Ecommerce Careers: A Survey Of The Online Marketplace

-Rahul Pratap Singh KauravFollowing the commercialisation of the Internet in 1991 and the development of the World Wide Web graphical interfaces Mosaic and Netscape during 1992-93, the then fairly limited range of Electronic Commerce activities developed rapidly and spread to virtually all sectors of society. The universal and user-friendly WWW user interface lured software developers and venture capitalists alike into Internet-based E-Commerce, where they discovered ever-increasing numbers of ways to transact business electronically.  Although the amazing expansion of Internet stocks we see today did not really begin until 1998, businesses have been going online with increasing frequency since the mid-1990s.This escalation of commercial E-Commerce activities has been paralleled by an almost equally impressive rise in the number of university degrees/courses in E-Commerce/E-Business, as industry begins to demand graduates with E-Commerce experience (IBM alone refers to a need for 2,000-3,000 E-Commerce graduates each year). Over the past two years, many universities have hurriedly put together E-Commerce degrees (ISWorld, 2000; Davis et al. 1999; Chan, 2000) to meet the demand for trained professionals in this field.Given the apparent demand for students with E-Commerce qualifications, a question arises concerning the sorts of jobs an E-Commerce graduate can expect to find waiting.       According to a survey carried out by Computerworld (Goff, 2000) in the second half of 1999, there was a general perception by IT managers of a significant need for E-Commerce graduates. Yelland (1999) reported in the same year that there was still a significant shortage of IT skills. Waikato Management School (1999), Davis et. al.(1999:87) and Fafard (1999) have all provided further examples of jobs in the Electronic Commerce field and E-Commerce-related academic positions are starting to be posted on the ISWorld academic listserver (ISWorld, 2000a,b). Yet, in contrast tothese perceptions of significant demand, some graduates have expressed the view that they could not find a job in Electronic Commerce (JobAsia Forum 1999). Do circumstances differ from one part of the world to another – or is it lack of information which makes graduates unaware of the opportunities available to them?A study of Information Systems graduates by Castleman and Coulthard (1999) found that IS graduates do not appear to have clear, realistic expectations of what the professional workplace holds in store. We think it highly probable that E-Commerce graduates are also unrealistic in their expectations of future employment possibilities – or possibly simply unaware that of the type and variety of opportunities in the workplace.   It is also possible that the jobs advertised as being "E- Commerce related" are really IT jobs with "sexy" titles, which may not reflect the true picture of the E-Commerce job market.Clearly, there is a need for some accurate data on what is available now and what graduates with E-Commerce experience can and should be anticipating in terms of career opportunities. This paper explores and identifies the Electronic Commerce job market, on the basis of the advertisements actually placed by on-line recruiters, offering a realistic picture of what is available today in this field. We then attempt to predict the nature of the jobs which may be available for graduates in some aspect of Electronic Commerce over the years to come.These are very much realistic pictures of employability of E-Commerce professionals. To increase their employability they need to enhance their skills with practical exposure with realistic vision. Because this is the only field in India and abroad this is not affected by Global Financial Crisis. A survey shows that 87% of employees are still safe in only this segment.