10 Career Paths You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
Introducing some of the most on-demand jobs and the tools & skills to help you pursue these paths.
There’s no doubt that long-term career planning is difficult. We face countless variables, ambiguities, and sometimes it’s because we just don’t know where to start.
The anxiety that comes with planning out our professional lives usually stems from an overwhelming desire to find a career path that’s fun and exciting. But this seems unlikely, perhaps even unrealistic.
We’re exposed to established, well-known roles, but there’s so much more out there. The problem is that we don’t always feel comfortable or confident enough to venture beyond what we already know.
Personally, I’ve spent a lot of time pondering my future profession(s). I wasn’t sure about where to start if I wanted to become a Market Analyst, or a Product Manager.
After my sophomore year at the University of Pennsylvania, I was introduced to College Bird, a community of young professionals who complete hands-on projects in diverse sectors including business development, growth strategy, and marketing solutions. The individuals I met through group meetings and projects were all eager to gain practical experience and discover multi-faceted professions for their futures.
Working alongside peers and mentors, I knew that this was the perfect opportunity for me to dive deeper into my professional strengths and genuine interests. We constantly share tools and resources and give each other feedback on our career growth plans, no matter how robust or rudimentary those plans might be.
One of the topics we discuss in depth is professional development paths, which inspired me to write this article.
For those of us who crave jobs that will showcase unique skill sets but don’t know where to begin, the following list I’ve curated could help you figure out what kinds of skills and tools will jumpstart your journey and facilitate your aspirations.
Now, here are 10 career paths you’ve probably never heard of:
1. Chief Marketing Technologist
According to HBR, Chief Marketing Technologists, or CMTs, blend their vision for marketing with effective technology. Acting as “part strategist, part creative director, part technology leader, and part teacher,” CMTs are in charge of “aligning marketing technology with business goals, serving as a liaison to IT, and evaluating and choosing technology providers.”
Some of the skills that are important to know for a CMT’s success include: digital marketing, CRM, roadmap planning, content management, marketing automation, and “omni-channel” strategy.
Make sure to look into these tools: Atlassian, Bitrix24, and ProductPlan.
2. User Experience Researcher
This is a huge up-and-coming role that requires empathy and flexibility. UX researchers are tasked with understanding user needs and goals when approaching any platform or technology. This career path encompasses the entire design thinking process to analyze and explain “human insights [and] guide the application of design.”
As a design researcher, you’re in charge of collecting data about users, challenging your own assumptions, and redefining problems so that you can identify alternative solutions.
Therefore, UX researchers have to be data-driven, familiar with user interface design, and understand what constitutes interaction design.
Useful tools to prepare for this career are: Adobe XD, Airtable, and UX Booth.
3. Digital Merchandising Coordinator
This role is all about eCommerce. Digital Merchandising Coordinators execute merchandising strategies through specific product placement and digital assets to drive sales, traffic, and conversion. If you’re interested in building your digital marketing expertise, managing projects and facilitating customer support, definitely consider this role.
Skills that are useful for digital merchandising coordinators are: process management, brand awareness, conversion optimization, and project planning.
Make sure to check out these tools: Shopify, Kissflow, and Google Analytics.
4. Head of Retention Marketing
If you’re looking to become the strategic leader of marketing in any business, this might be the perfect career for you. Being the Head of Retention Marketing requires a deep understanding of consumer behavior for strategizing tactics that are critical for the retention of customers.
Many of the skills for this job stem from fundamental marketing elements and tactics: customer acquisition, CRM, and retention.
It’s worth familiarizing yourself with these tools: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, and Google Streak.
5. Software Sales Director
Software Sales Directors are known for being extremely detail-oriented and forward thinking. In software sales, the “primary responsibility is to provide [a] prospective client with technology that will help them to solve a problem.” This means you’ll have to be able to work efficiently with data.
This job has a lot of potential for advancement because it is fast-paced and focuses on rapidly growing technology sales. The data “on the software sales career path is comparatively brand new, with new roles, new information, and new opportunities appearing as quickly as the Internet and associated technology is developing.”
Skills for software sales: sales management, merchant acquiring, lead generation, and presentation skills.
Tools to check out: Salesforce, Visme, and Microsoft Dynamics 365.
6. Project Manager
Project Managers are responsible for both planning and overseeing projects; they strategize and designate resources, prepare budgets, monitor progress, and they’re in charge of updating the company’s stakeholders along the way.
PMs always consider the company’s goals and vision, therefore they must be adept at problem solving, written communication and collaboration, creative services, time management, and negotiation.
Check out these tools that are often very useful for PMs: Asana, Trello, and Kibana.
7. Strategy Director
A director of strategy works alongside senior managers within a company to determine the trajectory of their business and how to effectively achieve goals. Strategy discussions involve thinking critically through the organization’s purpose and company values, and focusing on setting medium- and long-term goals.
This role is usually found in large, commercial businesses. Therefore, Strategy Directors must possess proficient presentation skills and agile management to guide project processes. They must also be skilled at business analysis and campaign concepting.
Check out these tools to build your skills: Canva, Adonis Community, and Optimal Workshop.
8. Communications Specialist
This role will require you to be responsible for building and maintaining strong relationships between the company or brand that you represent and the external world. Communications Specialists are also in charge of managing internal communications within their organization, including designing and sending out company-wide newsletters, creating brand awareness campaigns, and receiving feedback from employees about their communications strategy.
Evidently, Communications Specialists must have proficiency in copywriting, team management, business communications, web design development, and public relations.
The following tools can be beneficial for this role: WordPress, and Slack.
9. Client Success Manager
Client Success Managers combine the creative, strategic, and people-oriented elements of marketing. Success in this role depends largely on the ability to collaborate and communicate very well with others, take on challenges, and find solutions to complex problems within an organization.
Several skills that are important for this career include analytics, E-learning, account management, consulting, customer success, and presentation skills to deliver solutions.
Check out these tools that are useful in this role: Strikedeck, Klaviyo, and Postscript.
10. Digital Marketer
A Digital Marketer is a creative problem solver with knowledge in developing innovative strategies to generate promotion plans for a brand, event, or idea. It is crucial to use the best tools and practice in order to effectively channel the company’s message and goals.
Therefore, Digital Marketers are often skilled at lead generation (attracting potential customers), marketing strategy, conversion optimization, customer engagement, email marketing, and overall marketing analytics.
These tools are some of the best in the field: Buffer, MailChimp, PlannThat, and brightpod.
So…what now?
Keep in mind that there’s no single path for success. I simply wanted to create and share this list so that I could show the diversity of modern, on-demand jobs and introduce you to sets of valuable skills and tools.
These 10 unique career paths are only a tiny portion of what’s out there. There are so many opportunities that you can uncover, if you take the time to do research and learn what’s best for you.
If you’re interested, feel free to join College Bird’s team of young professionals. We help each other grow our skills, discover new ones, and identify our passions.
Please reach out to me if you’d like to hear more about College Bird; I’d be happy to share my experience so far within this supportive community!
