If you were born in the 80s, or even the 90s, there is a high chance your parents wanted you to become either a doctor or an engineer. For those born a little later, it was either a Chartered Accountant or an MBA. Now, whether you have fulfilled those wishes or not, you know that the lucrative landscape that masked your parents’ foresight back then has changed drastically over the years.
While most, if not all, of those industries are now widely saturated, especially in the face of the slumping employment rate, there are, in fact, many popular fields offering career opportunities and growth prospects that are a good deal more promising than what the other industries ever could.
Exhibit A – The IT Industry!
IT is a proverbial broad-umbrella-of-an-industry that encompasses a wide range of other industries. The list goes way beyond software development. As unbelievable as it may sound, the IT industry actually has a lighter side to it too. It covers many creative and highly promising areas that are, contrary to popular belief, not limited to graphics designing.
So, let us unveil the diamond in the rough!
… [drum rolls]… [curtains raised] …
Copywriting, ladies and gentlemen!
A bird-eye view of the mighty IT Umbrella (Umbrella Corps. has nothing on it!)
If the title didn’t already give it away, online copywriting is exactly what we will talk about here, but with a focus on the career opportunities you can expect in this industry.
So, let’s take it from the top.
Like Mother Like Daughter
Copywriting shares its growth potential with its godmother – the high and mighty IT.
Honestly, it didn’t take long for IT to come this far. Despite growing up in a third world country, most of us have witnessed how the internet went from being a sci-fi miracle, to a household thing, literally before our eyes.
Even when looking at it as a career, we all know that 15 years ago IT wasn’t considered a career choice with “scope”. Today, almost 9 out of 10 of the highest paid professionals hail from the IT industry.
The best bit is that it takes an IT professional roughly half the time to earn as much as a professional with 10 years of experience in industries such as HR or banking. So, it comes as no surprise that some of the most well-known millionaires today belong to the Silicon Valley.
Notice anything interesting in this list of top ten companies of 2015?
Taking a look at our own country, IT firms have literally mushroomed over the past decade. Going digital is not merely a choice but a necessity for businesses, however big or small. The demand for digital technology is increasing at a pace that itself keeps increasing by the day.
Looking at the numbers, it is clear that the growth of IT, despite alarmingly fast, is nowhere near a halt.
So, where does copywriting come in this whole equation?
The Copywriting Connection
You’ve probably come across the phrase ‘Content is King’ tons of times while trawling the internet. It is the fairest way to describe its role in the internet.
In the cyber world, everything revolves around content. Whether you are searching for a product/service/information, or are simply socializing, content is involved. It is content that makes you follow a particular brand on social media, and it is content that persuades you into buying a pair of shoes from a vendor you barely knew before.
Content is powerful, and with an online presence being crucial for survival in the business world, the need for content is increasing exponentially with the size of the cyber sphere. No matter the industry and nature of an organization, every business needs to establish an online presence, and hence, content.
Here is a fun thing to do!
Check out this link.
Did you see the crazy ticker?
Yes, it indicates exactly what it says.
Each new website means a dozen social media accounts and the infinite need for fresh and engaging content. From where we see it, each website is a gateway of unlimited opportunities for a copywriter.
Rarely has the world seen an industry so young producing this many opportunities with seemingly no signs of decline anywhere in the future. However, that is also the fact that has resulted in a lot of confusion regarding online copywriting as a career.
We saw it happen 15 years ago when the first generation of professionals in IT had a hard time explaining what they did for work to their phopaas and khaloos. Those that are uninformed are skeptical and do not see online copywriting a serious career choice in a young and rapidly growing industry. They see it as either an intermediary job or something confined only to the walls of freelancing. What they don’t realize is that the demand, the starting salary, and average market pay for online copywriters is on the rise.
So, What Lies Ahead?
Growth, at a breakneck pace, for those that take the right career decision.
Enter Logicose – the IT company that singlehandedly transformed the online copywriting scenario in Pakistan for good.
In less than a decade, we have changed copywriting into a well-paying career with the potential to open up doors to further growth as well. It’s safe to say that many followed suit, and today, there are an abundance of copywriting jobs that promise growth on every level. After a considerable amount of experience and exposure, copywriters have the opportunity to lead teams and brands.
All sorts of brands, local and multinational, are now realizing the importance of having a sound and well-managed content strategy, and many are either hiring or considering hiring full-time specialists for the job. It won’t be long before we witness Copywriting and Content Management appear as individual departments in every organization (no one thought HR would make it to that level 25-30 years ago!).
Standing as an underdog of the IT industry, underestimated and sometimes misunderstood, online copywriting has a lot of untapped growth potential yet to be uncovered. It’s a high tide, one that won’t be dying anytime soon. If you can write, better hitch a ride by applying.
In the meantime, hear from those who have ‘Been there and done that’!