In the past year digital media companies based in Ireland hired 3,000 people with the majority of the hires by large multinational internet and e-commerce firms, a study by Prosperity Digital Recruitment reveals.
In its annual Digital Employment and Salary Survey 2013 Prosperity said that e-commerce multinationals were the principal drivers of the Irish digital sector.
It studied the hiring trends of the top 15 e-commerce firms operating in Ireland – 12 of them US multinationals and three of them Irish.
The leading Irish e-commerce companies comprised 250 of the 3,000 hires.
The survey found that 50pc of hiring done by multinationals is for client-facing roles, primarily in account management, sales and other duties.
A requirement for the majority of the roles is fluency in English and at least one other European language.
Most multinationals insist that applicants are educated to degree level and an interesting finding was the majority of Irish-hired have degrees from UCD.
Senior salaries static but the perks make the difference for multinationals
Prosperity said that apart from an increase in salary for more junior and entry level roles, salaries have not moved signicantly since 2011.
That said the salary levels are nevertheless attractive across the board. Salary levels in digital firms ranged from €60,000 to €100,000 and higher for people with five years-plus experience while people with mid level experience of three to five years were on salaries ranging from €30,000 up to €50,000.
In digital agencies, social media manager salaries started at the €28,000 level rising to €60,000 for seniors with five years-plus experience. A head of digital in a digital agency could expect to earn up to €110,00
User experience developers and designers could expect to start at salaries of €27,000 for juniors rising to around €60,000.
Heads of e-commerce seem to be the rock stars of the bunch with salaries of €130,000 and higher for seniors with over five years experience.
Prosperity said that time to fill jobs has increased notably in recent years due to both a lack of eligible candidates and a longer and more extensive interview process undertaken by multinationals.
It points out that SME indigenous players are struggling to compete with the benefits multinationals offer such as free food, gym, health insurance and social activity.
“There is also the fact that working for an international brand is a compelling proposition for job seeker, not only for the status but also for the career advantage of having a leading international brand on the jobseeker’s CV,” said Garry Mullan from Prosperity Digital Recruitment.
Digital worker image via Shutterstock
