I have noticed that there are quite a few big brand companies out there looking for Digital Marketing Managers and they have been posting for many, many months.  I have also seen a rise in the number of head-hunters contacting me since September.  Digital Marketing is finally starting to reach the pinnacle of the job market demand cycle but it seems that most human resource departments don’t have a clear idea of what they need nor how to hire for these positions.

I have noticed that many of the job advertisements are asking for a slew of qualifications that are often not found together. Many are asking for 5+ years of digital marketing experience along with expert knowledge of HTML and/or PHP programming.  This is like looking for an expert plumber but asking that they also be a professional electrician and have experience as an architect.

Digital marketing as a career is less than a decade old and has only been taught in most higher education settings for half that time.  It takes a large commitment to become an expert and certainly leaves little time to conquer a programming language or two along the way. The PetValu position has been posted on and off for at least a year now, I had a gentleman from a recruiting agency try very hard to coax me into an interview.  I asked some questions, really more curious than anything else and I found out that the job entailed a lot of responsibility and expert digital marketing and people management skills but only paid a maximum of $85k, while this is likely in the 70th percentile or higher of remuneration for this job title, it is certainly much lower than would be needed to find someone with the skills and experience to handle the job.

Actually, SEO job availability in general has been up! This is good news for newer graduates looking to break into the job market.

I guess only time will help but I would love to see human resource departments get a better handle on how to hire for this type of position and with competition this fierce I would expect salaries to rise.

Update, December 7, 2016 – Almost a year has gone by since I wrote this post and I recently had a couple of recruiters comment on the fact that it is still very relevant right now and will probably be for 2017 as well.  Although it is a slow time of the year for hiring I was still able to find a good selection of Digital Marketing Manager opportunities.

Have a wonderful holiday and I wish all of you a successful 2017!