Industry Sectors

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

There are no set requirements, but you'll need a good level of general education. GCSEs in English, maths and ICT may be useful.

Experience or a qualification in customer service or contact centre operations could also help.

You could get into this job through an apprenticeship.

2. Skills required

You'll need:

excellent customer service skills

the ability to handle and resolve difficult situations

IT and administration skills

accuracy and attention to detail

3. What you'll do

You could work in a variety of organisations like retail, finance, travel or manufacturing, or for a local authority or the government.

Your day-to-day activities may include:

answering customers' questions by phone, email, webchat or face-to-face

giving quotations and checking product availability

selling and taking payment

handling complaints or passing them to a manager

entering customer information onto a computer database

tracking orders and giving refunds

4. Salary

Starter: £12,500

Experienced: up to £18,000

Highly Experienced: £20,000 to £30,000 (team leaders)

You may get a bonus or commission.

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You'll usually work 37 to 40 hours a week, which may include evening and weekend shifts.

You could work in an office or on a customer service desk. You'll spend a lot of your time on the phone and using a computer.

You may need to wear a uniform.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could progress to team leader or customer services manager.

You could also move into sales or account handling.

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

You'll usually need a foundation degree, HND or degree in a subject like marketing, advertising or business.

Experience as a marketing assistant, or working in sales or public relations, could help you get into this job without a degree.

You could also get into marketing through an apprenticeship.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has more information about qualifications and training.

2. Skills required

You'll need:

excellent organisational, planning and IT skills

strong communication and negotiating ability

creativity and writing skills

3. What you'll do

You could work for sales or marketing agencies, or in marketing departments of organisations like financial services or manufacturing.

You could also work for fund-raising charities, heritage organisations or the education sector.

Your day-to-day tasks may involve:

doing research on customer and market trends

identifying target markets and possible sponsors

creating and planning marketing campaigns

using automated systems for email campaigns and customer management

writing and editing for print and multiple online uses

organising promotions and events to meet clients, suppliers and the media

managing campaign websites and social media

managing budgets and monitoring the effectiveness of campaigns

4. Salary

Starter: £18,000 to £22,000

Experienced: £22,000 to £30,000

Highly Experienced: £30,000 to £35,000 (senior)

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You'll usually work 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. You may occasionally work evenings and weekends.

You'll be based in an office but may travel to meet clients and attend events.

You may need a full driving licence.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could become a marketing manager.

You could also become a freelance marketing consultant, or move into areas like advertising, sales or public relations.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has details of professional development.

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

There are no set requirements, but many employers will prefer you to have:

• a degree or equivalent qualification in marketing, management, business or a related subject 
• paid or unpaid work experience in a marketing role 
• some knowledge of digital marketing or online advertising

You could study for digital marketing qualifications offered by the Communications Advertising and Marketing Education Foundation (CAM) and awarded by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), like:

• CAM Level 4 Diploma in Digital Marketing 
• CIM Certificate in Professional Marketing (Digital) 
• CIM Diploma in Professional Marketing (Digital)
• You could also get into this job through a digital apprenticeship.

Getin2marketing has more information on becoming a digital marketing officer.

2. Skills required

You’ll need:

• the ability to analyse data 
• a creative approach 
• strong organisation and planning skills 
• IT skills 
• the ability to work under pressure and to deadlines 
• the ability to 'sell' your ideas 
• good presentation skills 
• excellent attention to detail

3. What you'll do

You’ll work in-house for an organisation's marketing department, or for a marketing agency that works for several clients.

Your day-to-day duties may include:

• creating digital marketing campaigns for online channels like websites, apps and social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter 
• developing market research surveys and working with customers in focus groups 
• working with marketing and PR professionals 
• briefing other professionals like web designers on advertising campaigns 
• writing content for websites, email and social media 
• designing and writing e-communications like e-newsletters and text campaigns 
• making information and advertising more interactive by adding case studies, videos and infographics to websites, apps and social media 
• using data from web tracking tools like Google Analytics to check the effectiveness of marketing campaigns 
• tracking the success of your marketing campaigns and presenting your findings to management 
• using techniques like search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM)

4. Salary

Starter: £20,000 to £22,000

Experienced: £30,000 to £38,000 

Highly Experienced: £50,000 or more

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You’ll usually work 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. You may work longer at busy times like the run-up to a campaign launch. 

You may also need to attend trade fairs, exhibitions and events, where you’ll make industry contacts, in the evening or at the weekend.

You’ll usually work in an office. 

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could specialise in a particular type of digital marketing like mobile or video marketing. 

You could progress to senior digital marketing officer, head of online marketing, become a freelance digital marketing consultant, or move into a related area like advertising, sales or public relations.

Role Description

Skills required

You’ll need:

• excellent communication and listening skills 
• empathy and the ability to deal with people in distress 
• honesty and integrity 
• the ability to remain calm in stressful situations 
• problem-solving and decision-making skills

What you'll do

You’ll see people who have psychological difficulties like anxiety, depression, phobias or eating disorders.

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• assessing clients’ needs through interviews, tests and observations
• deciding on the most appropriate form of treatment, like therapy, counselling or advice
• planning treatment programmes
• working with clients in groups or individually
• writing reports and going to case conferences
• carrying out research
• You’ll work closely with other professionals, like doctors and probation officers.

Role Training

• a British Psychological Society (BPS) accredited degree in psychology, or completion of an approved conversion course 
• Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) of the BPS 
• a doctorate in clinical psychology 
• work experience (often a minimum of 12 months) as a psychology assistant or research assistant, or in a relevant caring role 
• registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) 
• clearance from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

There are no set requirements, but experience of working in an office or call centre could help.

For some sales jobs, such as technical or pharmaceutical sales, you may need to have a relevant qualification like a degree.

You could get into this job through an apprenticeship.

2. Skills required

You'll need:

• excellent customer service and communication skills
• the ability to sell and negotiate
• IT and presentation skills

3. What you'll do

You'll specialise in a particular industry, like consumer goods or energy. You may sell directly to consumers, or to other businesses. 

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• contacting new and existing customers
• making presentations to promote new products
• agreeing sales, prices and delivery
• keeping in contact with customers before and after a sale
• recording orders
• going to conferences to understand industry trends
• meeting sales targets

4. Salary

Starter: £15,000 to £20,000

Experienced: £25,000 to £35,000

Highly Experienced: £40,000 to £50,000 (sales executive or manager)

You'll usually get a basic salary and an extra amount for each sale (commission). You may also get a bonus if you meet targets.

You may get a company car and fuel allowance.

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You'll usually work 38 to 40 hours, Monday to Friday, but may need to work evenings or weekends. Occasionally you'll stay away overnight, or travel abroad to trade fairs and conferences.

You may drive to visit customers. When not on the road, you'll work from a sales office or call centre. Sometimes you’ll work from home. You’ll usually need a driving licence and may need a passport.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could become a sales team leader or an area sales manager.

The Institute of Sales Management (ISM) could help you develop your career.

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

There are no set requirements. You could start this career with a background in journalism, marketing or IT, or with business experience.

You’ll usually need experience of writing content, although not necessarily online. You could gain this by:

• blogging or writing on social media 
• writing marketing materials or newsletters 
• volunteering for a student newspaper, charity or community group

Knowledge of web design, desktop publishing and photo editing will be useful. A portfolio of work to show employers would also be helpful.

You could also take a course that would teach you some of the skills needed for producing web content, like journalism, publishing, media and communications, or PR and marketing.

2. Skills required

You’ll need:

• organisational skills and the ability to meet deadlines 
• financial management and negotiating skills 
• confident presentation skills 
• the ability to build relationships with clients and partners 
• an excellent grasp of English grammar, punctuation and spelling 
• the ability to write for a target audience 
• creative skills to find interesting ways to present information and to generate new ideas 
• attention to detail, for example when proofreading

3. What you'll do

You’ll work on websites or company intranets.

Your day-to-day duties might include:

• taking a lead role in maintaining and developing a site 
• attending meetings to plan and develop site content, style and appearance 
• using web content management systems (CMS) 
• analysing website usage statistics 
• writing reports for senior managers, clients and partnership organisations 
• carrying out quality assurance checks on content 
• reporting technical problems to IT support staff 
• The type of content you might work on could include:
• e-commerce, like online shopping or banking 
• product advertising and retail catalogues 
• local, national and international news reports 
• social media output 
• college and university websites 
• online public information and government services
• In larger companies, you might manage an editorial team. You’ll have a more 'hands on' role in smaller organisations.
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4. Salary

Starter: £25,000 to £28,000

Experienced: £32,000 to £40,000

Highly Experienced: £55,000 or more

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You’ll usually work 35 to 40 hours a week, Monday to Friday. You may sometimes need to work overtime to meet deadlines.

Most of your work will be office-based at a computer. There may be some out-of-office duties, like attending meetings with clients or partners.

6. Career path and progression

You could progress into information management, search engine optimisation (SEO), technical web development or wider information planning and policy roles.

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

There are no set requirements but competition is strong so you’ll usually need a foundation degree or a degree.

If you want to go into quantitative work (analysis based on numbers), these degrees may be useful:

• maths
• statistics
• business/management
• economics
• For qualitative work (analysis based on language), useful degrees include:
• psychology
• sociology
• geography
• social sciences
• anthropology

English or marketing degrees are also useful, as well as sciences or engineering for some specialist industrial jobs. 

You’ll also find it useful to have previous experience in marketing, sales or advertising, or as a market research interviewer. 

You could get a paid internship or join a graduate training scheme. You could also start as a research assistant in an agency and then take further qualifications.

The Market Research Society (MRS) has more information about careers in market research.

2. Skills required

You’ll need:

excellent number and IT skills

the ability to analyse and interpret statistics

written communication skills for report writing and designing questionnaires

creative problem-solving skills

accuracy and attention to detail

organisational and time-management skills

initiative and teamwork skills

3. What you'll do

As a market research executive, you’ll specialise in one type of research – consumer or industrial, social or political. You’ll carry out research using one of 2 main methods:

quantitative – analysis based on numbers, from surveys of large samples of people

qualitative – analysis based on language, from focus groups and in-depth questionnaires

Depending on the type of research, in your work you’ll usually:

meet clients to discuss research projects

come up with a plan or proposal and present it to the client

manage a budget

design questionnaires and organise surveys

brief interviewers and researchers

monitor progress of surveys

analyse data and present results to the client

advise the client how they can best use the research

Most jobs involve a lot of computer work, for background research and to analyse information and produce reports.

4. Salary

Starter: £20,000 to £25,000

Experienced: £25,000 to £35,000

Highly Experienced: £60,000 (senior market research executive)

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

If you work as a quantitative researcher in-house for a company, you’ll usually work in an office with standard hours, Monday to Friday, with occasional overtime to meet project deadlines.

If you work as a qualitative researcher, you’ll often work evenings and weekends to travel to visit clients and focus groups. You may need a driving licence and a car.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could progress into management, or become a self-employed market research consultant. 

You could also move into the promotional side of advertising or marketing.

Role Description

Skills required

You'll need:

• excellent organisational, planning and time management skills
• leadership, and communication skills
• the ability to negotiate and influence
• budgeting skills
• IT skills for using project management software
• the ability to use initiative and work under pressure

What you'll do

You could work on different types of project in almost any industry or sector like construction, IT or the NHS. You might be managing a large building development, introducing a new computer system or developing a new advertising campaign. 

You'll be:

• finding out what the client or business wants to achieve
• agreeing timescales, costs and resources
• drawing up a plan for each project stage
• negotiating with contractors and suppliers
• choosing and leading a project team
• constantly monitoring progress, quality and costs
• reporting regularly to senior managers and the client
• using specialised software and spreadsheets for planning, costing and analysing risks

Role Training

While you're working, you could study for an industry qualification like PRINCE2 or Agile.

You could also get professional qualifications through:

Association for Project Management (APM)

Chartered Management Institute (CMI)

Project Management Institute (PMI)

If you're working in the IT industry, you could get a certificate in project management through The Chartered Institute for IT (BCS).

With experience, you could move into senior management or become a freelance consultant.