Digital Career Tips

I think one of the reasons digital marketing is attractive to graduates is because it's anything but a static field. It's a fairly unique sector in that it's driven largely by technology innovation and technology innovation affects the way that consumers engage with technology and the way that consumers engage with technology affects the way that marketing can be facilitated. New jobs are created around this all the time. It means that there isn't a sort of leading a path for progression. There are a lot of opportunities to explore; emerging areas are particularly lucrative, perhaps, to work in and exciting as well. The outlook for graduates in the digital sector is really quite good. It's going to be one of the most job rich markets around. In fact, at any level there are more jobs than people which creates quite a lot of demand. Saying that, it is still a very competitive market to get into. Competition is fierce at entry point but lucrative thereafter. Agency salaries typically come in anywhere between about the 18 and 21 K mark. This does vary; there are certain roles that attract a higher salary. A lot of the analytic roles for example, roles that require econometric ability, for example, are going to carry a high salary. There are companies out there that will pay a premium to try and get the cream of the crop as well. Top end realistically 28 K starting would be as high as companies would go at grad level. Progression in the digital media market is generally really good. I've already talked about it being a very job rich market which means there is a lot of demand for candidates and people working within it. It means that once you're in you'll get a lot of attention. You'll get a lot of opportunities presented to you externally and it will be quite tempting to move fairly early on in your career. Looking at salary, there are opportunities to escalate fairly quickly. What perhaps you forfeit in terms of initial starting salary you quite quickly gain longer term through prospects. Competition coming into this sector is pretty heavy. We will typically receive-it would depend on the role-we will typically receive perhaps 150 to 250 applicants per position. Competition is pretty tough. There are a number of things that companies will look for in applications. One of the most fundamental, one of the simplest things is the candidate wants to work specifically for that company. Adding a reference to something the company has done specifically, whether that's something you've seen in the media, something you've picked up on the website, an affinity you have for the brand or the sector the brand works in will have a lot of difference in terms of standing out as an application. Tailoring the cover letters, we're in a market where you are going to have to put quite a few applications in before you start getting the phone ringing, but putting 10% or 20% extra effort into your cover letter is going to make a lot of difference in terms of getting that phone to ring. If you can afford it, literally, internships are a really good way to build up experience which is going to help your application. If you look around, there are good resources to really read up on the area that you are wanting to get in to. I would say that's pretty key as well. Do your research, make sure you know the sector you're going in to, and make sure you reference the research you've done because that will help the application as well.