Examining the Data Analytics Skill Gap in Mid-Level Marketing Professionals, Driven by the Continuing Exponential Growth of Big Data

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of big data in the skill requirements of marketing professionals. Over 12,000 marketing job listings in the top six major marketing cities were researched to determine how many positions required big data analytics skills. 38% of big data’s biggest impact is in marketing, advanced analytics are used in customer-facing marketing, sales and customer service departments. This research found 39% of all marketing positions in the defined search criteria listed “big data” as a required skill in the combined six cities. It is interesting to note the relatively new term “big data” was cited 39% and surpassed the term “Data”, which was cited 35% across all 12,796 positions.