Business Roles

Business focused roles (meaning that they prioritise the business goals) work with a variety of disciplines to help plan projects from the very first idea through to delivery and evaluation. In these roles, you might look after everything from resources, budget and people to data (numbers), working to create or market the products the business sells. You need to be able to multitask, communicate and work confidently with others in roles like these.  

Skills, behaviours and knowledge 

Let’s look at the transferable skills for these roles first and some examples of what these skills, behaviours and knowledge might look like. 

Time management:

Being able to plan out what a project will look like from start date to finish date and make sure that things happen at the right time along this planned timeline, there might be tight deadlines to meet. 

Communication: 

Being able to connect with a range of teams and possibly external suppliers, buyers, customers or other businesses depending on your role, you may also have to raise risks or concerns to senior leaders or financial teams if projects, products or marketing isn’t going to plan. 

Problem solving and attention to detail:

 Finding ways to solve issues, resolve complaints or improve how something is done within a business can come down to these business roles. 

Analytical skills:

Being able to review and analyse the work you’re doing. Gathering information to inform and improve the part your work plays within the business is important here, being able to report data back to those who need it, in the right way is also important.   

Role specific skills, behaviours, and knowledge 

Project Manager 

• Leading a team – project managers must manage processes, timelines and the work that others are doing. Being able to communicate, motivate and step in if action is needed is important, so work on your people and communication skills (written, verbal and your behaviours when working with others to get the best out of them).   

• Problem solving and attention to detail – identifying risks and barriers to the project and its completion are a key part of the role, finding solutions or alternative ways to make things happen may also be needed.  

• Analytical skills – being able to review and analyse a project at the end, gathering information to inform and improve future projects, reporting will also be required throughout a project to management and clients. 

• Time management – being able to plan out what a project will look like from start date to finish date and make sure that things happen at the right time along the planned timeline, there might be tight deadlines to meet. 

 Data Scientist 

• Knowledge of the basics of popular programming languages, like Python, R, SAS or SQL. 

• Some basic mathematics skills to build understanding and knowledge of; statistics, probability, and mean, median, mode and variance.  

• Understanding of data cleaning and organisation of data, alongside database management (MySQL, Oracle) and what this means.  

• Knowledge of machine learning models (Linear Regression, Decision Tree and Random Forest) and data visualisation to present data to others in more understandable formats (Tableau, MS Excel, PowerBI).  

Product Manager 

• Ability to research and understand user needs, this helps with designing products to solve customer problems.  

• Analytical review of other products and ability to analyse competitors to ensure the best results.  

• Ability to communicate with other teams (marketing, sales, senior leadership) to showcase the new product/idea and gain information to help do this.  

• Research and technical knowledge, you’ll need to be able to research user needs, competitors and have knowledge of the products that you already have within your business. Knowing your business and its products inside out will make it much easier to come up with new ideas.   

 Digital Marketing Manager 

• Analytical skills: being able to analyse customer data, engagement (likes, comments etc), market trends (what’s popular), as is being able to present this information in an easily understandable way to others.  

• Knowledge of marketing strategies, what works and when, social media platforms and types of posts, paid adverts, email campaigns, types of advertising, SEO (search engine optimisation) and getting your products and information to the top of the search engines.  

• Writing and proofreading skills, writing your own copy or being able to check someone else’s. High level of written ability is required in this role.  

• Build your technical knowledge, you’ll need to be able to understand your competitors and also the products that you already have within your business so that you can market them effectively.  

Relevant qualifications or experience 

• Apprenticeships – a great way to get started in a business, gain experience and a qualification.  

• Online qualifications (sometimes funded, speak to your local providers) in Prince2, Agile or other project management subjects and theories are widely recognised, or programming and marketing (CodeAcademy or Open University do some free short courses to help get you started). 

• Experience in running projects, you might have led a team in school, college or other work-based learning to achieve a goal – think about how you planned this out and what happened, projects aren’t always big. 

• A qualification in a subject that allows you to demonstrate your planning, commitment, attention to detail and ability to manage differing priorities – a business course for example.  

• Work experience – why not try to get some work experience in this area to see if you like the role. 

Remember that these roles all work for companies that come in all shapes and sizes, and don’t worry if you don’t have the qualifications, some employers will offer on-the-job training and might even fund a qualification for you – think apprenticeships!