Digital Recruitment – A Shapshot
Prosperity has just finished its 2008 Media and Marketing Salary survey – http://www.prosperity.ie/survey.html
As we are the Irish specialists for Digital Recruitment, this area formed an important part of our overall survey.
This sector has been by far the biggest growth area for us, with growth as a share of our recruitment activity increasing by over 20 percent since March of last year. The growth in this sector in Ireland has been significant, with many new online enterprises in the market and from the flurry of activity from traditional agencies launching and expanding their digital divisions. This rapid growth has been excellent for the online industry; however it has led to a shortage in candidates which in turn has led to an increase in salaries for those with digital expertise and experience.
The current problem for our clients is that Digital is still very much in its infancy in Ireland, and therefore there is a shortfall of supply in terms of skilled and experienced digital staff. It is only in the last couple of years that graduates are entering the market with the necessary abilities.
Even though there is a strong demand for digital candidates, we do find that Irish companies are keeping their heads and are not paying high salaries to poorly experienced candidates.
To meet the demands of our clients for highly experienced candidates, Prosperity recruits extensively in the more mature digital markets, primarily : the UK, America and Australia. While we advertise Irish digital jobs to UK and other European Nationals, we also find that many of the candidates we represent are Irish nationals who have gained the requisite experience in the likes of America and are now open to returning to Ireland.
While there is a strong demand for all aspects of Online Marketing , we are currently experiencing a particularly strong demand in the areas of –
• Digital media planning/buying
• PPC and SEO (Search Marketing)
• Online Content – writing and editorial
• The ability to use Ad Serving Technology (in particular, being able to use Doubleclick or Atlas)
• Selling online inventory, and understanding the pricing models – CPC, CPA etc
Whilst the graduates entering the market have an excellent knowledge of these areas, their lack of hands-on experience means that we are a few years off having a fully-stocked market of Digital professionals. Of course, that’s not to say that there aren’t some highly experienced Digital folk out there, it’s just that they are few and far between.
Also, an added factor to the imbalance of supply and demand would be the arrival of new companies to Ireland from other sectors of New Media – Social Networking sites, Mobile Marketing companies, Rich Media Advertising providers etc. More and more of these companies are setting up here, or relocating their current offices here. This is increasing demand yet again.
However it’s not all doom and gloom: we predict that in a relatively short space of time, the balance between supply and demand of Digital talent will even out and we predict healthy days for the Irish market in the near future.
Ellie Doyle – Prosperity.ie
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