Careers Of The Future

By definition, careers of the future do not exist yet – but we can sneak a peek at some of the career possibilities beginning to emerge. We can also speculate about the possible requirements and pathways leading to those careers.

Where will careers of the future come from?

In the World Future Society article, “70 Jobs for 2030: Emerging Careers and How to Create Them”, author Cynthia G. Wagner identifies three ways that jobs of the future will be created:

Retrofitting: Adding new skills to existing jobs.
Blending: Combining skills and functions from different jobs or industries to create new specialties.
Problem solving: Necessity is still the mother of invention, and the supply of future problems for people to solve seems limitless.

In addition, many innovations create jobs, careers and even entire industries. Some of the innovations that we are familiar with are:

ATMs (Automatic Teller Machines)
Fracking, a more economical method to extract oil and natural gas
Electric cars that plug-in to recharge
GPS (Geographic Positioning System) navigation
Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vine
MP3 players for musicMinimally-invasive and robotic surgery equipment
Barcodes for scanning prices and keeping track of inventory items

It’s hard to imagine a world without some of these innovations. While certainly jobs are lost with the introduction of new products and services, thousands of new jobs and career paths are created as a result. That’s why trend watching – in your career or industry – is so important.

There are always more innovations to come. Here are ten career fields where new developments and trends will create opportunities for careers of the future.

In the Medical field, physicians will need to coordinate and cooperate much more with other clinicians on a patients’ healthcare team. Your team of specialists will work together more closely to treat you more holistically. Electronic records also consolidate all of your healthcare treatments, conditions, imaging scans, and test results so physicians will be looking at the whole picture of your health. They will also need to continually keep current and develop competency with new pharmaceuticals, technology and methods such as robotic surgery systems. These are good examples of retrofitting a current career.
The Education field will continue to experience radical change. Teachers of students of all ages will experience a change in student-teacher relationships with innovations such as mobile web communication. We have already seen the introduction of books and even textbooks that are interactive and customizable e-books. The same gaming dynamics and graphics used in recreational video and computer games are being employed for educational purposes, along with augmented- or virtual-reality computer simulated environments. Interactive robotic teachers are already instructing students in South Korea, teaching the English language. And online courses from top universities have already been made available through open courseware sites such as Coursera and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Opportunities for self-directed learning will abound.
The career field of Neuroscience and Mind Control include brainmapping using MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imagery) and other imaging technologies. At UCLA, researchers have already examined images of the brains of fraternal and identical twins to discover how an individual’s genes influence their brain structure and intelligence. What might be next?At Drexel University, students have already piloted thought-controlled video games, executing actions using only their mind. This same technology has enabled stroke victims with paralyzed limbs to use their thoughts to direct a robotic arm to grasp objects. Intrigued? The NOVA ScienceNOW program, “What the Future Will Be Like” reveals more on these advances.
In the area of Genetics, there is a shortage of workers now, and even more will be needed in the future. This field includes challenges working with the human genome, but genetics may also apply to plant and animal DNA. Career opportunities include physicians, clinical geneticists, genetic counselors, bioinformatics, bioethics and intellectual property attorneys, agricultural scientists, and plant and animal breeders.
Biometrics includes hardware and software designed to measure a biological or behavior “signature” of the human body, compare it to a database, and render a decision from this matching process. Law enforcement, homeland security, access control, banking and healthcare are industries that will have a growing need for workers and innovators in this field. Biometrics may have degrees in academic areas such as biometric systems and computer engineering.
Hydroponics and skyscraper farming support the current trend of locally grown food grown effectively, ethically, and as environmentally safe as possible. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants in mineral nutrient water, rather than soil. Because these plants are grown indoors, cities may one day routinely house vertical farms powered by solar or wind energy. By 2050, there will be 10 billion people in the global population, 3 billion more than there are today, plus animals and livestock, and all of them need to eat. Plant scientists, horticulturists, crop physiologists, engineers and architects will be needed to design, build and operate these facilities. These are not your grandparents’ corn fields!
Green careers are jobs involved in the production of goods that benefit the environment, and those that develop processes that are environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources. The U.S. federal government has an excellent green careers website that provides information on green careers in 11 different categories, including biofuels, geothermal energy, sustainability and natural resource protection.
Nanotechnology encompasses designing and building machines the size of a single molecule. Nanorobots (microscopic robots) capable of performing non-invasive surgery? Delivering medication to specific cells? “Imagine a medical device that travels through the human body to seek out and destroy small clusters of cancerous cells before they can spread. Or a box no larger than a sugar cube that contains the entire contents of the Library of Congress. Or materials much lighter than steel that possess ten times as much strength.” (U.S. National Science Foundation) This field impacts medicine, agriculture, computers, education, energy, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and transportation, to name just a few.
Space workers include astronauts, pilots and maintenance workers as well as ground crew engineers and scientists. Even though NASA has experienced severe budget cuts in 2013 due to sequestration, private companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galatic are developing affordable ways to send people and cargo into space. More information on careers can be found on NASA’s website.
Digital media certainly exists now, but we will see an explosion into new areas and even newer technology. Digital book designers will deliver information to readers in multiple forms – text, graphics, video, sound – and smells? Textures? Digital textbooks on tablets will enrich learning experiences beyond our imaginations. Perhaps chiropractors and physical therapists will treat fewer young patients since students won’t be weighed down with 20 pounds of books in a backpack anymore. Can wireless downloading to a microchip embedded in our brains be next?

Who knows when the next game-changing, technological blockbuster will occur? Individuals who want to prepare themselves to take advantage of new career opportunities need to watch the trends affecting their career field and industry. Knowing yourself, your talents, and the kinds of tasks and work environments in which you thrive will also enable you to identify your best fit challenges now and in the future.