Knowledge management jobs assist in the creation of centralized points of reference for the entire body of human information held by a company or organization’s personnel, ranging from executives to entry-level positions. There are several different types of jobs that can help an organization achieve these goals, but because this is still a developing field, many organizations are still focusing on defining job descriptions and titles.
Individuals interested in pursuing careers in the field typically have job descriptions that support the department’s main premise, which includes searching all of an organization’s documents and electronic files for information that could contribute to future success, interviewing employees to gather key information that has not been written down or documented, and organizing everything into easy-to-understand logical structures.
As many baby boomers approach retirement age, these job titles are becoming more important, as these employees will no longer be in the office to provide specific pieces of company knowledge. To combat this, businesses are creating new knowledge management jobs or expanding existing ones. The majority of jobs in this field are in the field of research, with titles like knowledge management analyst. Analysts in this field, like their IT counterparts, are frequently asked to investigate a project’s needs, establish requirements that must be met in order to meet those needs, and assist team members who are implementing solutions.
An analyst may be required to conduct research, collect and enter data, scan documents using standard and optical character recognition, interview employees in person, and participate in audio recording sessions. Technical writers, software engineers/developers, library science specialists, and database administrators are frequently asked to assist analysts in other knowledge management jobs.
Indexing, cataloging, organizing, refining, summarizing, data mining, and publishing data are examples of typical support roles. Data mining is the process of uncovering information that would otherwise go unnoticed by using sophisticated high-tech techniques and tools.
At the supervisory and senior levels, knowledge management jobs have a lot of the same titles and responsibilities as similar jobs in general business and IT. The main two distinctions are that the titles are usually preceded by “knowledge management,” and the jobs usually require specific field experience. A solid background in business administration, a background in information technology, research experience specifically in knowledge management, and proven management skills are frequently sought qualifications for a position at the manager level. For those organizations that have it, the pattern of job titles and qualifications typically continues all the way to the top job in the field: chief knowledge officer.