Digital marketing employability skills in job advertisements – must-have soft skills for entry level workers: A content analysis

Abstract

The aim of the study is to explore the employers' demands for personal skills in graduate and junior positions in the field of digital marketing. The research summarizes the review of academic literature on transferable soft skills, focusing on the digital marketing sector. Job requirements in digital marketing related to graduate and junior employability skills are studied for the following occupations: junior digital marketing manager, social media manager and digital marketing manager assistant. The article presents the findings of a content analysis of 5548 digital marketing job advertisements downloaded in February 2021, in a period of one month, from the top five job finding websites in Hungary. The authors’ classification framework includes a core set of relevant skills and competences that can be used to conduct the assessment. Thirty-one most frequently mentioned soft and hard skill categories are grouped into five main categories and analyzed with quantitative methods. Within the scope of the study, an occurrence frequency analysis is conducted in job advertisement texts and the data is analyzed with descriptive statistical methods. Moreover, the findings cover the importance of foreign language knowledge and software knowledge as they appear in job ads. The differences between foreign and multinational companies’ soft skill requirements are still under examination. The data show that, while hard skills in job advertisements are still dominant, soft skills are also emphasized in the field of digital marketing. In analyzing the results, the authors look at what employers focus on when searching for graduate students and employees for junior positions. The academic and practical implications of the study are useful for further research, as it presents a collection of essential digital marketing employability skills.