Are you wired to a world of opportunity?

Recent developments in the industry have meant that there are currently fewer ‘creative’ opportunities available than before. These days anyone can build a website, but actually making it work and making money out of it is the challenge. Last year, job sites and the Monday Guardian Media supplement were brimming with vacancies for animators, designers and web editors. Today the adverts you are most likely to see are for the kinds of positions found in more established industries, such as sales, marketing, commercial development, strategy and management. Above all what employers are looking for are not so much specific skills as a readiness to adapt, learn, work with colleagues and apply business know-how to a new environment.

Anney Wyner, senior consultant at digital media talent agency Prospect, has worked in new media from its earliest days. She says there are still plenty of opportunities, but they are changing. ‘The new media industry has grown up. These are serious businesses being run by serious people, and they are looking to recruit those with commercial experience and an understanding of how businesses work.’

One of the main drivers behind new media is technical skills - and they are still in great demand. Analysts IDC suggest Britain will lack 80,000 networking professionals by 2002. There’s a gap in the current job market, crying out to be filled. Everyone knows skills are important and increasingly people are developing themselves rather than waiting for employers to lead the way. But there is no point in skilling up unless you have a clear purpose in mind.

Numerous businesses and organisations offer training courses in new media software tools. But be warned: many of these courses are expensive, and might not equip you with the skills most appropriate for what you really want to do. ‘Learning Photoshop can take a lot of time and money, and won’t be much use unless you’ve already got the proven talent and desire to be a designer,’ says Stephen Whaley, director of industry body New Media Knowledge. ‘It’s important to focus on what you are already experienced and interested in, and then see how this can be brought to new media. People are constantly surprised at how appropriate many of their skills already are.’

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