New media manager skills for your resume and career

The Marketing field has undergone a major paradigmatic shift with the growth of digitization. Hence, hard/technical skills in performing data-driven marketing, social media and data analytics, data visualization, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)/Search Engine Marketing (SEM), content creation and storytelling, and omnichannel communication are critical hard skills that are in great demand today.

These are very important, yet harder to quantify skills, not only for marketing professionals but for business graduates in general. They include the ability to make sound decisions under pressure, having a high emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) as embodied by having empathy towards coworkers and subordinates, delegating appropriately, mentoring, communicating, time management, maintaining positivity despite setbacks and adapting to unforeseen challenges, being flexible, being persuasive and assertive at appropriate moments, yet being collaborative, seeking feedback, and the ability to negotiate and resolve conflicts when needed, amongst others.

Soft skills are typically more instrumental in enabling candidates to fit into an organization's culture and be strong candidates for promotion. Most marketing jobs involve candidates representing their brand initiatives and building strong client relationships, so interpersonal, and other soft skills are often valued more than hard skills. The strongest case for having excellent soft skills is that they are more easily transferable across various jobs and industries.

I would recommend students to develop their creativity, problem-solving, self-awareness, need assessment, and opportunity awareness skills. I would recommend that students should travel to both developing countries and underdeveloped countries in this gap year. Traveling to these countries will allow students an opportunity to see how needs and opportunities are being addressed in areas with resources and without resources.

In our field, computer skills and proficiency with technology and data are in great demand (e.g., data analytics and engineering applications)

Stand-out technical skills likely vary by field. For example, when working with big data, database management, and data mining and modeling would be extremely important. I also imagine that programming skills would be an asset. Thinking of my field (Management) in particular, here are some technical skills that I'd emphasize: writing skills, proficiency in using collaborative decision-making tools, project management, and familiarity with productivity trackers. Finally, in an earlier question I noted that organizations may embrace more remote work; in that situation, I can see how critical it will be for managers to show that they can effectively establish goals, rally enthusiasm, coach and mentor employees from a distance. A lesson the pandemic has taught many organizations is that forging human connections in remote work is a challenge, and those who have developed the skills to do this are invaluable.