Creative digital media is the next big thing. A digital designer’s creativity runs wild through visual elements, and — lucky for you — your masterpiece can live forever in the digital world. Whether you interact with digital designs on your phone’s touch screen, your computer, or via a digital marketing billboard, creative digital media is rooted in the content that’s being designed. You can design sound, images, or video — there is power in digitally crafting the user experience to tell a story.
There are a variety of career options for combining your innate skillset and passion for digital media design together post-graduation. The following is a list of jobs in which a degree in creative digital media can help you prosper, along with the responsibilities, average annual salary, and projected outlook of the careers.
What Jobs Can I Get With A Degree in Creative Digital Media?
1. Digital Marketing Specialist
Median salary: $53,000 annually
Projected growth: 10% from 2021 to 2031
Is market research your cup of tea? Industry-standard data aggregation tools will be used in this field. Work for your favorite media conglomerate, nonprofit organization, or fashion brand and use your marketing expertise for big-picture campaign ideas. Plus, digital marketing specialists work to create and publish written and visual content to support marketing funnels.
2. Social Media Manager
Median salary: $55,000 annually
Projected growth: 10% (faster than average)
If you like to scroll through social media daily, why not make a career out of it? A social media manager is responsible for developing social media digital campaigns, tracking analytics, producing original content, and constantly communicating with brands to understand their goal. You must stay up to date on what’s #trending, tell your brand’s story digitally, keep up with the latest social platform updates, and maintain your social media presence
3. Advertising Manager
Median salary: $93,000 annually
Projected growth: 10% from 2021 to 2031
Have you ever had a commercial really stand out to you? One day, your ad campaigns could be on the big screen! Advertising managers develop strategies often through ad campaigns to bring awareness to a brand and community.
Your potential work environment could be in an advertising agency or on staff in an organization’s marketing team in corporate or regional managing offices. As a manager, your role is to lead diverse teams (often between multiple social media accounts) and communicate effectively with these employees are also tasked with communicating.
4. Web Developer
Median salary: $78,300 annually
Projected growth: 23% (faster than average)
Advertising managers develop strategies often through ad campaigns, brand and community knowledge, and quality assurance. An individual in this role is most invaluable with technological insight and skills. As a manager, these employees are also tasked with communicating and leading diverse teams, often between multiple accounts.
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Who are you called to be?
Pursue your purpose at PLNU.
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5. Digital Media Strategist
Median salary: $63,000 annually
Projected growth: 10% (faster than average)
In this role, you’re the marketing wizard who makes a brand’s advertising engine go. Digital media strategists weave digital assets into marketing campaigns to raise brand awareness. Plus, you’d lead digital activation projects to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of those digital channels and see if they are converted to customers. Your keen eye for digital design, data literacy skillset, and your analytical thinking will all help you thrive in this career.
6. Digital Media Photographer
Median salary: $45,000 annually
Projected growth: 9% from 2021 to 2031
Tell stories through your camera’s lens with a career in digital media photography. People, places, products — if you have a good eye for detail, lighting, and composition are key. Snapping photos is one slice of the job; digital editing is also a part of the creative design process.
7. Director of Email Marketing
Median salary: $73,000 annually
Projected growth: 10% (faster than average)
*Ding!* It’s an email notification saying, “This career path is for you!” Email marketing ensures the company or brand’s email campaign is a raving success. Designing a catchy subject line, an attention-grabbing layout, and eye-popping graphics can convert email clicks to paying customers.
8. Art Director
Median salary: $101,000 annually
Projected growth: 4% from 2021 to 2031
As a digital art director, you're the lead on the creative vision that communicates to the reader, user, or viewer in a variety of media contexts. Your role could be to guide an online magazine on what fonts, typefaces, colors, images, or graphic-design layouts to choose to tell the story of the publication effectively. Or you could also direct the vision of a product packaging company by utilizing interactive design. The possibilities are endless with this creative career.
9. Digital Sound Designer
Median salary: $72,000 annually
Projected growth: 10% (faster than average)
If you’re the one in the friend group who makes the hottest playlist, this career might be for you. As a digital sound designer, you find and mix the perfect background music for social media posts, online videos, or even video games to set the soundtrack to social media posts, or even video games to set the mood, elicit emotion, and appropriately convey the dialogue’s tone. Your art plays a critical role in the viewer’s experience. You’ll master techniques like sound mixing and editing to enhance the visual arts element.
10. Video Game Designer
Median salary: $88,000 annually
Projected growth: 5% (faster than average)
Video games are a growing industry that's filled with creatives from every discipline. From phone apps to PC and consoles, video games have become a well-established form of entertainment for all ages. A career as a video game designer allows you to enter the digital world of gaming while bringing engaging stories to life.
As a video game designer, you’ll have a hand in creating the game’s plot, characters, gameplay, and other visual designs that make one coherent vision. You may work in specific sectors like gameplay, user interface, animation, concept art or visual effects. Programmers, artists, and engineers work with video game designers to test concepts and identify technical glitches that may arise. Overall, you’ll have the chance to design a fun, engaging video game that your younger self would be thankful for.
Is Creative Digital Media the Right Career for Me?
From advertising and social media to music and video games, a degree in creative digital media can give you the skills to succeed in a variety of creative contexts.
The best next step for you may be to learn more about Point Loma Nazarene University’s bachelor’s degree in Creative Digital Media, including the types of courses you’ll be taking and what specialties the program offers.
