Advanced technology, global pandemic, changing employees’ expectations and talent shortage challenged organizations in recent years with the fundamental question “How do we plan for future”? Simultaneously employees are insecure whether they will have secured jobs within the next 10-15 years or how to upskill to achieve stable incomes in the future. Beyond that there is constantly changing world not to mention about aging society, climate change, human migrations or unstable geopolitical situation.
We are in the middle of 4th industrial revolution of Age of Software and Digital that has started in 1971. Since then many jobs turned out to be ideal for algorithms and according to World Economic Forum report redundant job roles in business already include or will include in a foreseeable future: factory workers, data entry clerks, administrative and executive secretaries, customer service workers, travel agents, finance roles starting form accountants and payroll clerks through financial analysts and auditors, bank tellers, sales reps, HR specialists, business services and administration managers, general and operation managers.
To survive and strive in the digital age organizations need to continually and proactively be able to deliver to the market innovative business solutions faster than the competition and it cannot be achieved by using old operating frameworks, infrastructure models or leadership methods. As Albert Einstein said, “You can’t use an old map to explore a new world”. To achieve the state of business agility, enterprises will need to be able to create, understand and improve digital user experiences, help map a customer’s journey, develop software, create applications and websites as well as help to improve human interaction with Technology. The departments such as: IT, Marketing or HR will not exist anymore in this form as the new demand will create a lot of new hybrid roles where not job titles or job descriptions, but skills will be of the upmost importance. Let’s have a look one by one what skills will shape the future.
Enterprises will need to be more agile in recognizing customers’ needs or identifying market possibilities hence it opens multiple possibilities in digital marketing especially in content, strategy and analytics. These skills include digital strategy, customer experience, social media and content, market research and marketing analytics like e.g., web analytics. The demand on these skills will generate roles like Social Media Influencer or Coordinator, Content Producer, Creative Copywriter, Digital Marketing Specialist, Digital Marketing and Strategy Manager. Product marketing is growing in power and the demand on Digital Product Managers, Quality Testers/ Engineers will grow too. As the possibility of data application in marketing will thrive, Data Analysts will be the new stars in Business Development, which is critical for each business and generate also other roles like Customer Success Specialist, Partnerships Specialist or Growth Hacker. In the future we need to be ready for even more sophisticated hybrid roles for which expertise from various fields will be of the upmost importance like Head of Machine Personality Design or Chief Purpose Planner.
Moving on, the above couldn’t be implemented without software, hence software and applications developers with good coding skills will be on demand. Companies will need skills in web development, user interface design, data visualization, phone application programming, or video games programming and these are underpinned with coding skills, especially Phyton, Java, Azure, R, C++, SQL or Ruby and Pearl. In summary all kinds of Programmers or more futuristic ones like Blockchain- or Metaverse developers will disrupt the market.
The demand on data scientists will continue to grow so data wrangling, data mining and big data analytics skills and more advanced like machine learning, natural language processing or neutral network will guarantee a stable position. We will observe more and more job ads for Data Analysts, Data Consultants, Data Engineers, Process Automation Specialists, Analytics consultants, Big Data Developers, or AI specialists and BI developers.
The significant amount of data both online and in systems leads to more risks of using this data in a malicious way but simultaneously opens a niche of opportunity within the security field. The demand on cloud computing, data protection and cybersecurity skills are going to increase and similarly on jobs like Cloud Engineer, DevOps Engineer, Cloud Consultant Blockchain developer or Information Security Analysts and Cloud Security Architecture Experts.
The above changes would require HR teams support hence HR professionals should improve their business partnering and organizational design skills. Moreover, because of higher demand on technology skills, IT & Technology recruiting will be priceless as well. As data is everywhere People Analytics will create a new potential in managing talent pipeline and as consequence of storing and using data also the data privacy & ethics field. Apart from that the “Remotopia” forces companies to optimize the work-from-home experience which can lead to brand new job like Work from Home Facilitator or Genetic Diversity Officer.
In this transformation era, there will be an increasing demand on some universal skills like project management and change management which lead to jobs like Digital Transformation Specialists and new leadership roles like Scrum Master, Product Owner or Agile Coach.
In times of the increasing impact of technology on our lives, there will be simultaneously an increase in jobs that robots will not be able to do. These will be any jobs where emotional intelligence or abstract thinking play a key role. One of the most desirable skills of the future is Emotional Intelligence that is the ability to recognize and understand your own feelings and the feelings of others and influence those feelings to your advantage. Next one is Critical thinking and Problem solving. Organizations will also need curious people hence Creativity & Innovation are high in the rank too. Every employer is always looking for people who will continue to prioritize professional growth so the overall skill of lifelong learning and learning strategies will be more precious than ever before. Excellent communication skills will still be on pedestal and communicating with impact is a skill to invest in.
It is predicted that due to aging society the demand on personal care workers will grow so there will be jobs in nursing, patient care or psychology. Moreover, the WEF predict an increasing demand on teaching professionals. If you prefer life science there will be always stable demand on doctors however worth considering is an alternative in genetics, biotechnology, or bioinformatics. There is going to be also some niche in architecture and there will be jobs for smart homes designers or tidewater architects, who need to plan and execute projects that work with nature. Finally, from the still dream jobs scope flying car developers or drone pilots will not be any more science fiction professions in the long run.
The above-described list of skills and jobs will obviously not be the only ones on the market in the next decades and only indicate where we can expect more demand or which fields appear to be safer when it comes to future employment and stable incomes. However, if you are interested in any other area, it doesn’t mean you will not have a job. If you find your niche and be excellent in that, it may be still a better choice than following the crowd and being just average in the trendier fields.
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Sources:
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