70 Jobs for 2030 PDF

Special Section ‹:RUOG)XWXUH6RFLHW\‡:RRGPRQW$YHQXH6XLWH%HWKHVGD0'86$‡ZZZZIVRUJ‡$OOULJKWVUHVHUYHG 70 Jobs for 2030 Emerging Careers and How to Create Them By Cynthia G. Wagner We can think about our “jobs” as how we earn a living, how we spend our time,...

Special Section ‹:RUOG)XWXUH6RFLHW\‡:RRGPRQW$YHQXH6XLWH%HWKHVGD0'86$‡ZZZZIVRUJ‡$OOULJKWVUHVHUYHG 70 Jobs for 2030 Emerging Careers and How to Create Them By Cynthia G. Wagner We can think about our “jobs” as how we earn a living, how we spend our time, or how we find inspiration, but one thing is sure: The nature of jobs is changing along with the corporations, societies, and other environments in which we do the work. Cameron: I don’t know what I’m The trends that Feingold was revisit some of the megatrends shap- gonna do. tracking at the time included the ad- ing tomorrow’s careers and invited Sloane: College. vancing information and communi- several experts and World Future Cameron: Yeah, but to do what? cation technologies that were im- Society members to contribute their Sloane: What are you interested in? proving office productivity, as well thoughts. Cameron: Nothing. as the opportunities created by medi- Interestingly, many of those mega- Sloane: Me neither. … What do you cal breakthroughs and the challenges trends from the early 1980s are still think Ferris is gonna do? associated with resource depletion. very active: environment and re- Cameron: He’s gonna be a fry-cook The principles on which Feingold source issues, accelerating techno- on Venus. based his forecasts for tomorrow’s logical development, and the drive (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, John Hughes, job titles are still sound. The emerg- to explore (or exploit) the frontiers of 1986) ing careers he identified (such as ge- ocean and space. So though many of netic counselor, ocean hotel manager, Feingold’s forecasted careers are well In February 1984, THE FUTURIST and artificial intelligence technician) established (solar energy research published one of its most popular all would develop from preexisting scientist, laser technician, aquacul- articles ever: “Emerging Careers: Oc- career areas and would become pos- turist), new opportunities are still cupations for Post-Industrial Society” sible through advances in technol- likely to emerge in these same areas. by psychologist and career counselor ogy, changes in the environment, and S. Norman Feingold. What made the other megatrends. And the jobs he Futuring for Job Creators article unique among all of the “how described were not just momentary to get a job” pieces that regularly ap- fads, appearing and disappearing One of the easiest ways to begin pear in magazines was the focus on over a very short period of time. You thinking about future careers is to fo- trends that were reshaping the world could forget becoming a “Mood Ring cus on what may be a problem in the of work and on how individuals Interpreter.” future and invent a job that will could use these ideas to shape their So with this in mind, the editors of solve it. We can do this through own futures. THE FUTURIST felt it was time to trend analysis, applying trends to 30 THE FUTURIST January-February 2011  The List: 70 Jobs for 2030 The following are sample emerging job titles identified in this special section; we hope the ideas discussed in the section will stimulate your own thinking about the future and the jobs that may be needed in the decades ahead. Alternative currency banker Holodeck trainer Amnesia surgeon Mobile biomass therapist Astro-banker Office concierge Astro-clergy Online community organizer Astro-doctor Organizational quartermaster Astro-farmer Personal brand manager Astro-lawyer Personal care coordinator Astro-psychologist Plant psychologists Astro-teacher Post-normal jobs counselor Augmented reality architect Rationator police Autonomous vehicle operator Residence technician Avatar relationship manager Robot polisher Bio-botic physician Robotic earthworm driver Bio-botist assistant Robotician Bioregenerative integrator Seed capitalist Brain quant Sensuality simulator functions that will need to be Brain signal decoder (mind Smart car interior planet get in the way of ac- performed. Many functions reader) advertisement sales tive satellites and craft. will be more automated in Chef-farmer (agri-restaurateur) representative Space junk watchers now the future, including profes- Chief experience officer Smart car interior designer track bits of debris, but the sional services, but people Clinical choral consultant Smart road designer/engineer future may offer opportu- will still find creative ways Clone rancher Smart road sensor control nities for space sweep- of using their skills and tal- monitor/analyst ers, space junk recy- Digital archaeologist ents to make a living. Space junk hauler clers, ha ulers, and Digital identity planner Here are three basic ap- Drone dispatcher Space junk recycler resource reclaimers. proaches: Space resource reclaimer Long-term space habita- Energy harvester 1. Retrofitting: Adding Space sweeper tion means we’ll also need Environmental health nurse new skills to existing jobs. Talent aggregator astroteachers, doctors, 2. Blending: Combining Exobotanist Telecop psychologists, lawyers, skills and functions from dif- Exozoologist clergy, bankers, farm- Terabyter (lifelogger) ferent jobs or industries to Extinction revivalist ers, and yes, perhaps even Time hacker create new specialties. Financial technologist fry-cooks. We’ll also need 3. Problem solving: Ne- Transhumanist consultant Future-guide all sorts of repair per- cessity is still the mother of Global sourcing manager Tree-jacker sons—or at least the engi- invention, and the supply of Universal ethics proclaimer neers and technicians to Global system architect future problems for people Unmanned cargo vehicle build robots with AI to Grassroots researcher to solve seems limitless. operator perform these needed Gravity puller Wiki writer functions. Green career coach The possibility of find- Retrofitting: Apply Healer ing life forms on Earthlike New Trends to planets in other solar sys- Current Careers tems certainly inspires new Let’s take the long-term trend to- repair your spaceshoes, make your career possibilities, such as exobot- ward space commercialization as an bed, lead your tour group? How do anists and exozoologists to study example of an area where new ca- you get your hair trimmed or styled interplanetary plants and animals. reers could be retrofitted onto exist- in space? If you’re planning a celes- %DFNRQ(DUWKRWKHUWUHQGVVXJ- ing occupations. As space tourism tial wedding, who will design your gest retrofitting opportunities. For grows, what services will be needed low- or zero-gravity bridal gown? example, what kinds of jobs can be to support customers and busi- Space debris has become an in- done by telecommuting? Technologi- nesses? Other prospective areas of creasing problem as the byproduct of cal advances as well as social change development include construction, human exploration and exploitation will create opportunities for jobs that energy or other resource harvesting, of space; spent rockets, broken parts, you wouldn’t normally think could and general services. Who’s going to and other debris now orbiting the be done remotely. Can a police offi- THE FUTURIST January-February 2011 31  try on the rise. Perhaps you would Doing What You Love lead music-therapy programs in hos- pitals or nursing homes as a clinical choral consultant. While some may not view a return An additional way to to an agrarian economy as “prog- create an emerging career is ress,” we have seen a surge of inter- WRPRQHWL]H\RXUSDVVLRQ'R est in organic and local farming. To- what you love. day, many urbanites subscribe to a Two brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, favorite orchard or farm for their made bicycles for a living, but they were supplies of fresh, healthy foods. fascinated by the possibility of Merge this with a trend (or perhaps flying machines. simply a fad) in celebrity chefs, and In 1903, they succeeded in you have opportunities for agri- building the first successful restaurateurs (or chef-farmers). airplane, thus creating a new We also see more ag- job for themselves—and ricultural activity eventually jobs for thousands taking place within of other people. cities themselves; people may in- —Edward Cornish creasingly choose to spend less IMAGES: DOVER PUBLICATIONS; PHOTODISC time in mone- tized work cer, for instance, be effective telecom- portation systems and infrastructure (“jobs”) and more muting? Yes, if it means strengthen- that become increasingly embedded time producing food ing ties to his/her own community. with these technologies. Job titles for their own and/or Job title: Telecop. could include smart road de- their community’s needs. What kinds of jobs can be retro- signer/engineer, sensor control Another “blend” opportunity is to fitted to reduce their environmental monitor/analyst, smart car in- become a specialized generalist. For impacts? Green career coaches terior designer, and smart car instance, if you want to be a journal- could advise employers/workers interior advertisement sales ist, become a specialized one in a about the environmental impacts of representative. growth sector such as health. Oppor- their tasks. How could you make tunities right now are in business EHDXW\VDORQVPRUHHFRIULHQGO\"'H- journalism, particularly the finance Blending Careers partment stores? Office supply and investment categories. Look for VWRUHV" 2IILFH 'HSRW IRU LQVWDQFH Another way of looking at trends growth in health and medicine jour- has been touting its greening efforts. from a future-career perspective is to nalism and communications. Energy harvesters will combine make connections among two or Some critics have feared a media construction and engineering to col- more different areas. For instance, future where anyone can write (or lect the kinetic energy of humans blending work in human and envi- create content) for the public without through the materials they come in ronmental health resulted in the the training and experience in com- contact with, from floors to everyday emerging field of environmental munications theory, ethics, law, and objects, and even clothing. The health nursing, which involves VRRQ%XWWKHUHZLOOVWLOOEHDPDUNHW power created by a single individual treatment of patients exposed to tox- for ideas and news—i.e., informa- could operate his or her personal ICT ins. After receiving her master’s de- tion—that is authoritative, balanced, devices; the power collected by a gree in this new field, Sinai Hospital and useful. This authority-journal- group (office workers, apartment nurse Janel C. Parham used the in- ism may come from professional ex- dwellers) could run a city block. formation “in conjunction with my perts (e.g., neurosurgeons, astro- Another trend that could retrofit ex- other passion—maternal/child physicists, financial advisers) who isting occupations is the growing in- health. I looked at how all these tox- do cross-training in journalism. corporation of sensors, batteries, and ins affected female reproduction and They’ll assure audiences of their ac- other technologies into textiles, such as fetal development.” curate reporting (they’ll get the facts for our clothes. So how are “smart tex- You may be a wonderful sales per- right), and they’ll communicate in tiles” going to be cleaned or altered? son but currently working in an in- language that everyone can under- 'U\FOHDQHUVPD\QHHGWRUHWUDLQWKHP- GXVWU\WKDWLVLQGHFOLQH%\IRFXVLQJ stand. And that’s all good, even if selves in handling electronics. Tailor- on your transferrable skills (persua- traditional outlets for “journalism,” ing/garment customization will in- siveness, interpersonal communica- like newspapers and broadcast news, clude not only design details but also tions) as well as your interests (sing- disappear or transform into new communications customizing. ing, painting), you may be able to platforms. The same issues will affect trans- create a new occupation in an indus- Journalism schools will evolve 32 THE FUTURIST January-February 2011 with these changes; the City Univer- racy before it is something a patient Vault Careers. “In fact, many things sity of New York, for instance, has really might find useful.” Future job are quite predictable, such as prog- introduced a master ’s degree pro- title: brain signal decoder (or ress in technology, and many of the gram in entrepreneurial journalism mind reader). impacts of that technology are pretty that will prepare students for the obvious too when you think about business and technological environ- it.” Putting It All Together ments in which they will be working. Where futurists may be able to It has been said that “futurist” is make themselves most useful in the (or should be) everyone’s second future would be as what Janna Quit- Problem Solving as Career profession, but for many it is their ney Anderson described in the Opportunity first profession. Futurist was a fea- January-February 2010 issue of THE The communications age brought WXUHGMREWLWOHLQWKH86%XUHDXRI FUTURIST: “Maybe what we need is with it a host of unexpected prob- Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook a new employment category, like lems, most notably privacy and secu- Quarterly (spring 2009), which ex- f uture-guide , to help prepare rity. Facebook and Twitter keep us plores a variety of unique job titles in people for the effects of disruptive connected but also vulnerable, often its “You’re a What?” series. technology in their chosen profes- to our own missteps. (Try killing that Professional futurologist Ian Pear- sions so they don’t find themselves, video of your cowboy-singing kara- VRQIRUPHUO\DQHQJLQHHUZLWK%7 frankly, out of a job.” oke adventure once it goes viral on Laboratories, describes some of the YouTube.) Enter the new world of problems that futurists face when ex- About the Author digital footprint management. plaining what they actually do for a Cynthia G. Wagner is man- Elizabeth Charnock, author of living. aging editor of THE E-Habits: What You Must Do to Opti- “The most common [misconcep- FUTURIST and editor of mize Your Professional Digital Presence tion] is that it can’t work—no one Futurist Update, the World and CEO of the digital analytics firm can predict the future. Ergo, I must Future Society’s free Cataphora, suggests that new career be an idiot and wasting their time,” monthly e-mail newsletter. opportunities are rising for those he said in an interview with the blog E-mail [email protected]. who would help you manage your online image by correcting your blunders. Others (such as prospec- tive employers, political opponents, or spurned lovers) may pay good money to dig up that which you tried to bury, such as an impulsively A Clash of Ideas and Ideals sent e-mail deriding your co-work- ers. Job title: digital archaeologist. On the Jobs Front %ULGJLQJ WKH UHPDLQLQJ JDS EH- tween what our technologies can do By Patrick Tucker for us and what they cannot do is an- other rich area of problems to solve. At a recent Washington, D.C., summit, top economic minds As business futurist Edie Weiner has pointed out, science’s growing un- gathered to debate long-term solutions to current economic derstanding of the human brain is a woes. major area of potential economic growth for the future, whether the goal is to create artificial intelligence or to enhance human lives. It’s a crisp September day in Wash- nal Workforce of the Future confer- Recent research at the University ington and economist Lawrence ence. of Utah with severely paralyzed Summers, head of the Obama ad- While the U.S. stock market has people enabled bioengineers using ministration’s Council of Economic largely recovered since reaching its implanted microelectrodes to trans- Advisors, appears as relaxed as the recession low in March 2009, and late the patients’ brain signals into weather outside. This unshakable corporate earnings over the last two words. The method needs improve- confidence is in keeping with Sum- quarters have largely beat analysts’ ment in order to help patients who mers’s reputation, but he’s attempt- expectations, the U.S. labor market cannot speak due to locked-in syn- ing to address (or evade) a difficult remains in dire shape. Some 14.9 mil- drome. “This is proof of concept,” issue, and what many consider the lion people are officially unemployed VD\VOHDGUHVHDUFKHU%UDGOH\*UHJHU VLQJOHELJJHVWIDLOXUHRIWKHWULOOLRQ in the United States. The Obama ad- “We’ve proven these signals can tell fiscal policy he orchestrated: jobs. ministration originally forecast that you what the person is saying well “The overwhelming problem is a the stimulus would keep the U.S. un- DERYHFKDQFH%XWZHQHHGWREHDEOH shortage of demand” for workers, employment rate near 8%. In Sep- to do more words with more accu- said Summers at the National Jour- tember 2010, it stood at 9.6%. It’s a THE FUTURIST January-February 2011 33  PATRICK TUCKER training in science, technology, and engineering as the key obstacle to U.S. job growth. He suggested a na- tional skill certification test that em- ployers could give to potential em- ployees to determine their qualifications, instead of relying on the degree an applicant has acquired. “If [employers] had confidence in a national certification standard, we could bring people into the work- force faster,” he said. Economic Policy Institute presi- dent Lawrence Mischel agreed on Lawrence Summers (left), head the value of a national certification of the Obama administration’s standard but dissented sharply on Council of Economic Advisors, the subject of qualified workers or discusses the recession’s the lack thereof. “The claim that we effect on jobs with Ronald don’t have workers with the right Brownstein of the National skills or workers in the right place, Journal Group. so people who were useful six months ago are now obsolete—I haven’t found evidence for it. Invest- ment in plant and equipment is at the lowest level in the postwar pe- riod. Every education group has seen their unemployment rate double. U.S. born-problem with global con- Projected increases in health-care This [recession] is something that has sequences; fewer working Americans jobs over the coming decade won’t affected every education group,” he means far fewer customers for ex- help job growth long term. Pearlstein said. SRUWOHG HFRQRPLHV OLNH *HUPDQ\ cautioned: “Every time you read On what issues did the partici- Japan, and China. about heath-care jobs, it’s a dead- pants generally agree? How does the United States pro- weight loss on the economy. We can’t ‡ 7KH8QLWHG6WDWHVQHHGVWRUHYLVH tect the jobs it has and grow more get rich taking in each other’s health- its visa program to allow more highly jobs in the future? This was a matter care needs.” skilled workers into the country. of some dispute among the econo- A publicly funded but privately ‡ 7KH ZRUNIRUFH RI WKH QH[W mists, captains of industry, and labor run “innovation fund” could better decade will draw more heavily from leaders in attendance. According to direct capital to where it’s most pro- African American and Latino popu- (PLO\'H5RFFRVHQLRUYLFHSUHVLGHQW ductive, according to former Clinton lations, so improving education of the National Association of Manu- DGYLVRU 0DUWLQ %DLO\ ´,I \RX ORRN among these communities is critical facturers, the United States needs to across the world, you can’t find a to future competiveness. revitalize its factory sector. high-tech industry that was started ‡ 'LVUXSWLYHWHFKQRORJLHVOLNHDX- “The majority of the innovation without help from the government,” tomation and information technol- that occurs in the [U.S.] economy is he said. ogy will destroy the jobs as surely as LQPDQXIDFWXULQJµ'H5RFFRDUJXHG A more important role for govern- they create new ones. “If we allow our production to move ment is enforcement of regulations “You can’t look at the data from offshore, design and research will of worker protections, according to the last 18 months and not think move as well.” She also emphasized several attendees. “[U.S.] wages have something profoundly important the need for more robust public/pri- EHHQVWDJQDQWRYHUWKHODVW\HDUV and structural is happening all over vate partnership. so people have been making less but the world. No matter how successful That means that the government working more with more bills to pay. we are in creating demand for em- should play a larger role in directing How do we give workers a voice so ployment, some skills will be less rel- the economy, said Washington Post they can unionize to earn higher evant than they were,” said Summers. columnist Steven Pearlstein. “If you wages? We need to look at regula- lose too much of the manufacturing, tory reform and enforce the trade About the Author you will lose the development and regulations that we have,” said Anna Patrick Tucker is senior edi- WKHUHVHDUFK%XW\RXKDYHVXJJHVWHG %XUJHUVHFUHWDU\WUHDVXUHURIWKH6HU- tor of THE FUTURIST and a limited role for government as a vice Employees International Union. director of communications for the World Future Society. FRPSHWLWLYHQHVVSROLF\«'R%UD]LO 'UHZ*UHHQEODWWSUHVLGHQWRIWKH E-mail: [email protected]. *HUPDQ\DQG&KLQDKDYHZHDNJRY- %DOWLPRUHEDVHG FRPSDQ\ 0DUWLQ ernments? I don’t think so.” Steel Wire Products, sees a dearth of 34 THE FUTURIST January-February 2011  SELLINGPIX / ISTOCKPHOTO The Coming of the Terabyters: Lifelogging for a Living By Thomas Frey A new breed of workers, equipped with über-geek data-capturing tools, are about to usher in a whole new information era. A person’s worth is usually calcu- the development of new data-cap- He represents a human version of lated based on a hard number, such ture equipment. the spidering bots that tech compa- as money in the bank account, per- Consider the following scenario: nies currently use to scan the digital sonal assets, or earning power. As Each morning, Winston rolls out of ZRUOG %XW VSLGHULQJ WKH SK\VLFDO our ability to capture and process in- bed, takes a quick shower, and be- world requires a more human ap- formation improves, we are able to JLQVWRVWUDSRQWKHWUDGHPDUN*DU- proach, and that’s where Winston assign many more numbers to the in- goyle gear. Named after the charac- comes in. trinsic value of an individual’s influ- ters described in Neal Stephenson’s Search technology companies such ence, reputation, and talent. In the novel Snow Crash,*DUJR\OHVHTXLS DV *RRJOH