4 future-proof careers for your VTAC preference list

The robots are coming for our jobs. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Because imagine if you could outsource all that repetitive, mundane, energy-draining work to a bot who does it efficiently, laughs at all your jokes and never chews loudly in the office?  Automation and machine learning might be competition, but they can make our careers even more meaningful. Here are four in-demand, future-proof and next-gen careers for your VTAC preference list. Read on to find the one for you.

1. Cyber Security Expert

With an expanding digital ecosystem comes increased, and more sophisticated, cyber attacks – from ransomware attacks on small and medium businesses to high-profile breaches that impact the economy and national security. This makes cyber security a huge growth area and highly in-demand profession. Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Cyber incidents recently topped the Allianz Risk Barometer (an annual global corporate risk survey)  – outplacing business interruption, natural catastrophes, climate change and the pandemic. So, it’s little wonder that cyber security skills are in demand right now – and are forecast to stay that way well into the future. Companies of all shapes and sizes desperately need people who can protect their data and remove vulnerabilities.

Career perks:

• High salaries.
• Low unemployment.
• Live the digital nomad life. 
   

You:

• spend your Friday nights selling pineapples for bitcoin on the deep web. 
• are highly inquisitive. 
• like solving problems. 
• are prone to scepticism. 
• love detail, systems, and organisation (i.e.  your abode is freakishly neat a la Patrick Bateman.)
   

Study a:

Got a little book of big ideas? A career in communications, communication design, or working as an innovation lead could be for you. Photo by Ari He on Unsplash.

Sure, AI  can rival human thinking in everything from playing chess to detecting tumours. But there are certain skills that robots will take years to master (if, indeed, at all). Empathy, common sense and the ability to come up with new and surprising ideas are skills that are unique to us warm-blooded, complex and complicated human beings. Even tools like DALL-E-2 and GPT-3 must be fed human input to shape their output.

So, if you’re an omnipresent observer and dot-connector, a career in communications design or innovation could be for you. The best part? You get to wear jeans and sneakers (not a stifling suit). 

Career perks:

• Get paid to express your creativity. 
• Work for yourself, or for a range of industries or start-ups. 
• Live the digital nomad life. 
   

You:

• always have a creative or business project on the go.
• see beauty and patterns everywhere.
• were setting up an online marketplace from your bedroom (while your friends were selling lemonade on the street like regular eight year olds).  
• are easily bored by repetition. 
• carry a small parcel of self-doubt around in your back pocket but you’ve come to cherish it because it keeps you striving to create something better.
   

Study a:

Data is now arguably one of the world’s most valuable resources, which means, if you know how and wield it, you could be an extremely valuable resource, too. Photo by Stillness InMotion on Unsplash.

The volume of data is growing by the millisecond – and companies need to make sense of it. They need people who can combine programming, analytics, and experimentation skills. And that’s where data scientists and business analysts come in. Sexy job titles, right? According to Harvard Business review, yes indeed (so much so, that they proclaimed data scientist the ‘sexiest job of the 21st century’. How's that for an addition to the LinkedIn profile). From big industries like finance and tech through to innovative start-ups, future-proof careers like data scientist and business and systems analyst are in demand worldwide. 

Career perks:

• Sexiest job of the 21st century^*.  
• Low unemployment. 
• Freedom and flexibility to work across industries and projects that interest you – work on every scale of business from start-ups through to tech giants like Apple and Amazon.
   

You:

• have the spirit of a hacker and the mind of a psychologist.
• love to get in the code cave.
• find comfort in the definitive nature of numbers. 
• can transform data from hieroglyphics into intelligible insights (you're a storyteller – but with numbers). 
• are curious. 
   

Study:

Machine learning, artificial intelligence and telehealth continue to revolutionise the healthcare system. But the demand for healthcare services still can’t keep up. Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash.

The COVID-19 pandemic revolutionised the healthcare system. Across the world, care providers swiftly pivoted to telehealth. And it worked. Research shows that in many cases telehealth is just as good as in-person care – and in some cases it’s actually better. But, anxiety and depression increased by a whopping 25 per cent in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the after-effects on mental well-being are still being felt across the globe. So, regardless of whether care is happening through a screen or face-to-face, the demand for healthcare professionals continues to soar: from nurses to psychologists, occupational therapists to motivational coaches. No matter the speciality, you know you have a calling: to help people.

Career perks:

• Feel good helping other people feel good. Existential crisis be gone!
• Live and work at a range of locations.   
• Flexible hours. 
   

You:

• are a great communicator.
• are an actual empath (not a narcissistic villain).
• are calm under pressure.
• psychoanalyse everyone – from the bleary-eyed barista to your unsuspecting dog.
• are the first person your friends and family call when something goes wrong (and you secretly love it). 
   

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