Competition for Roles in the Digital Market

So we are in Recession, or at least experiencing economic decline. How has this affected the job market in the digital media space? Unsurprisingly there is a bit of good news but also a bit of bad.

Let’s get bad out of the way first!

Quite simply, many professionals from across the market have lost their jobs. Whether you are a junior designer and copped the “last in first out” syndrome or a senior professional that is “unfortunate” enough to be a big earner you may well have found yourself expendable. Of course some businesses have not coped at all well and have closed down, cowering under the weight of unfulfilled expectation. This has created a rich candidate pool and one that has become highly competitive.

On the good side the industry is still showing signs of growth, although depleted, and so there are worse markets to be involved in. In fact some would say we have been extremely lucky to have been involved in digital during this precarious time. The industry has shown to be robust, resilient and strong enough to react and offer further innovation. Businesses that are finding it difficult have embraced the online platform to get their message across to their customers. This has resulted in opportunity for professionals to join highly innovative businesses in the digital space and find a career path that may not have been as clearly defined as before.

So where is the competition at its fiercest?

I have never known the market to have so many client-facing professionals looking for work. This is great news for agencies that are recruiting for these skills because 12 months ago they were as rare as a vote now is for the Labour Party! Account Executives, Account Managers / Directors and CSD’s have found themselves out of work, not through under-performance but mainly due to their clients folding or restricting their advertising budget. The interview process is now crucial as decisions are being based on personality and culture match as experience levels are so similar. The opportunities are out there but if you turn up with a Java Chip Frappuccino in hand and i-Pod plugged in don’t expect the business to be welcoming you back for a second interview.

Creative and technical staff do seem to have fared better, indicating that employers are keen to maintain their production levels. New roles have remained consistent so the competition has remained roughly the same. Project Managers, Producers and Production Managers have not been as lucky although again there is opportunity out there, although there is a larger quantity of other applicants for these roles too.

The biggest winners in all this are the contractors, particularly those who are responsible for the user journey, the motto being buy them in and let them go once they’ve done their bit.

Search went through a peak period recently, and there is still great demand. A slight reduction was inevitable although Paid Search specialists should be a little more concerned than their SEO counterparts. Interesting to see that the client-side is now starting to offer positions in this space, an area traditionally dominated by specialist agencies until recently

I couldn’t possibly cover all disciplines in a short blog piece but my general feeling is that the digital market as a whole is coping well and creating excellent opportunities for those with the talent and motivation to seek out the best opportunities. My observations are open to debate, and crucially digital is such a fast-moving industry that trends can change dramatically in a short space of time.

However, for now the competition for roles is greater than it has been for some time, possibly ever, so get talking to people who understand the dynamics of recruitment in the digital arena.

Our number is 01527 64288.

Ashley Seddon
ashley.seddon@digitalpersonnel.co.uk

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 11:23 am and is filed under Digital Media News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.