There are a lot of opportunities to build a career in eCommerce. Thats’s one of the messages I conveyed to students this morning during a career planning workshop held at Misericordia University in Dallas, PA.
I was invited to speak, along with several other professionals, to groups of sophomore students from local high schools to help them narrow down their career choices. I told the story of how I got started in the world of eCommerce by selling ferret supplies online back in 1994 to starting another company who’s aim it is to help other entrepreneurs make their mark in business.
Many people think that eCommerce is just opening a store, buying inventory, selling it and collecting money. There’s a lot more that goes into it and there are plenty of career opportunities associated with this industry besides being a store owner.
Students interested in computer programming may want to look at companies that design and build website and eCommerce stores. Programming languages like HTML, php, .NET, ASP, Java Script and others are used on a daily basis to build the store and the many features that make it easy to navigate and shop from. While many of these languages aren’t taught in school, they’re easy to learn and many good programmers are self taught.
Those looking for a creative job, may want to consider a job in graphic design. Their artistic ability can shine as they build the look and feel for the next successful eCommerce store to hit the Internet.
Many of the students I spoke with this morning were surprised to learn that a degree in English could land them a job in eCommerce. Like any store owner knows, content is king! If you have a penchant for the written word, you may find a nice niche writing copy for websites, product descriptions, even eye catching ad copy for both print, email and pay-per-click advertising.
I was asked by one student, what the most challenging part of my job is. I explained that in my role as a consultant for eCommerce store owners, I’m often confronted with questions such as “why did my sales drop in January?,” Or “how can I increase my click thru rates in my email blasts?” Like a detective looking for clues to solve a crime, I have to dive into web stats, look at copy, analyze the website and look for things that could be changed or done better. No day is ever the same and that challenge is what keeps me motivated.
Nobody wants to get stuck in a job where you do the same thing day-in and day-out. The eCommerce industry is constantly evolving and with evolution comes change. Often times those who work behind the scenes are tasked with finding solutions to problems quickly as time equals money.
eCommerce is still in its infancy and there’s a lot of growing yet to be done. Right now we’re seeing explosive growth in mobile commerce and programmers, designers, marketers and store owners are building applications and designing mobile versions of stores to meet the demand of mobile shoppers.
As technology changes opportunities open up for the next generation of graduating students to land jobs in the ever changing field of eCommerce. Maybe you’ll be one of them.
