CAREERS NOW 01-02-08

Emerging Careers on the Horizon

DEAR JOYCE: As a career coach I'm asked about promising careers of the future. Can you help me out? - M.J.

Tracking careers thought to be just around the corner and picking those with realistic prospects of a strong job market is tricky business. Early birds who want entry into a dawning field are called "pioneers." And if their timing is premature, they're then called "the wounded," because they caught arrows in their backsides.

With that caveat, I have exciting news of a new research-intensive forecast appearing in U.S. News & World Report's impressive annual best-jobs section in December. (Google "Ahead-of-the-Curve Careers.")

Put together by real-world-smart Marty Nemko, a prominent San Francisco career counselor, radio-show host and author, the projections are based on six realistic megatrends, not all of them agreeable with America's best interests. A synopsis:

- Growing healthcare demand. The U.S. healthcare system will take on more patients because of aging baby boomers, the enormous influx of immigrants and millions of now uninsured Americans who'll likely be covered under some kind of new national healthcare plan. Examples of legions of new faces: health informatics specialists, patient advocates and wellness coaches.

- The increasingly digitized world. Americans are flocking to all things online, from shopping and entertainment to networking and computer games for everyone (not just teenaged boys). Serving the online industry: data miners who dig up data for marketers and researchers, and simulation developers who create for entertainment, education and virtual training industries.

- Globalization, especially Asia's ascendancy. The dual trends of moving jobs offshore and unprecedented immigration are creating demand for business development specialists, offshoring managers and immigration specialists.

- The dawn of clinical genomics. Decoding a person's genome has become affordable for many and the price for identifying a person's risk for such illnesses as heart disease and Alzheimer's and other predispositions is falling further. Two heroes bringing this true revolution to pass are computational biologists and behavioral geneticists.

- Environmentalism. Global warming is an enormous concern. Thousands of engineers are working on hydrogen-powered cars, better solar cells and pollution-free energy. Problem: These jobs require very high-level training and skills and are at risk of being offshored. In contrast, the jobs of green-collar consultants are offshore- resistant and may require less training to learn to do such things as green-building audits.

- Terrorism. Another attack on the United States would generate even more jobs in the already mushrooming antiterrorism field. Among the newcomers: emergency planning managers, who would also be called forth to anticipate action needed in such other emergencies as wildfires, floods, hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, outbreaks of disastrous diseases and horrific accidents.

You can obtain many additional details, including how to follow-up for more information on each emerging career identified, in Nemko's article. His laudable work will be a wake-up call to many people.

Additionally, check out my earlier column, "Scouting Out Emerging and Evolving Careers." It is posted on my Web site, sunfeatures.com, and dated 06/24/07.

One more forecast of interest, this one from WorldatWork. Bear in mind that WorldatWork is an association of compensation-focused human resource professionals at major companies and organizations worldwide. The organization has released eight key predictions based on an exhaustive literature review of futurist books and articles analyzed by the organization's knowledge leaders.The trends identified by WorldatWork are heavily tilted toward globalization. They are:

1. The successful organization of the future will excel at acquiring, organizing and strategically deploying global resources.

2. There will be increased global connectivity, integration and interdependence in the economic, social, technological, cultural and political spheres.

3. Technology will advance at an even more rapid pace than in previous decades.

4. There will be continuous, dramatic changes in the labor force.

5. Human capital (labor force) will become an even greater source of value.

6. The way work is organized and performed will evolve and change continuously.

7. Outsourcing will increase.

8. Self-paced, self-directed individualized virtual learning will dominate business training.

If Marty Nemko's article, my earlier column and WorldatWork predictions don't give you enough to work with, use a search engine to look for "forecasts of future occupations."

After today's foray into future trends and careers, perhaps you agree with Honest Abe Lincoln, who observed: "The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time." I know I do.

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