Slowly yet relentless the digital age is dawning. In fact, it is probably fair to say that it dawned a decade or more ago and that it is now coming, well and truly, into its own. Digital, in all its forms, is slowly taking over. Be it digital advertising, programming, internet related things, mobile phones or social media, it is all about digital. What this means is that careers and jobs that didn’t even exist ten to twenty years ago are now degree subjects at universities and colleges. This means that often parents or guidance counsellors don’t understand the full gamut of the opportunities that are out there. So, with that in mind, here are a few digital career options that you might want to consider.

The PM

Every project needs a manager. And as much as this is a conventional role that can be found in a range of traditional places (think construction and eventing for example), it is something that is integral to the digital space. When it comes to digital builds, be it websites, design, strategy or social media, almost every project needs a manager who is organised, who understands the language of digital and who can converse eloquently with both clients and the development team. This latter part can often be the trickiest part of the process and with this in mind, a diploma project management is a great idea as it gives authority and clout to go with your management skills.

Community Managers

Digital has become about building communities and engaging with them. Unlike old-school media which was very top-down, with digital and social media it is very much a two-way process. And to do it effectively community managers need to be central to the strategy. These are people who are diplomatic, who are good communicators and who can understand and implement a brief. The better the ability of the community manager to engage the target audience the better the levels of engagement and the return on investment will be.

Coding

If you have an ability with numbers and you like to create things, then coding might be the space for you. It is a very broad field and one that is able to cater for most skill sets and aptitudes. It can be highly creative, and design based, it can be built around complicated databases, or it can be about security and protection. The field is very broad, and youngsters should be encouraged to explore it and to find where their aptitude is.

Search Engine Gurus

Little more than twenty years ago Google did not exist. Now it is one of the biggest brands in the world and the way in which about 85% of all internet users find the websites and products that they are looking for. While search engines are not manually operated like the old-school directory enquiries, they can be subtly manipulated and worked to ensure that the pages that are optimised best for search are the ones that are easiest to find. And this is where SEO teams come into play. It is a serious job and digital platforms who have good SEO teams on their side will inevitably discover that they start to outperform their rivals.