Coding can be useful in the workplace as well. Outside the technology sector, coding in the workplace is common for some professions like financial traders, economists, and scientists. However, for most professionals outside the technology sector, coding is just beginning to penetrate the workplace, and gradually starting to increase in relevance. Here are areas where coding is playing a larger role on the job:
Advertising: Spend is shifting from print and TV to digital campaigns, and search engine advertising and optimization relies on keywords to bring visitors to websites. Advertisers who understand code see successful keywords used by competitors, and use that data to create more effective campaigns.
Marketing: When promoting products, personalizing communication is one strategy that often increases results. Marketers who code can query customer databases and create personalized communications that include customer names and products tailored to specific interests.
Sales: The sales process always starts with leads. Salespeople who code retrieve their own leads from web pages and directories, and then sort and quality those leads.
Retrieving information by copying text on web pages and in directories is referred to as scraping.
Design: After creating a web page or a digital design, designers must persuade other designers and eventually developers to actually program their drawings into the product. Designers who code can more easily bring their designs to life, and can more effectively advocate for specific designs by creating working prototypes that others can interact with.
Public relations: Companies constantly measure how customers and the public react to announcements and news. For instance, if a celebrity spokesperson for a company does or says something offensive, should the company dump the celebrity? Public relations people who code query social media networks like Twitter or Facebook, and analyze hundreds of thousands of individual messages to understand market sentiment.
Operations: Additional profit can be generated, in part, by analyzing a company’s costs. Operations people who code write programs to try millions of combinations to optimize packaging methods, loading routines, and delivery routes.