Industry Sectors

Role Description

Magazine Journalist:

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• going to meetings to plan the content of the magazine 
• suggesting ideas for articles 
• interviewing and researching to collect information for articles 
• writing articles to suit the magazine’s style 
• keeping up-to-date with developments and trends in the magazine's subject area 
• working as a critic, reviewing things like films, food or concerts

Newspaper Journalist

You could be reporting on council meetings and school fêtes for a local paper, or on general elections and world events for the national press.

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• investigating a story as soon as it breaks
• following up potential leads and developing new contacts
• interviewing people face-to-face and over the phone
• attending press conferences
• recording meetings and interviews using recording equipment or shorthand
• coming up with ideas for stories and features
• writing up articles in a style that will appeal to the reader
• sub-editing other reporters' articles for publication
• writing up articles for online publication

Broadcast Journalist

You could be reporting on council meetings and school fêtes for a local paper, or on general elections and world events for the national press.

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• investigating a story as soon as it breaks
• following up potential leads and developing new contacts
• interviewing people face-to-face and over the phone
• attending press conferences
• recording meetings and interviews using recording equipment or shorthand
• coming up with ideas for stories and features
• writing up articles in a style that will appeal to the reader
• sub-editing other reporters' articles for publication
• writing up articles for online publication

Role Description

1.Entry Requirements

There are no set entry requirements. A good standard of general education is important but employers will also want you to have an outgoing and confident personality.

Previous experience in customer service, sales or marketing will be helpful though not essential.

You could get into this career through an apprenticeship.

The Institute of Sales Management (ISM) is the industry body offering qualifications to help you progress in your career.

2. Skills required

You’ll need:

• excellent communication skills to build trust with customers quickly 
• sales and negotiation skills 
• IT skills 
• a well organised approach 
• determination and a focus

3. What you'll do

You’ll be:  

• contacting customers and businesses 
• promoting products, services and special deals 
• following up sales leads and taking orders 
• updating customer records on computer systems 
• advising customers about delivery times 
• setting up appointments for senior sales staff 
• providing after-sales service

4. Salary

Starter: £15,000 to £18,000

Experienced: £20,000 to £25,000

Highly Experienced: £25,000 to £35,000 (managers)

Some companies offer a basic salary with extra bonuses and commission linked to sales targets.

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You’ll usually work up to 40 hours a week on shifts between 8am and 10pm, Monday to Saturday.

You’ll be based in an office or call centre and spend most of your time using a computer. Some companies offer homeworking.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could become a team leader, senior salesperson or sales manager. 

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

You'll usually need a foundation degree, HND or degree in a subject like marketing, advertising or business.

Experience as a marketing assistant, or working in sales or public relations, could help you get into this job without a degree.

You could also get into marketing through an apprenticeship.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has more information about qualifications and training.

2. Skills required

You'll need:

excellent organisational, planning and IT skills

strong communication and negotiating ability

creativity and writing skills

3. What you'll do

You could work for sales or marketing agencies, or in marketing departments of organisations like financial services or manufacturing.

You could also work for fund-raising charities, heritage organisations or the education sector.

Your day-to-day tasks may involve:

doing research on customer and market trends

identifying target markets and possible sponsors

creating and planning marketing campaigns

using automated systems for email campaigns and customer management

writing and editing for print and multiple online uses

organising promotions and events to meet clients, suppliers and the media

managing campaign websites and social media

managing budgets and monitoring the effectiveness of campaigns

4. Salary

Starter: £18,000 to £22,000

Experienced: £22,000 to £30,000

Highly Experienced: £30,000 to £35,000 (senior)

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You'll usually work 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. You may occasionally work evenings and weekends.

You'll be based in an office but may travel to meet clients and attend events.

You may need a full driving licence.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could become a marketing manager.

You could also become a freelance marketing consultant, or move into areas like advertising, sales or public relations.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has details of professional development.

Role Description

Skills required

You'll need:

• the ability to understand the development process 
• some programming knowledge
• the ability to work under pressure and to deadlines
• maths skills

What you'll do

You could work in a wide range of businesses and industries, public services, utilities, defence and research. 

You'll work closely with project managers, business analysts and graphic designers, to find out what the client wants and the best way to achieve it. 

Usually, you’ll work in a team.

You could work on a wide variety of projects, from financial databases to robotics to apps for phones and tablets. You may use a number of programming languages or project management tools.

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• talking through requirements with the client and the development team
• taking part in technical design and progress meetings
• writing or amending computer code
• testing software and fixing problems
• keeping accurate records of the development process, changes and results
• carrying out trials and quality checks before release
• maintaining and supporting systems once they're up and running
• As an experienced developer, you may supervise a programming team and provide feedback on coding work.

Role Description

Skills required

You’ll need:

• the ability to carry out detailed work accurately and methodically 
• the ability to plan research, analyse and interpret data, and write reports 
• practical and problem-solving skills 
• patience, perseverance and the ability to concentrate for long periods 
• the ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team 
• strong communication and IT skills

What you'll do

• You could work in a range of areas like:
• developing and testing new drugs 
• improving agricultural crops and livestock 
• disease and pest control 
• conserving endangered habitats and species 
• animal welfare and education 
• developing policies and enforcing regulations for government agencies

You’ll usually specialise in an area like ecology (animal environments), herpetology (reptiles), entomology (insects), parasitology (parasites) or paleozoology (fossil remains).

Your day-to-day tasks will vary depending on your role, but may include:

• carrying out field and laboratory research 
• studying animals in their natural environment or in captivity 
• identifying, recording and monitoring animal species 
• gathering and interpreting information 
• using complex procedures, like computerised molecular and cellular analysis, and in-vitro fertilisation 
• producing detailed technical reports 
• giving presentations and publishing information in journals and books 
• supervising technicians

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

You may find it useful to have GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) or equivalent, in subjects like English and maths.

A qualification in administration or secretarial skills may help. Employers also value experience, which you could get by temping or volunteering.

You could get into this job through an apprenticeship.

2. Skills required

You'll need:

• an excellent telephone manner
• skills in IT and administration
• the ability to use your initiative and solve problems
• organisational and time management skills
• 3. What you'll do
• You could work in the public or private sectors or for a charity.
• Your day-to-day tasks could include:
• being the first point of contact for visitors, phone calls and emails
• arranging meetings and taking minutes
• diary management and making travel arrangements 
• producing letters, reports, spreadsheets and invoices
• updating records on IT systems
• photocopying, printing and filing
• handling confidential information

4. Salary

Starter: £14,000 to £16,000

Experienced: £17,000 to £20,000

Highly Experienced: £25,000

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You'll usually work in an office, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

You could also work part-time or get temporary work.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could become a personal assistant or office manager.

You could also move into human resources work, or train as a legal or medical secretary.

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

There are no set requirements but competition is strong so you’ll usually need a foundation degree or a degree.

If you want to go into quantitative work (analysis based on numbers), these degrees may be useful:

• maths
• statistics
• business/management
• economics
• For qualitative work (analysis based on language), useful degrees include:
• psychology
• sociology
• geography
• social sciences
• anthropology

English or marketing degrees are also useful, as well as sciences or engineering for some specialist industrial jobs. 

You’ll also find it useful to have previous experience in marketing, sales or advertising, or as a market research interviewer. 

You could get a paid internship or join a graduate training scheme. You could also start as a research assistant in an agency and then take further qualifications.

The Market Research Society (MRS) has more information about careers in market research.

2. Skills required

You’ll need:

excellent number and IT skills

the ability to analyse and interpret statistics

written communication skills for report writing and designing questionnaires

creative problem-solving skills

accuracy and attention to detail

organisational and time-management skills

initiative and teamwork skills

3. What you'll do

As a market research executive, you’ll specialise in one type of research – consumer or industrial, social or political. You’ll carry out research using one of 2 main methods:

quantitative – analysis based on numbers, from surveys of large samples of people

qualitative – analysis based on language, from focus groups and in-depth questionnaires

Depending on the type of research, in your work you’ll usually:

meet clients to discuss research projects

come up with a plan or proposal and present it to the client

manage a budget

design questionnaires and organise surveys

brief interviewers and researchers

monitor progress of surveys

analyse data and present results to the client

advise the client how they can best use the research

Most jobs involve a lot of computer work, for background research and to analyse information and produce reports.

4. Salary

Starter: £20,000 to £25,000

Experienced: £25,000 to £35,000

Highly Experienced: £60,000 (senior market research executive)

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

If you work as a quantitative researcher in-house for a company, you’ll usually work in an office with standard hours, Monday to Friday, with occasional overtime to meet project deadlines.

If you work as a qualitative researcher, you’ll often work evenings and weekends to travel to visit clients and focus groups. You may need a driving licence and a car.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could progress into management, or become a self-employed market research consultant. 

You could also move into the promotional side of advertising or marketing.

Role Description

1. Entry requirements

There are no set requirements, but you’ll need a good level of general education. You'll also need a working knowledge of computer software and hardware.

A college course in computing or IT support, and experience in customer service, will help. 

You could get into this job through an apprenticeship.

If you work with young people or vulnerable adults, you’ll need clearance from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

2. Skills required

You'll need:

• excellent customer service skills
• the ability to explain technical issues to non-technical users
• analysis and problem-solving skills
• the ability to prioritise and manage tasks

3. What you'll do

You may work in-house with an organisation’s staff, students or customers. You may also work in a call centre advising the public by phone, email or online chat.

In some roles, you’ll be responsible for telephony and audio-visual equipment as well as IT systems.

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• communicating with computer users to find and fix problems 
• tracking work in progress and recording issues and solutions 
• updating online knowledge banks
• servicing and fixing equipment, including printers, projectors and networks
• setting up new equipment and upgrading existing systems
• training people on new systems, face-to-face and online

4. Salary

Starter: £16,000 to £22,000

Experienced: £22,000 to £24,000

Highly Experienced: £25,000 to £35,000

These figures are a guide.

5. Working hours, patterns and environment

You'll usually work 35 to 40 hours a week. You may have to work shifts, including evenings and weekends.

You'll work in an office and spend a lot of your time at a computer.

You may have to travel to different sites to help users. A driving licence may be required.

6. Career path and progression

With experience, you could move into a supervisory or management role.

With training, you could move into network engineering, database administration, business or systems analysis, IT security, IT project management, training or technical sales.