Clients

In the past few years, career opportunities in digital media have gone into overdrive. With talented staff in high demand, getting the best new people into your organisation has become a genuine strategic battle.

With the market reaching maturity, competition is fierce. To help us get a better handle on some of the key issues affecting the movement of key personnel within the sector, we surveyed 150 professionals that have worked for us this year to get some insight into their current state of mind.

Top 5 reasons why permanent digital specialists move
One of the first things we looked at was why people move role. A few big issues came through loud and clear:

1. Seeking new challenges or opportunities (60%)
2. Undervalued / lack of visibility within the Agency (15%)
3. Recent merger or uncertainly (10%)
4. To increase salary (10%)
5. To improve work/life balance (5%)

Our recent merger has created turmoil within the team with work not been delivered on time and we are constantly under resourced so the time is right to seek new challenges.
Senior Digital Project Manager

I’ve was working at an agency for a few years and felt I had enough experience to become a Senior developer. The current development team was already full of Seniors and when the new opportunity came up I had to consider it.
Senior Developer

The business made a decision to change the reporting lines reducing the responsibility of my role therefore I am now in the job market looking for senior leadership roles.
Head of Project Management

I didn’t feel valued within the team and my requests to work on new exciting projects were ignored so I took the opportunity to find a new job and better my financial situation.
Mid Weight User Experience Consultant

On the move and on the up
From our survey - and the wider industry trends that we’ve seen - it’s clear that the vast majority of digital professionals are changing roles in order to help their career progression.

Another area we wanted to look at was the structure & salaries of today’s delivery hierarchy. Here’s what we found:

Project Directors - £55k upwards
Senior Project Managers - £45k to £55k
Mid-Weights - £35k to £45k
Junior Project Managers - £25k to £35k

80% of job movement occurred at the mid to Senior Level, again indicative of people moving on for bigger opportunities.

Trend Predictions and target market for 2014
Even though the industry is fast approaching maturity, opportunities at the Senior Level will continue to grow - The demand for successful, proven individuals will become greater, placing more emphasis on skilled and experienced digital specialists.

In the last 24 months alone, for instance, we have seen the average Salaries of Senior professionals in Client Services, Delivery & Development grow by over 10%. Expect this trend to continue to develop.