• by Ray Schultz , November 1, 2017

Are you an email specialist? Perhaps you should have chosen another profession.

Email marketing/marketing automation skills are ranked eighth among the technical abilities most lacking for digital projects, according to a survey by Robert Half Technology.

But web and user experience designers are in high demand — by 55% — as are data science and data analysis pros, by 47%. Content creators rank third in commanding jobs and salaries, by 39%.

Overall, tech hiring is driven by an increase in the following activities: digital marketing (for 25%), cloud or big data (for 24%) and mobile (for 18%). 

But it’s not an easy job finding the right help. Of the companies polled, 39% are somewhat understaffed, and 14% are severely so. And 4% say they are somewhat lacking in staff. The remainder — 44% — are adequately staffed.

And they are seeking people for new job titles like chief evangelist, ScumMaster, software solutions specialist, VP of quality and delivery, chief development officer, project coordinator and UX strategist.

What do they like to see in new graduates? They value personal activities like website or app development (50%), video game playing or development (24%), participation in hack-athons (17%) and Raspberry Pi, Arduino or microcomputer projects (15%).

Oof course, another study by Robert Half showed that employers also want people with communications and problem-solving skills.

Of course, it pays to have an IT background — but not in every case. Firms also want people with backgrounds in mathematics (36%), business or marketing (31%), liberal arts (22%) and psychology (10%).

Who runs digital marketing initiatives? For 69%, it’s marketing. But technology departments also contribute (34%), along with outside agencies or vendors (20%).

As for obstacles to digital marketing success, the top one is lack of digital-savvy leadership, followed by insufficient budget and lack of collaboration between the IT and creative and marketing teams.