digital professions working

Driven by the acceleration of the digitization of companies, the digital sector has become one of the pillars of the French economy. It now represents a market of 60.3 billion euros* and is recording record growth rates: 6.8% in 2021 and 7.1% forecast for 2022. In such a context, it is not surprising that that web professions, still little known a few years ago, have gradually emerged on the scene of high-potential careers. They offer young people looking for their first job as well as candidates for professional retraining, great opportunities. But succeeding in the web business cannot be improvised. Here are some keys to achieving this.

1. Assess the fit of digital jobs to your personality

Succeeding in the web business presupposes knowing and accepting all of its facets.

Some of them are well known and arouse both motivation and enthusiasm, such as:

  • the attractiveness of salaries;
  • the quasi-guarantee of finding a job (the demand for web professionals is overwhelming);
  • the variety of potential employers: companies from all sectors and of all sizes, consulting firms, web agencies, etc.;
  • the flexibility and adaptability of the working frameworks offered: remotely, in nomadic mode, freelance;
  • openness to a wide variety of profiles;
  • prospects for rapid development: opportunities to build skills in management or project management, for example;
  • the diversity of the functions to be exercised and the missions to be carried out.

However, other particularities must also be taken into account when embarking on this path.

  • The need to constantly question one’s knowledge and one’s environment can ultimately create a certain climate of insecurity. These are professions where the risk of feeling overwhelmed is real. Having, at the base, an excellent self-confidence is therefore essential.
  • The activity is, by nature, very sedentary: spending 7 to 8 hours a day (sometimes much more) with your eyes glued to your screen can be painful, even physically damaging. Therefore, it is necessary to know how to organize your workspace well and to impose some strict rules of hygiene of life (regular physical activity, breaks every 2 hours, etc.).
  • All of these jobs require good stress tolerance. You have to be able to work under pressure, often to tight deadlines, while dealing with internal or external contractors who are sometimes unable to understand the issues and constraints.
  • If the sector seems, in fact, spared by the crisis, the fact remains that in the long term, certain professions could be surpassed by artificial intelligence and therefore be forced to disappear. Hence the importance of constantly anticipating developments.

2. Identify the most relevant web activity for you

The acceleration of the digital transition of companies has exploded the demand for IT and digital profiles. According to the hire ebook writers (professional organization of the digital ecosystem in California), recruitment is on the rise for all digital activities.
The professions involved are multiple and constantly changing. It is therefore not always easy to identify the one that best corresponds to its identity and the needs of the market. These essentially revolve around 5 major families of activities.

The main categories of digital professions

Job families(% opportunities)MissionsExamples of positionsWages *Required qualities
Developers(35 %)Creation of custom software, applications and websitesFront end developer, back end or web integrator, full stack developer, DevOps, Product Manager, etc.45 000 € – 75 000 €Good analytical and logical mindParticular affinities with IT
Experts from Data(18 %)Data collection and analysisDatabase creation and administrationData Analyst, Data Engineer, Data Scientist, etc.46 000 – 75 000 €Expertise in math, stats, databases, computer language, etc.
Cloud specialists (12 %)Data management, storage and virtualizationCloud Engineer, Cloud Architect, Clouds, etc.42 000 € – 60 000 €Mastery of virtualization tools, infrastructure software and Cloud solutions on the marketCuriosity of mind, autonomy
Digital Marketing and SEO Professionals(5 %)Reinforcement of the positioning of the sites Increase in the audience of the sites Improved user experience.Growth Manager, Responsible SEO, Content Manager, Community Manager, Traffic manager, UX/UI Designer, etc.45 000 € – 85 000 €Good technical and artistic cultureEsprit commercialCreativity and versatilityGood oral and written expression skills
Security Experts(5 %)Data security Fight against computer piracyArchitect, Cybersecurity Engineer, etc.40 000 € – 90 000 €Interest in security issuesIn-depth knowledge of computer security systems

* The salary ranges are given for information only. There are great disparities between regions, professions, types of companies, profiles, etc. (source: Hello work).

For a complete overview:

do not hesitate to consult the Student and Study Rama job descriptions as well as our article on digital marketing jobs.

3. Find the right training before entering the digital sector

The digital sector is changing so rapidly that any training tends to quickly become obsolete. Knowledge must be constantly acquired or updated in the field. It is therefore still an area where the self-taught and atypical courses keep all their chances.
Nevertheless, obtaining a recognized diploma increases the interest of recruiters. At the same time, it boosts the salary offered (up to 57% difference between a bac+5 and a bac+2).

In recent years, dozens of schools have opened their doors and/or created training to meet market needs. Several options are thus possible, depending on the profession targeted, the duration of the studies and the profile of the candidate…

  • The major management schools (HEC, ESSEC, EDHEC, etc.) or engineering schools (École Polytechnique, Centrale, etc.) all offer digital-oriented specializations.
  • Universities offer training over 3 or 4 years. Examples: BUT (University Bachelor of Technology) Multimedia and Internet Professions (MMI) or Digital Master.
  • The BTS in information / communication and BTS in digital system in particular can provide a diploma appreciated in 2 years.
  • It is also possible to integrate, from the baccalaureate and for 3 to 5 years, one of the many web schools. Example: Institute of Internet and Multimedia (IMM), School of Advanced Studies in Information and Communication Technologies (HETIC), etc.
  • Some courses can be followed even without the baccalaureate. Launched in 2015, the Grande École du Numérique (GEN) is a network of 300 short learning paths.
  • Finally, for people in retraining, many organizations now offer specialized courses, which can be completed in less than a year and according to a flexible schedule. This is the case of Web Writing Training, for example, which leads to the job of SEO Web Copywriter. Most of these training courses can be carried out in “digital learning” and are eligible for aid schemes set up by the State such as the CPF.

4. Develop and enhance your “soft skills” to succeed in web jobs

Drawing representing characters holding different poses around the letters SKILLS, showing the importance of these to flourish professionally in the computer professions

Today, displaying an excellent technician’s profile is no longer enough. If the mastery of “hard skills” (technical skills) remains fundamental, other aptitudes, behavioral or relational (the “soft skills”), attract the attention of recruiters today.

Admittedly, this phenomenon concerns practically all sectors of activity. Nevertheless, the web professions aggregate, for their part, a certain number of specificities such as:

  • positioning at the heart of all company issues;
  • constant innovations;
  • the constant search for the optimization of the user experience (UX) and the satisfaction of the needs of the end customer, etc.

In this context, the development of certain interpersonal skills has become essential to guarantee the proper integration of applicants into web professions and their ambitious development. These include…

  • Agility: adapting to any type of situation or interlocutor.
  • Empathy: knowing how to put yourself in the place of the targets for whom you are working, to better understand their needs and expectations.
  • The ability to communicate: to make as many people as possible understand the methods, the constraints and the issues.
  • Team spirit or mutual aid: working in harmony with others; show altruism and solidarity in order to achieve common goals.
  • Creativity: proposing efficient and adapted solutions.
  • Rigor and organization: meeting deadlines, meticulously applying methodologies, etc.

Good to know:

a new category of criteria plays an increasingly important role in the recruitment process: the “Mad Skills”. These correspond to original personality traits, resulting from an associative or sporting practice, such as: the taste for challenge, surpassing oneself, perseverance, etc.

Succeeding in the web professions requires a good knowledge of their perimeter and their DNA, solid training as well as authentic human qualities. Despite the challenges to be met when one chooses to engage in this branch, this experience is worth living, given the great prospects it opens up. Trying the digital adventure can prove to be a winning bet on the future as well as a real factor in personal development.

By Anurag Rathod

Anurag Rathod is an Editor of Appclonescript.com, who is passionate for app-based startup solutions and on-demand business ideas. He believes in spreading tech trends. He is an avid reader and loves thinking out of the box to promote new technologies.