Careers

Even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Internet/e-commerce economy around the world continues to grow, and prospects for employment in this segment of the economy remain comparatively positive compared to other sectors. In addition to e-commerce retail and services, the Internet/e-commerce economy also includes Internet/e-commerce infrastructure providers make the Internet and e-commerce work, as well as marketing and advertising. Add jobs in these sectors to the overall Internet/e-commerce economy and you will discover an employment market for a wide variety of skills from marketing to finance, information systems, and management.

In the United States, Web developers, information security analysts, computer network architects, database administrators, software developers, and computer systems analysts are all occupations that are projected to grow over the next 10 years at faster than the average for all occupations, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook. For instance, demand for Web developers is expected to grow by 8% from 2019 to 2029, driven by the growing popularity of e-commerce and mobile devices. Median pay for Web developers in 2020 was about $77,000 per year. Demand for information security analysts is also growing much faster than the average, at 31%, due to the increasing need to defend against cyberattacks. The health care industry and government agencies are expected to have an increasing need for information security analysts. Median pay for information security analysts in 2020 was over $103,000 per year. Demand for database administrators and related jobs (data mining engineers, data modelers, data warehouse experts and business intelligence developers), which is expected to grow by 10% from 2019 to 2029, is being driven by the fact that many companies are building teams focused on big data, and looking for candidates who possess business knowledge, technology and analytics skills.

According to Robert Half Technology, hot industries in the technology sector in 2021 include financial services, with needs for expertise in big data, blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning, business intelligence, and information and large-scale digital transformation initiatives; technology companies, which have a constant need for IT talent; and healthcare, with particular needs for telemedicine as well as artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing and data science expertise.

Technology roles in demand include Web, software, mobile app and database developers; AI/machine learning specialists; business intelligence analysts; cloud architects; cybersecurity and data privacy experts; data scientists; and cloud, data DevOps, network security and software engineers.

Technical skills in demand include experience with the Agile and Scrum development methodologies, Angular, ASP.Net, C#, cloud (AWS/Azure/Google), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes, and Helm), Golang (aka Go), Java, JavaScript, Kotlin, Linux, PHP, Python, ReactJS and React Native, Ruby on Rails, SQL, virtualization, and virtual reality/augmented reality/mixed reality.

Hot areas in today's e-commerce and Internet economies include mobile applications, security, big data, and blockchain. As companies continue to expand their mobile initiatives, the need for employees who can develop mobile apps (already in high demand), will only increase. Security is also an increasing concern, with data security analysts, systems security administrators, network security engineers and information systems security managers all experiencing high demand for their skills. Finally, the need for employees that can work with big data as data scientists, data modelers, and as data/business intelligence analysts, is also high and is expected to continue to grow. The greatest opportunities will be available to workers who have diverse technology skill sets and solid comprehension of business principles.

Organizations are also investing in digital marketing, as they seek to leverage technology and data to increase user engagement and retention and deliver personalized customer experiences. Skills in demand include expertise in search engine optimization (SEO)/search engine marketing (SEM), voice search, social media, marketing analytics, marketing automation, content strategy, and artificial intelligence and machine learning. Almost half the managers surveyed by Robert Half indicated that that their team is understaffed in digital areas.

The following table provides a glimpse at some of the jobs being offered in the e-commerce and Internet job spheres:

Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook; Robert Half Corporation, The Robert Half 2021 Technology Salary Guide.

Copyright © 2021 Kenneth C. Laudon and Carol G. Traver