Side hustles should count as experience on every marketing application

Last updated: October 2026 · Written by Adrian Prokopiec, founder of 20 Minute Marketing · 7 min read

The straight answer: In Adrian Prokopiec's view, side hustles should count as experience on every marketing application. If you found customers, wrote the copy, ran the ads or grew the audience, you did marketing, whether or not anyone paid you a salary for it. The key is writing it on your CV as marketing work, with honest numbers and an honest sense of scale.

Working more than one job is normal now

Plenty of Australians already work more than one job. The ABS reports there were 1.0 million multiple job-holders in June 2026, or 6.9 per cent of employed people (seasonally adjusted). Not every second job is a side hustle, and plenty of side hustles are too small or too new to show up in those figures. But it tells you something: having more than one thing on the go is ordinary, not a quirk to hide at the bottom of your CV.

I run digital marketing for two national brands and I've spent more than 25 years in marketing with major Australian brands. My opinion is that the marketing industry has been slow to treat this kind of work as real experience. I think that's a mistake, for applicants and for the people hiring them.

Why a side hustle is marketing experience

Marketing is the work of finding people who might want something, persuading them to try it and measuring whether it worked. A side hustle forces you to do all three, usually with a tiny budget and no one to hand it to. The skills don't change because the business is small.

Notice what isn't in that table: the size of the business. A hiring manager for a junior role isn't asking whether you've managed a national budget. They're asking whether you understand how marketing works when it meets real customers. A side hustle answers that.

A side hustle also comes with something a lot of junior applicants lack: proof you can point to. The shop is live. The newsletter archive is public. The Instagram account shows every post you made and how people responded. You can screenshot an ad account or an email report and remove anything private. That gives a hiring manager something concrete to check and to ask you about, which in my experience of reading applications is worth far more than another line of adjectives about being "passionate" and a "fast learner".

📚 Applying without formal experience? See digital marketing jobs with no experience, and what they ask for.

How to write a side hustle on your CV

Most people bury side work under "Interests" or describe what the business sells instead of what they did. Fix both.

• Put it under Experience. List it with dates like any other role.
• Give yourself a functional title. "Founder and marketer" or "Freelance social media manager" says more than "Owner".
• Lead with marketing verbs. Wrote, launched, tested, grew, measured, reported.
• Name the tools. Meta Ads Manager, Canva, Shopify, Mailchimp, GA4. These match the keywords in the ads you're applying for.
• Use real numbers, with a time frame. Followers, subscribers, sales, enquiries, cost per result. If the numbers are small, keep them. Small and true is fine.

Here is an illustrative before and after for a handmade candle shop. Swap in your own facts; never invent figures.

The "after" is longer, but every phrase is something a hiring manager can ask you about. That's the point. For the bigger picture on getting into the field this way, see how to become a digital marketer in Australia without a degree.

Where the other side has a point

"Every application" is a strong claim, so let me be fair to the sceptics.

Some side hustles are thin. An Instagram account you posted on for a month, or a shop that made three sales, isn't the same as a year of steady work. Hiring managers have seen plenty of CVs that dress up a weekend project as a business. If yours was small or short, say so and focus on what you learned. Overclaiming does more damage than a modest line.

Scale and teamwork are different skills. Running everything yourself on a small budget doesn't show you can work within brand guidelines, approval processes or agency relationships. Acknowledge that gap and explain how you'd close it.

Some employers worry about focus. A hiring manager may wonder whether your side business will compete with the job. Be ready to explain how much time it takes and whether it will continue. If you're already employed, check what your current employment agreement says about outside work.

Where I draw the line: none of this means side work should be left off. It means it should be described honestly. A small, real side hustle written up well beats a blank space on almost every junior marketing application.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I put my side hustle on my CV for a marketing job?

Yes, if you did marketing for it. List it under Experience with a functional title, the tools you used and real numbers with a time frame.

How many Australians have more than one job?

The ABS reports 1.0 million multiple job-holders in June 2026, which is 6.9 per cent of employed people in seasonally adjusted terms.

What if my side hustle was small?

Include it and be honest about the scale. Small, accurate numbers and a clear account of what you learned are more convincing than inflated claims.

What job title should I use for my own side business?

Use a title that describes the work you did, such as "Founder and marketer" or "Freelance social media manager", rather than just "Owner".

Do hiring managers really value side hustles?

In Adrian Prokopiec's view, many do when the work is described as marketing and backed by evidence. Some will question scale and focus, so be ready to talk about both.

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