240 | 27, pp. 239-251 | doxa.comunicación

July-December of 2018

Better paid job offers in communication and design: new profiles and the full-stack effect

ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978

1. Introduction

The constant change that characterizes the digitization of communication has meant a permanent evolution of the professional profiles associated with this area of knowledge and the competencies required for successful professional performance, which implies additional difficulty in establishing adequate planning of the training activities aimed at both students as well as professionals (Vivar-Zurita, 2011). One of the fields of study developed in the scientific literature analyses the professional profile in the communication and design sectors based on job offers published in specialized media, which is the starting point of this research. In a sample limited to 75 job offers related to the Communications profile, the absence of knowledge and technological skills in 60% of the offers had been observed in previous studies (Armendáriz, 2015).

Along these lines, Alvarez-Flores et al. (2018) analyse the skills required for the performance of some professional roles in the advertising industry, concluding that there are several recurring competencies among those profiles, such as knowledge regarding social networks, web design, and SEO/SEM, which are key elements of digital advertising. Moreover, it is essential to employ the use of the English language in addition to features and attitudes such as creativity, teamwork, working under pressure, or the desire to continue learning, which are related to other basic disciplinary knowledge (Álvarez-Flores et al., 2018).

The skills of communication professionals with high potential transcend their practical knowledge and technical abilities (Perlado-Lamo-de-Espinosa, 2013), as they distinguish themselves by their strategic, empathetic, expressive, decisive abilities, and they are able to find common guidelines for implementation and interrelation (Fuller et al., 2018).

With their adaptation to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), degrees in Advertising and Public Relations brought the integration of new technologies (Cuesta-Cambra and Mañas-Viniegra, 2016), the identification of professional profiles and professional competencies (ANECA , 2005, Núñez, García and Abuín, 2013), and greater specificity despite the fact

professional profiles as well as the requirements for these types of profiles. This study reveals that in the area of communication, the digital world is the leader in employment offers, although a higher salary is not always implied by this situation. There are professional profiles linked to social networks, an activity that we usually identify as a digital trend, which have a lower remuneration than would be expected. However, the best paying jobs are those linked to big data, user experience (UX), and digital marketing and design department coordination. The full-stack profile and its integrated perspective from the user’s experience to the infrastructure that supports services, is a reality among these types of higher-paying jobs.

Keywords:

Professional competencies; job profiles; communication; fu-ll-stack; big data

también de los requisitos que se identifican con este tipo de perfiles. Este diagnóstico revela que, en el ámbito de la comunicación, lo digi-tal lidera la oferta de empleo, aunque no siempre implique una ma-yor remuneración salarial. Existen perfiles profesionales vinculados a las redes sociales, actividad que normalmente identificamos como una tendencia digital, que presentan una remuneración inferior a lo esperado. Sin embargo, destacan los empleos vinculados al big data, el user experience (UX) y la coordinación de los departamentos de marketing digital y diseño como las ofertas de empleo mejor remu-neradas. El perfil full-stack y su perspectiva integral, desde la expe-riencia de usuario hasta la infraestructura que soporta los servicios, aparece como una realidad entre este tipo de trabajos mejor pagados.

Palabras clave:

Competencias profesionales; perfiles de empleo; comunicación; fu-ll-stack; big data.