There was a time when little children (now known as the 90’s kids) dreamt of becoming successful lawyers, engineers and doctors. However, rapid technological advancements have led to a rapid paradigm shift over the past few years. The world is brimming with innovation and novelty, giving rise to ‘new age’ career prospects.
Let’s take a moment to appreciate how fast the world is moving. Just a decade ago, we used those archaic yellow and black taxis to travel. It’s hard to think of what we went through in the not so good old days with today’s flow of things – click a button, cab arrives at your doorstep, the driver knows your destination and takes you there without irritating fare negotiations – a truly hassle-free smart experience! Early teens today haven’t even experienced the transition – what is a ‘wonder’ to us is ‘natural’ to them, this ‘luxury’ is a ‘basic need’ to them! That’s how fast technology is progressing, creating miracles along the way.
Who do you think brought about the change? Let’s see – a smart phone, a mobile application to book a cab, Google’s location services and an active internet connection. All these services are handcrafted by technologists like Mobile App Developers, Data Scientists and Machine Learning experts. Understandably, there has been an exponential rise in jobs across new age careers that didn’t even exist a few years ago. In fact, new age careers like these significantly revolve around SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud).
1. Social Media Experts
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have become an integral part of people’s life with over 2 billion users across the world. Naturally it has also created a surge in the number of job opportunities. 5 years ago, if you had gone about boasting your social media presence in a roomful of people, they would have judged you for not being serious about your future. Fast forward to the present and you’ll come across social media influencers and managers as some of the most sought-after people in industry
2. Mobile App Developer/Designer
Technology has made life so comfortable that people can use any service from absolutely anywhere. With the invention of one device, a mobile phone, the future of technology is literally in your hand. Education, shopping, entertainment, food, work, social media, travel – everything is now in your smart phone. And this scope is only going to widen in the upcoming years. companies are transitioning from mobile-friendly to mobile-first phase. Hence, app development and designing will continue to dominate and provide staggering number of jobs in future.
The education sector has also seen a striking change in its user pattern in the recent years. Students are now preferring learning on mobiles and tablets. myPAT has about 80% of its user base on mobile. It’s for the same reason we are coming up with learning apps for students from class 6 to 10. This will make learning possible anytime and from anywhere, simultaneously keeping it interesting and fun for students.
3. Analytics and Artificial Intelligence
According to a research conducted by the Oxford University, about 47% of the current jobs in the US will get automated within a decade. However, there’s nothing to worry about – this will be creating more jobs in the AI industry than eliminating them. Machine learning experts, data scientists in the field of robotics, military, gaming and healthcare will constitute the majority of our workforce in the upcoming years.
Interestingly, AI has found its application in education as well. Our team at myPAT HQ, for instance, collects millions of data points throughout a student’s journey on our website. Our AI bots then use this data to analyse performance and suggest adaptive and personalised study schedules for maximizing student’s learning outcomes.
4. Cloud
Cloud computing provides a new way to access technology and the data a business needs to quickly respond to changing markets and solve business problems. It ushered in a new way to build infrastructure, platforms and services. Amazon Web Services is one of the big disruptors in this space employing hundreds of Cloud Engineers and Cloud Support Engineers across the world.
It is time we educate and prepare the younger generation for the future job trends. However, the important question here is, how do we educate our students at school for careers in these fields?
Now if we talk about any career focused on technology, a foundation in engineering is the first step. Take a career in Analytics for example. Before you opt for any specialisation course on data mining, machine learning, or Big Data, you must be technically equipped. Similarly, logical, mathematical and coding skills are pre-requisites in any career in the analytics or cyber security fields. Hence, Engineering is pathway to most lucrative and in-demand careers of the future!
As parents and teachers we need to harness student’s intent towards building a career in technology. We start off by guiding them towards engineering preparation, simultaneously keeping ourselves updated with the current trends in the field. Taking both these measures are equally important. Additionally, school leaders must step forward and take the responsibility of making students aware of the current and future technology and job trends to ensure generation next is ready to take on the rapidly progressing world around us.
