June 11, 2013

Fast Forward

Fast forward to 2020. The office is practically extinct as worker mobility and cloud computing have become key factors pushing businesses to go completely virtual. Women have gained significant ground over men in the job market with increased promotions, a rise in wages, and entrepreneurship opportunities accessible. Meanwhile, men have moved into "pink collared" jobs, as healthcare and social assistance sectors surge due to the aging Baby Boomer Generation. As globalization and technology continue to shape the way we live, a new cluster of jobs have emerged to lead us further towards a "knowledge economy."

For starters, the explosion of technology is creating countless new positions for mathematic and science geniuses that you wouldn't even believe. From realistically destroying fake buildings to geometric sculptors to mathemagicians, more and more jobs are being adapted from the natural world and brought into the digital space.

photo via Clothes On Film

The field of costume design is even transforming as the focus shifts to animated characters rather than real life actors and actresses. According to Simulation Supervisor, Claudia Chung, from the movie Brave, the garments from the film were modeled in 3D, digitally sewn together and virtually tried on by the characters, similar to how it would actually be done in the real world. They even go as far as making sure the garments hang properly and the grain of the fabrics is going in the right direction. Just as in costume design, it's all about the fine details and these specialists do everything to make it look as realistic as possible. For jobs similar to this, backgrounds in both fashion and technology may eventually be critical.

video via YouTube

Everyone's fallen victim to cyber hacking one way or another. Luckily enough, we now have "ethical hackers" also know as the white-hat hacker. These experts specialize in protecting an organization's networking infrastructure and website. While these moral professionals invade a network much like a hacker would, they use this information to find and fix security vulnerabilities rather than causing them. Overall, whether government or privately owned, security is a major issue so it's no surprise the demand for these specialists exists.

photo via Mashable

We talk about the overload of information all the time and now data scientists will be available to finally make sense of it all by translating data and creating viable predictions from it. Not to mention, as technology continues to accelerate faster than the workforce, 63% of data scientists foresee the profession being severely undermanned over the next 5 years.

video via Clear PR

So as we rewind back to 2013, many of these jobs are already here and others are just beginning, as people start to get qualified and educated in these new roles. Just look at how the careers of storytellers, social media managers, and trend forecasters have evolved from the beginning of the Millennium when they were basically nonexistent. Today, both storytelling and social media are crucial while many predict that trend forecasters will be essential in educating the industry on sustainability.

video via smartplanet.com

The way we do things is changing, plain and simple. What we once thought of as a productive environment, the office, research shows is actually more of a distraction. People want the freedom to work anywhere, at anytime and may work as many as 8-10 different jobs in a lifetime. We are no longer binded to traditional approaches to business and want different things from the companies we work for. Our entire lives, both social and professional, are moving from an offline world to an online one. As a result, all of these things are stimulating a new job market that may eventually lead to future career paths in anything one can imagine. From body part making to space pilots to virtual lawyers, professional sleepers, and virtual clutter organizers, maybe it's time for a career change.

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