The Drum has published a survey that sheds light across salaries, bonuses, job satisfaction, job security and gender differences. The study has also found some distinct trends across our key specialisms.

The political turbulence that characterised last year - such as Brexit and the US - has had a minimal impact on recruitment and hiring. Although there was a small setback in the latter part of 2016, confidence in the UK economy has recovered.

There is a high demand for good people across all business types and specialisms, particularly in agencies and for those working in digital and creative. There appears to be a trend in which clients bring teams in-house as well as using agencies.

According to the Financial Times, UK Government's Strategy Unit has drafted a report which concluded that the creative industries in London are now more important than financial services to the economy. While there is more employment in the creative industries, it is decreasing in financial services.

All disciplines have seen pay rises, either by progression within the same company or by moving jobs. The highest pay rises were witnessed in planning & strategy (14 percent), account handling (38 percent) and tech/UX (37 percent). Every category received a pay rise over 10 percent above the national average of 3 percent.

The study found that the major reason for people wishing to leave their jobs limited career progression in their current role. The second one was remuneration.

The report forecasts a good future for tech companies related to software. Automation, programmatic, AI and continued integration are all areas that are expected to grow.

There is a high satisfaction across creative marketing and digital disciplines, with 70 percent being largely satisfied in their current role. Content, editorial and social report the highest satisfaction levels, followed by PR and marketing.

As to the benefits, "the need for a better work-life balance has become increasingly more desirable for all, with flexible working the most sought after benefit. This was favoured even over a bonus," reported The Drum.

Those in the industry are also well-educated, with an average of 84 percent with a degree or Masters.

The industry with the highest budget is digital market. "33 percent of our survey working in digital marketing have a budget of £1m+" stated The Drum.

The survey was put together by Major Players, which used data collected from 3,200 respondents combined with savvy provided by industry experts.

Major players also found certain trends in the industry. For instance, there is a higher proportion of men in the industry at a 65/35 ratio. Also, 25 percent received a pay increase of more than 10 percent, about average across all areas. The study also shows that most 35 percent see their career progressing within a medium-sized agency.

The study also found that workers value flexible hours and a greater holiday allowance more than a bonus.

Another study by Morgan McKinely shows that 2016 was a great year of growth and opportunity for marketing professionals across financial services, technology and retail industries.

"Marketing is becoming a higher-priority on C-suite executives' growth plans, with team sizes increasing up to 50% and budgets becoming healthier. This stands in stark contrast with previous years and moves away from the trend of cost-cutting and redundancies," it states.

"There is always an element of seasonality to marketing recruitment, with permanent hires being more prevalent in Q2 and Q3 following bonus season as well as in the lead up to appraisals and salary reviews in Q4, and contract hiring being busier in the first few months of the year, Q2 and Q3. In 2016, due to a lack of predictability in the economic climate there was an element of unpredictability in marketing recruitment trends, with August being the busiest it's been in a while."

While traditional marketing, branding and event management have been slower areas of recruitment than content marketing and external communications in London. Given that we live in an information-driven society, content and communications have been at the forefront of marketing strategy. As a result, there has been a demand for skilled writers and communicators to lead organisations both digitally and off-line in their marketing communications strategies.

Content writing has been rebranded. What used to be an integral part of a marketer's responsibility is now seen as a job in its own right.

The best coworkers are those who share expertise, give constructive criticism or valuable feedback, or make a project succeed. That all looks good on paper, but in real life, it's not so easy to become the perfect coworker. Image from asana.com

Unfortunately, working well in a team heavily depends on your personality and this becomes particularly hard if you are introvert. When your job requires team work, your career success doesn't only depend on your skills, but also on your abilities as a team player because we all know there's no "I" in team.

Working too much and spending too much time around your colleagues doesn't guarantee success either. People who are stressed out and burnt out are more likely to perform worse on the job. In fact, research shoes that people who use all their days off are more likely to get raises down the line. Plus, you are not in most your sociable, affable behaviour when you are stressed out and worn out.

Although you might think that the best team players are the ones who work hard and are always there when you need, research shows that people who have many activities after work are the best team players. According to a 2015 paper in Business and Society looking at 347 workers at 80 companies in Canada and China, people who ranked higher in engagement with the community were those more likely to be trusted by their colleagues.

"Hiring managers often dismiss volunteer work and community involvement as irrelevant, or even a potential distraction," stated Ilan Vertinsky, one of the paper's authors. "But really, people with busy evening and weekend schedules are exactly who should be getting hired."

Don't let bullies get you down. Bullying is not a phenomenon restricted to schools. It also takes place in the workplace and more often than you might think. According to a 2015 survey from the staffing company Office Team, 1 in 3 employees reported being bullied at work. Out of those, 13 percent admitted this situation was the catalyst for their resignation, while 17 percent of them took no action after being bullied.

A 2015 study of 327 Spanish employees published in Anxiety, Stress and Coping: An International Journal showed that bullying in the workplace can cause a vicious cycle since people who get bullied are more likely to find themselves in the same situation in the future.

The way to end this vicious cycle is to confront your bullies and stand up to them. If you don't want confront them, you can simply report this person to hold the bully accountable. However, if someone is highly critical of your work, you can simply ask them what they would have done differently.

Being an endless source of opinions and perspectives can be important, it can also backfire and be bad for teams. Research suggests interfering with projects by pointing out what is wrong with them can frustrate its momentum. If everyone has an opinion on anything, nothing will get done.

So how can you be proactive yet supportive of your colleagues? It all comes down to the way you deliver your message. Research suggests that you need to provide about five times as much positive support for the ideas of others as you provide negative feedback.

Although it might be tricky and time consuming to provide positive feedback when you have a deadline to meet, it does mean that your colleagues will be more appreciative of your alternative plans, goals or benchmarks.

Some of us tend to listen to music on our way to work, but does everyone know that this music can affect your performance and work environment. According to a 2016 study of 266 adults in the Journal of Organisation Behaviour, cheerful music seems to improve people's moods, helping them to be more cooperative and efficient in decision-making.

Although gossip is frowned upon, research shows that some kinds of gossip can actually bring about numerous psychological benefits and can also help teams work better as a group.

This kind of gossip, however, has to be positive in order to have a good impact in the workplace. If you hear how someone got a promotion, it might help you learn from what they've done to make it so you can follow in their footsteps. Therefore, it helps to improve productivity at work.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Don't work hard, work smart"? It might be simple but it's still true. You don't have to work endless hours to be productive. Staying busy or working hard doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to be more successful.

Just because you stay extra hours at work, it doesn't mean you are productive. In fact, the more hours you work, the more likely you are to be less productive because you are tired and your mind is worn out. Staying busy all the time can often lead to mindless "productivity", which is a constant need to do something and the habit of wasting time on menial tasks.

"Work smarter, not harder" is an old adage that signals a simple way to go about work of any kind. Before you start working, you need to take a step back and organise yourself, considering what's the most efficient way to go about work. You need to simplify your tasks so you can accomplish them faster.

Here are some tips to help you manage your time:

First of all, you need to categorise each task and complete the most important and the most difficult ones first. Once you get those out of the way, it will be easier to focus on the other tasks as you won't have to stress out about being able to complete those and your mind is sharper in the first hours of work.

Once you've completed those tasks, you'll feel motivated to continue because you have already succeeded at finishing the essential.

You need to learn to say "no." Although making various commitments can teach us how to juggle engagements and manage our time, it can also be a trap and you might end up caught up in too many engagements. You should only take on those commitments that you know you have time for and that are important to you.

Get enough sleep. Although you might value the extra time you get when you sleep less, the truth is that some people need to sleep at least 7 hours for their brains to function optimally. If you don't get enough sleep, that might affect your productivity later on.

Concentrate on the task at hand. Electronic devices can be very distracting, particularly when you need them to work. First of all, you might need to put your phone away as those Instagram notification can be very distracting. Try not to open any unnecessary browser windows and don't open Facebook under any circumstances. That's like falling into the rabbit hole. You might want to check one notification and then it drags you into everyone's news stories and memes that appear on your newsfeed.

If you can't focus when it's quiet, you might want to listen to classical music or something that is not too distracting. Immerse yourself in one task at a time and don't let anything else distract you.

If you want to be productive, you might want to wake up early and start working in the morning. We all know it's hard to wake up early when you don't really have to, it's much less stressful than procrastinating. Plus, you can always look forward to the end of the day when you can finally relax and reward yourself.

Don't let small obstacles hinder your progress. When you take on a big project, you might find some small details take up too much of your time. This unimportant details might stop your progress and get you stuck. When this happens, you need to focus on getting the bulk done and then revisiting these details you weren't happy about before.

Turn important tasks into a habit. If you do something hard every day, at some point it will come out naturally. It's like going to the gym. The first day might seem hard but once you create a habit, it comes naturally. If your job requires you to undertake a key task often, you might want to do it every day, so you don't dread the day you have to do it. Remember that "practice makes the master."

Although taking a break while working can help you be more productive, it can also trap you in. If you need some leisure time or a breather while working, you have to time yourself so you don't find yourself spending too much time on Twitter or watching TV.

If you are working on your own, you should schedule your day and set a time for each task. That will make you more productive as you know you have a deadline to meet.

Although Silicon Valley remains the triumphant in the world of venture capitalism, the UK doesn't follow far behind. Actually, Tech City reports that the UK attracts one third of all venture capital money available within Europe.

According to figures from London & Partners, UK tech companies made over £2.5 billion in 2015, which represents an increase of 70 percent from 2014 when they raised £1.4 billion.

If you are a startup, you might want to know who are these venture capital firms headquartered or based in the UK and how to make the most of them.

The first one is Balderton Capital. Founded in 2000 by Benchmark Capital Silicon Valley, Balderton became fully independent in 2007 as a UK firm investing in early-stage and internet startup companies that are mainly based in Europe. Balderton is famous for investing early on European entrepreneurs.

With most of the capital coming from university endowments, charitable foundations and pension funds, Balderton invests between £775,000 to £15 million each time and manages around £1.8 billion. Some of the most outstanding investments include Kobalt, Bebo, Citymapper, Wonga and Magic Pony.

They disclaim on their website that they support Europe's leading technology businesses. "Our focus is on early stage, European technology businesses, with ambitious founders and unique approaches. Belderton is the largest Europe focused venture fund, with funds totalling $2.3BN. We invest between $1M to $20M into companies with the potential to disrupt huge industries, and the ambition to scale globally."

"We invest for the long term, with the ability to support our companies from start to exit."

"Our partners are the founders, investors and board members of some of Europe's biggest technology companies. We have a team-oriented approach to building breakthrough technology companies. Balderton is an equal partnership. This means our entrepreneurs get the benefit of a team of experts, in addition to a community of over 150 founders."

Scottish Equity Partners is another venture capital firm that has made over 150 investments with more than 110 exists ever since its foundation in 1991. With offices in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh, the firm invests companies in different fields such as energy, healthcare and technology. With over six funds under the management of 20 employees, the firm invests up to £20 million in high growth technology companies. Investments include Cyberhawk, SolarCentury and Skyscanner.

On their website, they state: "We are an independent owner-managed firm with 45 experienced professionals (...) Our team is knowledgeable, well-connected and experienced in supporting high growth companies across a range of technology sectors."

"We forge constructive long-term relationships with the companies we back, providing continuity and building trust, supporting you from the start of your partnership with us all the way to exit."

"We are approachable, enthusiastic and keen to work with the inspirational entrepreneurs behind Europe's most exciting high growth companies. We understand the challenges and opportunities involved in scaling a business and are skilled in helping to identify and to capitalise on future growth opportunities."

DN Capital invests primarily during the growth stage from £214,000 to £13 million per company. The firm has professionals operating in the London, Menlo Park and Berlin offices, which invest in marketplaces, e-commerce, software, mobile apps and digital media sectors.

With 55 investments and 16 exits across eight countries, DN Capital specialises in assisting US companies to the European market. Important investments include Shazam, Hppm and Seedcamp.

Michael Bruce, the founder of Purplebricks.com, said: "DN Capital was a valuable company and share in that early vision to invest in scaling our disruptive business model across the UK."

DN Capital managing partner Nenad Marovac also joined the Purplebricks board of directors. He said: "At DN Capital we are constantly looking to identify the next breakthrough UK technology companies. We believe that in Purplebricks.com we have found a game-changing proposition that will resonate deeply with UK property sellers and buyers.

"We are very impressed with what Michael and Kenny Bruce have built so far, and are looking forward to bringing our technology experience to help build a significant business."

Another firm worth mentioning is Bridges Ventures. Founded in 2002, the London-based firm manages £600 million and aims to creating investment returns through social and environmental challenges. Bridges Ventures is focused on sustainable and impact investment strategy and for that it uses Sustainable Growth Funds, Property Funds and Social Sector Funds.