that's exactly the stage where big hires fall through — especially frustrating when it's a C-level hire.
Tania: Sometimes it's a direct match, sometimes it's way off, especially at C-level — the candidate is anchored to what the market looked like a couple of years ago, while the budget is already different. The only thing that helps is an honest conversation in the moment, laying out the range from both sides right away instead of wasting time.
What used to be an optional requirement and is now a must-have?
Anna: Language skills, metrics, being able to attend conferences, camera on during calls ;) Candidates' soft skills.
Tania: From what I see personally: there's growing demand for people who know how to build AI tools into their work within the niche — that's almost a must-have now, not a bonus on a resume. And basic communication decency: responding on time, giving a heads-up about delays. Sounds minor, but people are paying very close attention to it right now.
Do you often see candidates now who specifically want to work on the product/brand side rather than in affiliate?
Anna: Yes, definitely, especially burned-out buyers and affiliates. There's a belief going around in the affiliate world that working on the product side is completely chill. Nobody thinks about the other specifics that come with working at a brand.
Tania: Yes, candidates move to product for a sense of stability and a clear career track. A product company has levels, reviews, a clear path to lead. But product has its own challenges too — slower processes, a ton of approvals. You have to be ready for that too, not just tune in for a purely "chill" story.
What Happens Behind the Scenes: The Real Story of Hiring
The most common reason someone gets let go in the first three months?
Anna: Lack of results.
Tania: Lack of results and a mismatch on process.
What do candidates most often stretch the truth about in an interview — and how does it come out later?
Anna: The results of their own work — it all comes down to one thing: how current their experience is, or whether it even exists to the extent they claim. It comes out within the first week on the job.
Tania: Most often, their personal contribution and the volumes they worked with. The truth comes out fast, literally in the first week, when they need to show the process instead of just talking about it.
How normal is it to "hop" between companies every six months, and how is that viewed in hiring?
Anna: A red flag for most employers. A lot of them won't even take a first call. Stability is a sign of mastery ;) But a lot of candidates already know that and have found ways to fudge it on their resume.
Tania: What matters to us isn't the fact of changing jobs itself, but the reason. If a candidate grows in title or income with every move, that's normal for a dynamic industry. But if they're just drifting from place to place with no progress — that's worth asking follow-up questions about.
What can a candidate do that permanently ruins the impression of them — even if everything was going well up to that point?
Anna: Going dark — "I'll wait for all my offers, maybe someone will offer a higher rate" — arguing during the interview (yes, that happens!), bad references from a previous job, constant lateness or rescheduling, and plenty more.
Tania: Uncultured communication and outright lying about motivation and numbers. And if a candidate "flounders" on in-depth questions, that's an instant no.
Red flags on the employer's side that a candidate should catch early, before the offer?
Anna: A complete lack of transparency and no real match on the call.
Tania: No specifics on tasks and success metrics — that's a reliable sign things won't get any clearer after you're hired either.
What Candidates and Employers Should Know
Anna: If it's not 100% "yes," it's a definite "no" — that goes for everyone 🙂 I'd also recommend adding selection stages to test hard skills before the job starts. It's better to spend more time on search and selection than on a replacement later. There's a lot more advice I could give here — I just wish everyone finds their perfect match 🙂
Tania: Look for "your people," and don't be afraid to be honest in the process — because a great hire is always about mutual respect and shared values. Build relationships, protect your reputation, and may the work always drive you and bring you joy!
Conclusion
When asked about the most common reason someone gets let go in the first three months, both guests — answering separately — gave nearly the same answer: lack of results. The same logic runs through the rest of the answers: resumes and interviews reward numbers and concrete cases over generic phrasing; salary expectations align when both sides state the actual figures honestly; changing jobs isn't always a red flag — much depends on whether each move came with real growth in role or income. Across all three sections, the same criterion applies: what matters is what can be backed up with facts, not how it's presented.
