Job Postings Tell Us Something About Needed Technology Skills from Graduates

One big question often asked is what technology skills do graduates need in order to find their first marketing job. There are lots of ways to look at this problem but using job postings is a great idea for understanding what employers are seeking. It is they who do the hiring so it is they who have some level of expectation from graduates.

After an analysis of job postings it was determined that basic skills needed by graduates was analytic skills, life long learning mindset, ability to work independently (Schlee & Karns, 2017). The categories were Excel (31%), other software (30%), project management (29%), database skills (27%), data analytics (24%), and web analytics (21%). Employers also wanted graduates to have some type of internship and experience.

What we see is that marketing graduates need general ability to function on their own and look at information critically. Yet they also need to use basic tools in the marketing industry successfully and have some experience doing so. Offering graduates these opportunities may well position them to align to job criteria.

Yet this may also be somewhat dependent on what type of job graduates expect to have, what area, and at what pay. However, as a basic entry point this knowledge is helpful because curriculum can be adjusted to provide more exposure to these needed skills. Still...the student will need to list that on their resume to have it noticed.

Schlee, R. & Karns, G. (2017). Job requirements for marketing graduates: are there differences in the knowledge, skills, and personal attributes needed for different salary levels? Journal of Marketing Education, 39 (2).