Do You Know What Your Child Will Do for a Living?
What do we know about the jobs of the future? Their names, what they involve, their scope, the needs they will serve? Do you have any idea?
The US Department of Labor has said it:
We do not yet know 65% of the jobs that children in primary school today will end up doing.
I have a two-year-old son, and not knowing what his job will be (never mind its definition or content, not even its name) sometimes feels very strange to me, and at other times incredibly exciting. Think about it: even though we are Generation Y, we are the children of a generation that answered "What do you want to be when you grow up?" with traditional answers like "doctor, teacher, lawyer". Granted, in middle and high school I was completely set on becoming a "journalist", but even that was a well-known profession back then (the late '90s) that everyone understood, and unless you said something like "aerospace engineer", "astronaut" or "genetic engineer", people would nod approvingly at you as if to say "this kid will go far". Meanwhile, I used to look up to my friends who confidently and proudly announced that they would become an "aerospace engineer" or a "genetic engineer", and I thought how brave they were. They were brave because they knew about professions that nobody (at the time) really understood, and on top of that they were planning to pursue them ☺.
Where we stand today, it is hard even to guess the jobs of the future, let alone know them. Fortunately, there are people researching this for us, and looking at their research gives us a good chance to project and understand the future.
Before we begin, one point is worth making. The most fundamental factor that shapes professions is the dominant social, cultural, economic and technological developments of the era, and the needs that arise from them. Whatever our needs turn out to be, they will determine the jobs our children do. So when we think about professions, we need to imagine the future a little and consider what will happen and what we will need.
What developments will take place in which sectors over the coming years, and how will our needs evolve alongside them? To give an example: human lifespans are getting longer and will continue to do so. As a result, the elderly population will keep growing worldwide in the years ahead, and we will need home care services, nurses and physiotherapists far more than before. In the same way, changes driven by technology and science will bring some professions to the fore while others disappear altogether. And some, of course, will always remain important…
Let's take a very general look at the sectors and professions that will stand out most. Perhaps this will also give some ideas and shed some light for young readers who are about to make a vital decision such as "choosing a career".
Let's set the pharmaceutical, healthcare and space industries aside; if we covered everything happening in those fields, this article would never end ☺ In this article we want to focus on professions that will emerge or change in the world of IT, social media and the internet. We can start with the new professions that social media, which sits right at the center of all our lives, will create and develop.
1- New Professions Born from Social Media
- Social Media Strategists
Bloggers and influencers have been part of our lives for a while now. In fact, many large companies and brands in Turkey have already started partnering with them to market their products more effectively on social media.
On the corporate side, social media specialists and managers have been hired both to stay in closer contact with customers and to manage all social media channels more effectively from a single point. So these professions have already been part of our lives for the past few years. But will all this be enough? Or will we need more?
It is probably best to be ready for more. Because before long, what is being done on social media today will no longer be enough, and new things will need to be said. And since it is not only companies and brands but also individuals around the world who are now pursuing "personal branding", "Social Media Strategy" will become one of the most popular professions in the next few years, helping people manage their social media channels better, communicate more effectively and carry out more targeted activities.
- Content Creators and Content Managers
Another important topic, as we all know, is "creating content" for social media. There are many different ways to produce content: video-based content, digital content, written or visual content, and new production methods that will be added over time… In the coming period, when producing high-quality, useful content will become ever more important, "Content Creation and Content Management" will be among the most sought-after professions, and you can already hear its footsteps…
- Social Media Law
Then, of course, there is the legal side. Social media is starting to create its own body of law. "Social Media Law" is a very new and fast-growing field; at present it largely runs in parallel with Internet Law, but you can be sure that we will see many lawyers specializing in this area in the future.
2- New Professions Born from Digital
- Digital Transformation and Digital Culture Professionals
I have written a lot about what Digital Transformation is and why it matters in previous articles. For companies, it will matter not only that they carry out Digital Transformation but also how much expertise the people doing it bring. "Digital Transformation" and "Digital Culture" Professionals, who will manage this work in the best possible way both as a process and as an experience, and who will design it for companies as a long journey toward living a Digital Culture, will be the rising stars of the coming years. Take our word for it.
- E-Commerce Growth and Digital Marketing Strategists
Let's be honest. How many of us do the larger share of our shopping online? I can answer for myself. I buy more than 80% of what my son and I need (groceries included) online. In other words, if I buy 5 items, 4 of them come from the internet. This share used to be much lower. I didn't dare buy things I needed to try on first, but now I buy those too, because I can return them with free shipping and minimizing the time I spend shopping suits me. Because time is the most valuable thing ☺
Given all this, leaving aside food, clothing and groceries, the day when we buy products such as white goods and cars online, which still seems far off for now, is not that far away. In short, we can say that e-commerce and digital marketing have not yet had their golden age. The time is approaching when people with expertise in these fields will stand out even more professionally.
3- New Professions Born from Big Data, Industry 4.0 and New Technologies
- Big Data Specialists, Analysts and Data Scientists
Let's face it: the BIG DATA we have been hearing about for years will not lose its importance. Because every company and every individual does, and will continue to do, their work based on that big data. That is why Data Specialists, Analysts and Scientists, who understand data, read it correctly, know where and how to use it, steer it, and use it to shape processes and reach results, will be very important in the coming period.
- Robotics Engineers
What we call robotic assistance will show up first and foremost in 2 areas in the coming period.
- We will hand over routine, repetitive tasks to robots, which will allow us to devote more time and effort to value-adding work.
- We will also get help from robots in jobs that can be described as dangerous.
For all of this, Robotics Engineers will be our greatest helpers.
- Robotics Specialists and Robot Maintenance Technicians
As robots become more part of our daily lives, alongside engineers, specialists who can intervene with robots at any moment and technicians who maintain them will also be among the valued professions.
- Artificial Intelligence Engineers and Specialists
While many universities abroad opened artificial intelligence departments long ago, in Turkey in 2019 Hacettepe University admitted 30 students to its Artificial Intelligence Engineering program and TOBB University of Economics and Technology admitted 10, placing them among Turkey's pioneering universities in AI engineering.
In addition, artificial intelligence is expected to contribute to the emergence of other new professions in the coming years. The most important of these will include AI Developers, AI Trainers, AI-Finance Specialists and AI Marketing.
- Human-Machine Interaction Designers
With Industry 4.0, robots and machines will become more part of our lives. But people will still be the main element in production and working life. Industry 4.0 does not end the place and importance of people in working life; on the contrary, it gives them different roles and responsibilities. Specialists and designers who will design machine-machine and human-machine interactions, and the harmony and relationships between the two, and ensure they work in the most optimal way, will also be among the most sought-after professions of the future.
- Virtual Reality Application Developers
Research shows that virtual reality shortens the time it takes for ideas and products to come to life by 30%. Designers use virtual reality to evaluate the creative and functional aspects of products, which ensures high feasibility at very early stages of projects. For this reason, virtual reality application developers play a very important role in product development, and as these rates rise further in the coming years, their importance will grow accordingly.
- Innovation Professionals
Do we need to explain the importance of innovation? We don't think so. "Innovation" is now indispensable in business, and "Innovation Professionals", who will accompany companies and brands on everything from coming up with new ideas to building strategies and roadmaps, have already started to take their place among the star professions.
- Agile Coaching
Coaching has been part of our lives for a long time, but "Agile Coaches" in particular will take their place in every organization over the next few years. We will hear more and more about Agile coaches, who will support organizations and ways of working especially in terms of speed and flexibility, and who will help companies make more objective assessments with their experience in Agile and Scrum.
Beyond all these, some of the other professions we believe will become increasingly important are software developers, user experience specialists, and new technology and information technology specialists. These professions exist today, but in the future they will gain a more specific importance. And since auditing and security will become even more critical, especially in IT, Process Audit Specialists and Information Security Analysts will also grow stronger.
As we come to the end of our article, if you ask, "So what will happen in HR?", we touched on this a little in our article "Where Does HR Stand in Digital Transformation?", but it is worth underlining again here. HR will maintain its importance in the coming period; in fact, we can say it will become even more important. Because even though robots and machines will enter our lives, we will still be the ones doing most of the value-adding work. People will remain at the center, and naturally HR practices may become even more critical than they are today. That is why we all have to be as prepared as possible.
We can say that the biggest change will happen in Learning & Development. Because the training practices that brought us to where we are today will give way to "active learning" practices. Of course, the active participation of Generation Z in working life will also shift the balance here. As a result, social learning, micro-learning (bite-sized learning) and experiential, learning-by-doing designs will come to the fore. In short, learning and development activities will take on a more individual and personalized identity in the coming period. At this point, Learning & Development Specialists will increasingly give way to design, and we will start talking about "Learning & Development Designers" in this field. After all, as the saying goes: "Learning is a must, always and everywhere" ☺
Until we meet again in the next article.
Its topic is already set. The question is: "What competencies do we need to have in order to do the professions we discussed in this article?" In other words, a packed article on "Skills of the Future" awaits you.
