What Can You Do With a Communications Degree? Careers & Salaries

Ask people what kind of career a communications degree program leads to and many assume it involves writing press releases or newsroom bylines all day. But that picture is decades out of date.

Today’s graduates design apps, run social channels for national brands, build content strategy for hospitals and manage marketing budgets for retailers. Many employers now hire for these roles based on a portfolio and demonstrated skills rather than years of prior newsroom experience.

Campbellsville University (CU) equips graduates with those skill sets through four degree paths within its online communications programs. Each path blends creative training with hands-on, portfolio-ready coursework. Faculty in each program work in small groups with students, so feedback on a portfolio piece comes from an instructor who knows the student’s goals, not just a rubric. Prospective students can choose from the following programs:

• Associate of Science (A.S.) in Mass Communication
• Associate of Science (A.S.) in Digital Communication and Design
• Associate of Science (A.S.) in User Experience (UX)
• Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Digital Design Technology

Students can complete an associate degree in about two years. That pace gets graduates into the job market with credentials and a portfolio in hand, and it means a shorter runway between enrollment and a first paycheck than a traditional four-year path alone. For students who already work full time, the online format keeps that timeline realistic without requiring a pause in employment.

What Can You Do With a Communications Degree Today?

A communications degree today prepares you for in-demand roles in areas such as user experience (UX), digital marketing, social media, content strategy and design. Employers in technology, healthcare, retail, nonprofit work and government hire for these skills. The common thread is the ability to research an audience, shape a message and deliver it through the right channel and format.

That range is why job postings for these roles increasingly sit inside marketing, product and even operations teams rather than a single communications department. Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA’s) own certificate lineup shows a similar shift, having expanded to include digital communication and measurement courses alongside its traditional media relations training.

Job titles vary widely because the underlying skill set applies everywhere a company needs to reach an audience. A companion guide to digital media careers walks through what several of these roles look like day to day.

Digital Communications Careers and What They Pay

The list below covers six roles that communications graduates commonly step into, along with typical duties, hiring industries and current pay data. Figures come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), O*NET and PayScale, government and industry sources widely used for this kind of pay data.

Pay varies by region, employer size and experience, so treat these figures as a starting benchmark rather than a guarantee. Several of these roles overlap in practice, since a single marketing team member often handles content, social media and basic design work at a smaller company, and a companion guide to digital communications degree jobs breaks these roles down in more depth by industry and region.

UX Designer

A UX designer is a professional who shapes how a website or app feels and works for the person using it. They map out user flows, test prototypes and refine layouts, drawing on tools such as Figma and methods like usability testing.

UX designers work across software companies, healthcare technology firms, financial services and retail. BLS reports a median annual wage of $104,000 for web and digital interface designers, a group that includes UX roles, with employment in the broader occupation projected to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035.

Social Media Manager

A social media manager is a professional who plans and runs a brand’s presence across platforms like Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Daily work includes content calendars, community replies, performance reporting and increasingly short-form video, since most platforms now favor that format in their algorithms.

Retailers, media companies, healthcare systems and nonprofits all hire for this role, since almost every organization now needs a public voice online. PayScale reports an average salary of around $61,000 a year for this role, with entry-level professionals starting closer to $45,000. A companion guide explains why demand for social media marketing careers keeps growing across every sector.

Digital Marketing Specialist

A digital marketing specialist is a professional who plans and runs campaigns across search, email and paid social channels. The role blends creative work with data analysis, tracking which messages convert and adjusting spend accordingly.

Retail, healthcare, education and professional services firms are among the biggest employers of this role, and the daily toolkit typically includes search engine optimization, paid ad platforms and email marketing software. O*NET, which classifies this work under market research analysts and marketing specialists, reports a median wage of $78,760 a year for these professionals. O*NET designates this role a Bright Outlook career, stating job growth in the field is projected to grow much faster than average through 2034.

Content Strategist

A content strategist is a professional who plans what a brand publishes, where it publishes and why, aligning blog posts, video and social copy with business goals. They often manage editorial calendars and work closely with design and marketing teams.

Media companies, universities, technology firms and nonprofits hire content strategists to keep messaging consistent across channels, since a single strategist often manages dozens of pieces of content at once and needs strong research and organizational skills to do it well. PayScale puts the average salary for this role at $76,425 a year in 2026, with the highest-paid content strategists topping out around $113,000.

Web Designer

A web designer is a professional who builds the visual layout of a website, choosing colors, typography and page structure so a site is easy to navigate. Marketing agencies, retailers and media companies are common employers, as are larger companies with in-house design teams.

Familiarity with responsive design and basic front-end code, such as HTML and CSS, is increasingly expected even for design-focused roles. BLS groups this work with web developers, reporting a median annual wage of $92,650 and 5% projected job growth from 2025 to 2035.

Brand Manager

A brand manager is a professional who oversees how a company’s products or services are positioned, from messaging to visual identity to campaign strategy. The role sits at the intersection of marketing, sales and product teams, and typically involves close coordination with outside agencies on major launches. Consumer goods companies, retailers and agencies are the most common employers. PayScale reports an average annual salary of $87,693 for brand managers in 2026, with a reported median of $88,000.

Why Communications Skills Work Across Every Industry

Communications skills apply well beyond media companies and agencies. The World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that marketing and communications skills are expanding across sectors as more organizations invest in digital experience. Leadership and social influence skills, which overlap closely with communications training, rose 22 percentage points in importance between 2023 and 2025. That increase points to growing demand for the kind of interpersonal and messaging skills a communications degree builds.

Healthcare systems, government agencies, schools, nonprofits and retailers all employ people whose job is to reach a specific audience with the right message. Graduates of Campbellsville University Online’s communications programs move into this range of industries with a portfolio and skill set that carries from one sector to the next. That range makes the degree a practical, versatile choice, and it holds up well even when hiring slows in any single industry, since demand rarely drops everywhere at once.

A hospital system might hire a communications graduate to run patient-facing digital campaigns. A city government might hire one to manage public information during a crisis. A software company might hire one to write onboarding content or manage a product’s social presence. The job title changes with the setting, but the training underneath it stays the same.

What Employers Want From Digital Communications Hires in 2026

Employers hiring for digital communications roles in 2026 expect candidates to arrive with more than a resume. A portfolio of finished design, content or campaign work carries more weight than a list of coursework.

Fluency with everyday marketing tools, such as Adobe Creative Suite, Canva, HubSpot and Meta Business Suite, along with comfort reading analytics in platforms like Google Analytics 4 and native social dashboards, rounds out what hiring managers look for. Written communication remains part of the mix as well, since even highly visible roles require polished proposals, reports and client-facing copy.

The American Marketing Association’s (AMA’s) 2026 State of Marketing Careers Report found that AI fluency has become a baseline expectation rather than a differentiator, with job postings mentioning AI skills roughly doubling in a single year. The same report points to research showing a 56% wage premium for workers with strong AI skills.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) reports that nearly 70% of employers now use skills-based hiring, and roughly one in ten entry-level postings specifically calls for AI competency. That pattern shows AI fluency has moved from a nice-to-have into a baseline hiring filter for many entry-level communications roles.

Campbellsville University’s online communications programs develop this same mix of skills through applied coursework and portfolio projects, rather than lecture-only instruction. Students in the design and UX tracks graduate with work samples ready to show a hiring manager. That kind of applied training gives graduates concrete examples to point to when a hiring manager asks for proof of skill.

How Campbellsville University’s Communications Programs Prepare You for These Careers

Students who want a broader foundation in writing, media and public communication often start with the A.S. in Mass Communication, while those set on a design or platform-specific path tend to choose the A.S. in Digital Communication and Design or the A.S. in User Experience (UX).

Academic advisors work with students throughout the program to help them choose electives that strengthen the specific portfolio pieces employers in their target industry want to see. That kind of hands-on preparation carries weight in a job market where portfolio work often outweighs a transcript.

Graduates leave with case studies, campaigns and design samples they can point to in an interview. That portfolio, combined with the salary data covered earlier in this article, shows steady demand across UX, marketing, social and content roles.

Explore Campbellsville University online communications programs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Choosing a communications degree path raises a few practical questions before enrolling. The answers below cover pay, timelines and program options that come up most often.

What can you do with a communications degree?

Graduates move into roles such as UX design, social media management, digital marketing, content strategy, web design and brand management, applying the same research, writing and design training across industries from healthcare to retail.

How much can you earn with a communications degree?

Pay depends on the specific role, ranging from an average of about $61,000 for social media managers to a median of $104,000 for UX designers, based on the BLS, O*NET and PayScale figures cited throughout this article.

How long does an online communications degree take to complete?

Students can typically complete one of Campbellsville University’s associate degrees in about two years.

What communications degree programs does Campbellsville University Online offer?

Campbellsville offers three associate degrees, in Mass Communication, Digital Communication and Design, and User Experience (UX), along with a Bachelor of Science in Digital Design Technology.

About Campbellsville University’s Online Communications Programs

Campbellsville University online communications programs prepare students for careers in user experience, digital marketing, social media, design and public communication. The lineup includes four pathways, three associate degrees, and a bachelor’s degree.

Every program is delivered fully online and centers on hands-on, portfolio-focused coursework. Campbellsville University is a Christian university founded in 1906 in Campbellsville, Kentucky, and accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).

Campbellsville University is a leading Christian university and holds a Military Friendly School designation, reflecting a long-standing focus on academic quality and service to a wide range of students. Campbellsville also operates several regional centers across Kentucky in addition to its online programs, extending the same faith-based mission to a wider range of students.