Comment: Why jobs in social, mobile and tablet apps are in vogue

Puregenie boss Ian Brooks looks at the latest digital recruitment trends

Puregenie boss Ian Brooks looks at the latest digital recruitment trends.

Along with Travolution, Puregenie celebrated its fifth birthday this year, so it’s a good time to reflect on past and present trends in digital recruitment.

Not unsurprisingly, these trends follow shifts in emphasis across the broad set of digital channels available.

Search marketing is omnipresent, although in terms of jobs, the balance has drifted towards natural search.

Those with SEO skills are able to command a premium over paid search marketers, as demand exceeds supply.

Note, however, that employers are increasingly alert to the dangers of anyone deploying ‘black-hat’ SEO techniques, and candidates will receive short shrift if they offer anything other than transparency about how to boost a company’s search rankings.

Email marketing and customer relationship management jobs used to be very much in vogue, and while they have not disappeared, these roles have evolved and are now more about sophisticated data management.

Affiliate marketing jobs appear to be in terminal decline. Once seen as a means of acquiring ‘free’ traffic, companies are more brand-conscious and are investing in new channels.

A few years back content was king; to many it still is, and online content editorial roles are in regular demand. However, sophisticated content management systems means these roles can sometimes be performed by more of a generalist.

To some extent, digital job trends are led by the rise and fall of specialist digital agencies. As a new digital channel emerges, agencies are employed to test them out, then as a company spends more on the channel, it makes sense to bring the role inhouse.

And so to current trends. The emergence of user design and user experience agencies, which test conversion rates, over the past few years has prompted many businesses to bring these roles inhouse. Hence, the demand for user experience managers.

Specialist social media agencies are also popping up. So it won’t be long until we see a surge in demand for social media managers.

Agencies specialising in developing apps for mobile or tablet platforms are exploding, and the clients are not far behind in wanting managers with specialist mobile experience on their payroll. The digital channels are always evolving, as are the types of jobs in demand, and that’s what makes it an exciting space to operate in.