Are you an SEO Guru, but have never set up an Adwords account? Do you know email best practices and the ins and outs of the CAN-SPAM Act, but can't name a single affiliate marketing network? If you answered "yes" to either of those questions, then you just may be a specialist in a specific area of internet marketing. Is that a good thing or a bad thing when trying to land your next engagement or permanent job? Are employers today seeking specialists or rather well-rounded internet marketing individuals with breadth across these various areas?
Although education and the business of learning is a $2 Trillion industry, relatively few academic institutions offer courses (let alone whole department programs) on marketing in the online landscape. There's very little guidance offered to today's youth who may be contemplating a career in something that involves their favorite medium. To whom can you turn to answer the questions I posed above? Probably not anyone on the current campus you attend.
From my observations, I see supply and demand scattered across the board. Typically, large organizations with well-defined marketing departments employ specialized staff, while smaller entities (who may not have current internet marketing expertise) are usually looking for someone with broad-based skills. On the flip side, I see resumes that paint a broad picture, but when we take a deep dive I usually identify areas of strength and weakness. I usually don't find many people marketing themselves as specialists. But of course, resumes are generic documents and are usually tailored to a broad audience in order to attract the most attention.
A quick search of Monster results in 58 postings with "SEO" in the job title, while there's over 500 generalized internet marketing postings.
What does the future hold? I think as this field matures, and knowledge is more widely dispersed, then we'll see more demand for a specialized skillset. Because, let's face it, there are still a ton of business owners who have no idea what online marketing is or the resources they need to build and/or enhance their online presence.
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