How To Become A Digital Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a digital specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Steve Boddy

As outlined in a recent Forbes article, the internet is the "media world dominator," capturing the traffic of diverse demographics and much of the attention that once belonged to traditional media. In today's technological world, organizations need experts to create web content that allows their business to remain competitive and grow. Such situations require the expertise of Digital specialists.

Digital specialists use a variety of digital marketing and design techniques, such as geomarketing (which uses location information to target ads), search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, and video marketing. They often incorporate graphic design, video production, written and verbal communication skills, social media savvy, and an eye for analysis into their daily work. In order to qualify, professionals must develop skills in client relations, communication, collaboration, storytelling, and social media. A bachelor's degree in digital media is a requirement; However, relevant experience in the field can also be a determining factor in the absence of such a degree.

The average Digital Specialist salary in the United States is $63,300 as of December 28, 2020, but the range typically falls between $52,500 and $72,900.

What general advice would you give to a digital specialist?

Steve Boddy

Content Director, WorldatWork

Graduates should expect fewer full-time employment opportunities. In some cases these opportunities will be accompanied by enhanced well-being benefits but lower salaries. There may be more contract and seasonal opportunities in the short term, which typically will not offer highly valued benefits like health insurance, retirement, and paid time off.

Full-time employment opportunities and competitive hiring wages are expected in high growth industries like technology, health care, logistics and distribution, and other essential jobs. These are most often accompanied with full benefits, which most recently has included increased offerings in well-being, remote work opportunities, and flexible schedules. However, most other organizations will offer fewer full time employment opportunities and potentially lower wages in job offers (due to supply of jobs and abundance of grads). Other reasons for downward pressure on salaries may include the graduates willingness to accept lower rates in favor of the option to work from home or desired geography. Lastly, more college grads are taking seasonal/contract roles, and may miss out on critical benefit offerings that are reserved for employees only (which often account for ~25 - 35% of their total rewards package).

So why does it matter? In all likelihood, new graduates may not start on the career path they envisioned for themselves, and will likely see slower wage growth over time. According to the WorldatWork 2020-2021 Salary Budget Survey released in August of this year, "The national total salary budget increase average fell this year - dropping to 2.9% - notably sudden, and somewhat expected, due to economic uncertainty. This decline represents a pronounced departure from the anticipated increase to 3.3% projected for 2020 a year ago." This is a tough time to be entering the workforce. The key is to be flexible in their job search. Graduates may have to sacrifice some benefits like healthcare and retirement in order to get "their foot in the door." The current reality is new college graduates are facing the worst job market in over a decade with more competition and lower salaries.

ScoreDigital SpecialistUS Average

Salary

4.8

Avg. Salary $61,349

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.9

Growth rate 19%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.13%

Asian 9.67%

Black or African American 5.29%

Hispanic or Latino 12.66%

Unknown 5.03%

White 67.21%

Gender

female 40.22%

male 59.78%

Age - 34

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 34

Stress level

4.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.2

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.6

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a digital specialist

Explore digital specialist education requirements

Most common digital specialist degrees

Bachelor's

64.2 %

Associate

15.6 %

Master's

8.3 %

Start to develop specific digital specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Digital Marketing	16.43%
Google Analytics	8.29%
Customer Service	5.20%
Media Sales	3.98%
SEM	3.94%

Complete relevant digital specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New digital specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a digital specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real digital specialist resumes.

Research digital specialist duties and responsibilities

Manage the tier-2 ticketing system and propagate hot topic responses to the SharePoint knowledge base.
Develop and post product demos on YouTube, providing quick understanding of functionality to differentiate solutions and generate leads.
Make edits to web content as necessary via content management system and html.
Re-Design multiple client sites, including art and UX updates, in both stand alone HTML and CMS projects.

Prepare your digital specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your digital specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a digital specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable digital specialist resume templates

Build a professional digital specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your digital specialist resume.