Industry Sectors

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

There are no set entry requirements.

Sales or administration experience would be helpful. 

You could get into this job through a business and administration, sales or customer service apprenticeship.

2. Skills required

You’ll need:

• excellent customer service skills 
• IT skills 
• close attention to detail

3. What you'll do

Your day-to-day duties could include:

• answering customer enquiries over the phone, by email and face to face 
• processing orders, credit checks and payments 
• sending out invoices and other paperwork 
• updating customer records 
• checking stock and re-ordering supplies 
• organising deliveries 
• providing after-sales support 
• typing up documents like letters and reports

4. Salary

Starter: £15,000 to £19,000

Experienced: £20,000 to £24,000

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You’ll work up to 40 hours a week, Monday to Saturday. 

You’ll work in a sales office.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could become a sales admin team leader, personal assistant or office manager.

Role Description

You could work in hotels, restaurants, pubs, schools, colleges, cruise ships, the NHS or the armed forces.

In a small kitchen you may be a general chef. In a large kitchen you may be a specialist chef, in charge of one area like pastry, fish or vegetables, working under a head chef.

Your day-to-day tasks will vary with your role, but may include:

• preparing attractive menus to nutritional standards
• controlling and ordering stock and inspecting it on delivery
• gutting and preparing animals and fish for cooking
• scraping and washing large quantities of vegetables and salads
• cooking and presenting food creatively
• monitoring production to maintain quality and consistent portion sizes
• working under pressure to make sure food is served on time
• keeping to hygiene, health and safety and licensing rules
• You’ll need knowledge of allergens, nutrition and diets.

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

Magazine Journalist:

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• going to meetings to plan the content of the magazine 
• suggesting ideas for articles 
• interviewing and researching to collect information for articles 
• writing articles to suit the magazine’s style 
• keeping up-to-date with developments and trends in the magazine's subject area 
• working as a critic, reviewing things like films, food or concerts

Newspaper Journalist

You could be reporting on council meetings and school fêtes for a local paper, or on general elections and world events for the national press.

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• investigating a story as soon as it breaks
• following up potential leads and developing new contacts
• interviewing people face-to-face and over the phone
• attending press conferences
• recording meetings and interviews using recording equipment or shorthand
• coming up with ideas for stories and features
• writing up articles in a style that will appeal to the reader
• sub-editing other reporters' articles for publication
• writing up articles for online publication

Broadcast Journalist

You could be reporting on council meetings and school fêtes for a local paper, or on general elections and world events for the national press.

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• investigating a story as soon as it breaks
• following up potential leads and developing new contacts
• interviewing people face-to-face and over the phone
• attending press conferences
• recording meetings and interviews using recording equipment or shorthand
• coming up with ideas for stories and features
• writing up articles in a style that will appeal to the reader
• sub-editing other reporters' articles for publication
• writing up articles for online publication

Role Description

You'll need:

• excellent analytical skills
• the ability to work with people at all levels
• the ability to lead and motivate a team
• the ability to prioritise tasks and meet deadlines
• the ability to anticipate issues and respond to unforeseen changes

You’ll work with senior managers and other professionals to support changes to the way an organisation works, like:

• improving decision-making processes
• supporting the introduction of a new IT system
• developing a marketing and sales strategy
• Your day-to-day duties might include:
• speaking to managers to find out what they want to achieve
• carrying out fact finding tasks into business processes to see what they do and how they do it
• analysing findings and using data modelling methods to help recommend changes and improvements
• explaining the benefits of your recommendations and looking at the potential impact and risks
• agreeing the best way to put recommended changes into place with management
• overseeing testing and quality checks of recommendations
• supporting staff making changes and reporting any issues
• In some cases, you may be responsible for managing a project through to completion.

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, 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

1. Entry requirements

There are no set requirements, but you’ll need a good level of general education. You'll also need a working knowledge of computer software and hardware.

A college course in computing or IT support, and experience in customer service, will help. 

You could get into this job through an apprenticeship.

If you work with young people or vulnerable adults, you’ll need clearance from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

2. Skills required

You'll need:

• excellent customer service skills
• the ability to explain technical issues to non-technical users
• analysis and problem-solving skills
• the ability to prioritise and manage tasks

3. What you'll do

You may work in-house with an organisation’s staff, students or customers. You may also work in a call centre advising the public by phone, email or online chat.

In some roles, you’ll be responsible for telephony and audio-visual equipment as well as IT systems.

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• communicating with computer users to find and fix problems 
• tracking work in progress and recording issues and solutions 
• updating online knowledge banks
• servicing and fixing equipment, including printers, projectors and networks
• setting up new equipment and upgrading existing systems
• training people on new systems, face-to-face and online

4. Salary

Starter: £16,000 to £22,000

Experienced: £22,000 to £24,000

Highly Experienced: £25,000 to £35,000

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You'll usually work 35 to 40 hours a week. You may have to work shifts, including evenings and weekends.

You'll work in an office and spend a lot of your time at a computer.

You may have to travel to different sites to help users. A driving licence may be required.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could move into a supervisory or management role.

With training, you could move into network engineering, database administration, business or systems analysis, IT security, IT project management, training or technical sales.