Career · Writing, media and languages
SMM specialist
Runs the social media of a company or project: thinks up topics, prepares posts and talks with followers.
Career overview
What a day looks like
An SMM specialist plans what to say on social media, writes the texts, prepares pictures and videos and publishes them. They answer comments, see which posts people liked and change the plan.
Try it yourself this week
40 minutes
Write a short news piece about something happening near you
- Choose a real event: a school concert, a new playground in your neighbourhood, a competition.
- Gather the facts: what, where, when, who took part. If you like, ask one participant a question — and leave their name out of the text if they don't want it in.
- Write a 150–200 word piece with a headline that makes people want to open it.
- Cut the text by a fifth and check that every fact is true. Write down what was harder: writing or cutting.
What you'll learn about yourself: Whether you're drawn to finding a story and telling it accurately — and whether you can handle edits to your own text.
40 minutes
Make a poster for a school event
- Choose an event: a real school event or a made-up one, for example a board game night.
- Write the key facts on a sheet of paper: what, when and where. Nothing else goes on the poster.
- Draw the poster by hand or in any free editor that's already on your phone and doesn't need registration. Pick two or three colours and one big image.
- Show the poster to your parents or a friend and ask: what did they understand at first glance? Write down the answer.
What you'll learn about yourself: Whether you enjoy coming up with an image and choosing colours, or get more out of thinking through exactly what to tell people.
What you can do next
Next 3 months
Plan some posts
Pick an imaginary project, such as a school club, and plan the topics of posts for a week.
In six months
Prepare one post
Write the text and choose a picture. Think about who will find it interesting and why.
In a year
Ask a specialist
Through people you know, and together with your parents, ask someone who runs social media for work what their day looks like.
What it pays
No verified information is available in this section yet.
Where to study
No verified information is available in this section yet.
How to get into college
College gets you a profession faster than university. You can apply after grade 9 or after grade 11.
- Colleges accept students both after grade 9 and after grade 11. After grade 9 you study longer — about 3 years 10 months; after grade 11, about 2 years 10 months. The exact length depends on the college and the specialty.
Source: kchk.edu.kz (opens in a new tab) - About 80% of students admitted to colleges in the 2024/25 school year study on a state order, which means in state-funded places (in 2023/24 it was about 70%). But each college and each specialty has its own number of state-funded places.
Source: inbusiness.kz (opens in a new tab) - There are also paid colleges. For example, training as a nurse at ADILMED costs 450,000 ₸ per year. Check the price and conditions on the college's website.
Source: adilmed.kz (opens in a new tab)
UNT: which subjects to take for university
The UNT (Unified National Testing) is Kazakhstan's national university entrance test. You need it to get into university after grade 11.
- The UNT 2026 has three compulsory subjects: History of Kazakhstan, Reading Literacy and Mathematical Literacy. On top of these, you take two profile subjects, chosen to match your specialty.
Source: testcenter.kz (opens in a new tab) - In total, the test has 120 questions (maximum 140 points) and you get 4 hours. The format is the same as in 2025.
Source: testcenter.kz (opens in a new tab) - Profile subjects depend on the group of specialties. For example: information technology — Mathematics and Computer Science; nursing and veterinary medicine — Biology and Chemistry; electrical engineering — Mathematics and Physics; law — World History and Fundamentals of Law. The full list is published by the National Testing Center.
Source: testcenter.kz (opens in a new tab) - For creative specialties (for example, media and design), you take History of Kazakhstan and Reading Literacy through the UNT, and two creative exams at the university itself.
Source: testcenter.kz (opens in a new tab) - Some universities have their own admission rules. Nazarbayev University, for example, requires a UNT score of at least 85, a GPA of 4.0 and English at IELTS 6.0 level.
Source: nu.edu.kz (opens in a new tab)
Courses and opportunities
No verified information is available in this section yet.
History of the career
No verified information is available in this section yet.
Well-known people in this field
No verified information is available in this section yet.