Without effective communication, the world would collapse. Whether it’s advertising the benefits of a new product with customers or negotiating huge investment deals, good communication skills are a core asset to any organisation.
Communication is a pretty broad field, especially when we consider all the different methods of communication and the multitude of platforms that we can use to communicate. Needless to say, there are many different careers in different fields you can step into with a communications degree on your resume. The question actually becomes, what do you want to do with your degree?
To help you choose, we’ve listed a few of the careers you can pursue with a communications degree.
1. Digital Media Marketing
Digital media marketing has been growing quite a lot in the last decade, but it wasn’t till the 202 pandemic that forced most businesses to turn to online solutions to keep their businesses afloat. Nowadays, some of the most competitive industries have a large portion of their marketing and services on various online platforms like Meta (Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp), or on Google with a website or Google My Business Profile.
With a communications degree, you could land a job as a digital marketing manager, working within a companies marketing department to utilise these online platforms as marketing methods, leveraging the businesses brand image and attracting customers from all over the world.
2. Public Relations
Public relations is another communications-based career. It involves managing and regulating the spread of information between businesses and the public. In many cases, a PR manager or employee would be responsible for how a business’s brand image is presented to the public. Likewise, they’d be the ones writing press releases or working alongside the marketing team to ensure that the business or organisation has a favourable image.
3. Marketing and Advertising
It’s easy to throw these terms out because they cover a large variety of jobs. That said, studying communications puts you in a unique position. During your course, you’ll learn essential skills that provide you with insight on how to present and communicate with a business audience. This makes you a valuable asset to any marketing team, ensuring that you’ll find a job in various fields of marketing or advertising. For instance, you might land a marketing management position, which involves managing a team of individuals like yourself who are responsible for creating and promoting the company’s image to the public as well as turning over sales.
4. Human Resources
For example, PR deals with communicating with the public, and human resources deals with communicating with employees. One of a businesses most important resources is their employees. At times, these employees don’t always agree with one another or with management and they need a person they can go to to resolve the issue. That’s where HR comes in.
With a degree in communications, you’ll be equipped to manage conflicts in the workplace and constructively create a resolution that assists in employee satisfaction and retention. In HR, you’ll deal with people on a daily basis. Your job will be to source employees, train new hires, promote health and wellness in the workplace, and manage any disciplinary actions that need to take place.
5. Professional Writing
With how competitive the digital business space has become, creating valuable content for websites has become a convenient way to boost a website’s ranking on the search engine and ensure it gets more traffic from clients. Writing valuable and original content for customers is a useful method to boost these rankings.
As a result of this, writing has become a full-time, professional career that many have taken to. Postgraduate communication courses will incorporate modules that teach you how to write in a way that effectively captivates your audience’s attention and promotes your product.
6. Media
Another field that a communications degree will allow you to pursue is the media industry. The media includes the radio, TV, and films. Often, these avenues are used for marketing or to create entertainment. Either way, you’ll be able to comfortably find a position amongst other media professionals with a communications degree.
7. Politics
Finally, you could work in politics. A large part of politics is the art of being able to communicate so effectively that you convince your audience of what you’re saying. Being persuasive is one of the most effective strategies a politician can use and why they’d often hire individuals with communication degrees or experience to help facilitate strategies through their campaigns. Who knows, you might even end up running your own campaign eventually.
Final thoughts
It’s clear that a communications degree opens up multiple career opportunities. But what if you already have a degree? This shouldn’t stop you. Consider taking one of the many postgraduate communication courses available and start from there, even if it’s just a certificate at first.
