Gone are the days of 30 years spent with the same organisation and a company pension upon retirement. Stay ahead of the curve and check out these futuristic jobs.
Traditional stability is a thing of the past. When it comes to careers, change is the only constant. The average person born in the later years of the baby boom held 10.5 jobs from age 18 to 40 (NY Times). The average tenure in a given job is now only 4.4 years.
As for Millennials, they are driving this figure even lower… the average young person will not stay at a job for longer than three years. This equates to 15 – 20 changes in a lifetime. According to a survey by Future Workplace, a prime reason for this is a changing philosophy about the way in which work is done. Millennials favour job fulfillment over the job stability sought after by previous generations. In the 21st century, we are living and working longer. But we also realise that life is short, so we want to feel good about the work we’re doing.
“Each year as twenty-something’s leave college campuses and move into the working world, industries on the rise offer something uniquely appealing: the opportunity to seize brand new positions where competition hasn’t reached critical mass.” (Forbes)
An example of a job that is so new that it didn’t even exist a decade ago: the app developer. The iPhone was only introduced in 2007, followed shortly by Android and so on. Billions of dollars have already been made by those on-the-ball software engineers who have taken advantage of the rising demand for mobile applications.
So here are our top ten jobs that you may soon be doing:
1. The Urban Shepherd
Green curators could be the new inner-city demand. As towns are pressured to move from grey to green for their own survival, we’ll need “urban shepherds” to attend to the infrastructure.
2. The Alternative Reality Architect
A whole new field of design is about to open up, the Inception-like architecture of virtual augmentations. Environments that Google ‘Glassholes’ inhabit could get very exhilarating.
3. The Personality Programmer
Who’s tired of Siri’s voice? We certainly are. There is a growing demand for people to program and test not just voices but different virtual personalities. With the increase of “talking” inanimate objects, opportunities for moonlighting as a new voice will also abound.
4. The Tele-surgeon
Soon there will be a demand for surgeons who can operate on people remotely with robotic tools instead of human hands, enabling more accurate surgery and long-distance operations.
5. The Re-wilder
Previously called “farmers, the role of the Re-wilder is not to raise food crops, but rather to undo environmental damage to the countryside caused by people, factories, cars, etc.
6. The Digital-Detox Specialist
The digital “overload” is becoming increasingly overwhelming. We’ll need people who can help lead less data-centric lives, or at least find a better balance. In extreme cases, they will even organize digital rehabs.
7. The 3D-printing Handyman
Today when your handyman fixes something, he usually has to order a spare part from China. Soon, he’ll be printing it there and then. Say you need to replace the pipe under your sink. Why wait for the whole thing to be imported?
8. The Simplicity Expert
In increasingly complicated lives, we need people to simplify them. Simplicity experts are interested in looking at how businesses can simplify and streamline their operations. For instance, they can reduce 15 administrative steps to three, or four interviews to one, or three days of work to a half hour.
9. The Nostalgist
Nostalgists are interior designers specialising in recreating memories for retired people. The elderly of 2030 who don’t want to reside in a typical “retirement village” will have the luxury of living in a space inspired by their favorite decade or place. 70’s décor, anyone?
10. The Drone Dispatcher
Imagine getting your pizza delivered by a pilot-less mini-aircraft. As drone technology improves, drones will become increasingly self-piloting and the need for human pilots will diminish. Instead, a new industry could spring up around drone dispatching. The applications are limitless – from more accurate weather predictions and precision agriculture to reaching dangerous places.
