Headhunting media jobs outside London – it’s on the up!
Change is in the air. Perhaps that’s over-stating it a touch; but a little bit of change is definitely in the air. Here at Tripp Associates, it hasn’t escaped our notice that a pleasing invigoration has worked its way into a certain section of the media and information jobs market.
As the economic picture improves beyond the capital, the number of briefs we’ve received for media jobs from firms located across the UK has steadily risen.
London is a major international centre for media and information businesses and will obviously remain the source for the majority of our briefs, but in recent months we have placed digital, art, and sales directors, web editors and heads of news across the Black Country, the East Midlands and at various spots down to the South Coast.
Over the course of the last two or three years it has been our experience that roles requiring the most up-to-date innovative editorial and commercial skills were in London. While that remains true in the majority of cases, we are now being asked to find candidates for posts outside the capital who have the same level of rich, new skills and experience.
What kind of skills are we talking about? Content marketing, for one; telling great brand stories that have a dual PR and SEO purpose; digital sales and analysis skills; and general senior commercial management posts where an understanding of the changing digital economy is vital.
Is it simply that businesses outside London have caught up? That they have cottoned-on to the new skills demanded by a rapidly changing digital economy? That they can no longer ignore digital and have been forced to accept some innovation?
Partly it’s guesswork, a hunch, with a smattering of experience on top, but something tells me the reason might be more prosaic.
We’re just starting to see the other side of the economic squeeze, and those firms previously forced to hold their breath are now able to move forward. A certain level of confidence has returned, and with it the desire to innovate – and to hire.
Long may it continue.