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Hello ,

Spring is the season of renewal and hope. It is also the season when thousands of aspiring college-goers (at least in the US and other western countries) will receive their admission letters to colleges of their dreams.

As they get excited (or not) on their results, I can’t but wonder what sort of work they will do once they graduate in four years time?

As we have witnessed, the way we perform our jobs and other things we consider as a normal part of our daily lives can change at a rapid clip in the last 12 months, since the outset of the pandemic

Based on my observations and a lot of pontification, I came out with a list of in-demand jobs of the future. Of course there is a huge probability that none will materialize, while some of these predictions might be spot on. Time will tell. For now, let’s indulge in a little bit of crystal-balling exercise, if you may. Here are my top 8 jobs-of-the-not-so-distant-future picks. 

1. Return of the travel agents

When the Internet becomes ubiquitous, it hails the moment where middle men across various sectors will no longer be relevant. This includes travel agents. Their fortunes were disrupted when websites like Expedia, Booking.com, Agoda, Klook, and Airbnb allowed people to book their dream travel adventures by themselves from the comfort of their pajamas.  

And then Covid-19 happened last year. Travel lockdowns were introduced across the globe. With vaccine drives now underway, countries may allow cross border travels soon. This is where travel agents might shine again.

In the post-pandemic travels, there will be patchworks of new rules - vaccines passports, Covid tests (pre and post arrival) and quarantine requirements - being imposed against travellers. Navigating these rules for various countries ought to be confusing. Plus, in case there is an emergency lockdown imposed in the country you're visiting, you want to be able to immediately call someone to help you out.

Travel agents might be cool again.

2. Corporate/personal tax accountants

In response to the pandemic, all the world’s governments provided tons of stimulus packages to address the health, economic and welfare of their citizens during this difficult time.

As the vaccine roll-out intensifies and the economy gradually opens up, governments will slowly roll back the stimulus packages. And they will think about ways to generate revenues to pay for those stimulus. One of the obvious ways is to raise taxes against wealthy individuals and corporates, like the one proposed by the US President, Joe Biden. Similar proposals might make their way in other countries too.

With the looming tax increases on the horizon, these companies and rich folks would need guidance to navigate the new tax codes. This is where a tax accountant will be handy to help them optimize their tax obligations. Bean counters who are proficient to handle multiple tax jurisdictions might command a much higher premium.

3. Influencers Manager

The birth of social media sites and apps are making it even easier for anyone to channel their inner creativity by generating content (however niche) and accumulate lots of fans. As a result, we are seeing so many content creators across various platforms - FB, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, Youtube and OnlyFans. The famous creators can amass tens, hundreds even millions of fans online.

There is an opportunity for you to help some of these influencers manage their online presence and more importantly, monetize from their followers. You can help generate revenues by introducing physical products they can create and sell online, producing online courses and securing brand endorsements and/or sponsorship.  

Operationally to help manage the production team, all their legal contracts, marketing strategy and even manage their wealth.

You can be a one-man influencer manager or build a team to manage multiple influencers at the same time like Reed Duchscher, the manager for Mr Beast, the YouTuber. Influencer manager is the new talent manager of the Internet age.

4. Social media influencer

Instead of managing other influencers, why not become an influencer yourself! There are so many platforms to choose from - FB, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, Youtube, Twitch, podcast, Substack o Revue. Pick your poison and start producing content today.

You can practically produce content in any topic you wish, however niche it may be. There is bound to be like-minded groups of people like you among the 4.66bn Internet users out there.  

The key to be successful is consistency and perseverance. You might not become an instant celebrity with millions of followers, yet you can become one if you keep producing content consistently, honing your craft (this influencer started posting cooking videos ~3 years ago and now has 3m followers on IG).

Once you’ve garnered a sizable audience, there are various ways to monetize. Advertisement, paid sponsorship, merchandise/physical goods (the cooking video influencer I mentioned earlier is killing it with this sambal or chilli paste on Shopee), collaboration with other brands, publishing books or online courses.

5. Mental health practitioner

Mental health disorders have been on the rise since the start of the new century, yet the Covid-19 pandemic suddenly turbocharged the situation. During this pandemic, lots of people experienced loss of loved ones, loss of jobs or financial insecurities. All these lead to mental health disruptions. Even WFH can induce untoward mental health consequences

As such, the world needs more psychologists, psychiatrists, guidance counselors stationed at corporate offices, healthcare facilities, schools, universities and nursing homes, for instance.  

Once a taboo subject especially in Asia, mental health disorders are more openly discussed and we should treat it like any other physical ailments - flu, fever, diabetes, cancer or kidney failure.  

I do believe there will definitely be more demands to fulfill for mental health practitioners in the years ahead and you could be one of them.

6. WFH ergonomic designer

As a result of the large-scale WFH experiment induced by the pandemic, the majority of employees globally are adapting well to the new working arrangement and want to continue doing so in the future. Companies also benefit from not having to lease big office space to accommodate all employees under one (or more) roof.

Consequently, the boldest companies will be remote-first, while the vast majority will offer hybrid solutions for their workforce.

Under a remote-first or hybrid option, a growing number of employees will need to carve out a home office space in their abodes. Many of them might need help from ergonomics experts on the best set-up and tools to deck out their home offices that’s friendly to their eyes, backs, wrists and postures.

A WFH ergonomic expert can provide their services directly to individuals or enlisted as a service provider with corporations for their employees to tap as employment benefits.

7. Anything to do with data science

All the devices and software in the world are churning out 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every single day 🙀. There is value in all of these data. However, one needs to properly collect, store and clean the data before analyzing it to generate useful insights.

They're all soft of work in the data analytics world. There is the boring (yet crucial) part of preparing and cleaning data to the most sexy of all: creating the ultimate ‘engagement’ algorithms to make users keep surfing TikTok. 

When an organization has lots of sensitive data, they would need someone to ensure data privacy and security. And then organizations need to think about handling old data in the archives: what to keep and which ones to discard.  

Machines and algorithms are excellent in processing terabytes of data, yet on their own they can’t understand context surrounding the raw data. And this is where humans will have an upper hand to supervise these ‘black boxes’. In fancy terms, human-augmented artificial intelligence solutions.  

I have yet to mention that a human needs to design an easy and intuitive dashboard to display the output being churned out by these data scientists and their algorithms.  

With ever more data coming onstream, there will be an endless amount of data to be managed and analyzed. Hence, there’s so much to do and demand for folks in the data science field. Pick one that you have an affinity with and let’s get going!

8. Ethical hacker

In the next few years and decades, we will experience a faster pace of digitalization in our lives. Corporations, big and small, will spend more resources to shift their presence and operations on the cloud. HIgher number of customers will spend time shopping online, ordering foods and deliveries on apps, conducting financial transactions on the ether and students learning virtually.

On top of that, we are consuming media and entertainment online through social media platforms and streaming channels.

With increasing digital presence and activities, protecting the digital infrastructure from intruders will become more vital than ever, particularly for governments, corporations and NGOs.

Cyber hackers will try to exploit any vulnerabilities to steal information, disrupt the network or extract monetary gains through ransomware attacks. Corporations are responding by beefing their cyber securities defenses, guarding against unwanted guests.  

Others are launching bug bounty programs. The programs are open to anyone to try to infiltrate their networks and systems and report any vulnerabilities. In return, these ‘white hat hackers or ethical hackers’ are rewarded with monetary compensation for their effort.

No digital network or infrastructure will ever be 100% secure. Therefore, the role of ethical hackers (either on your own or part of a team) will be more important in the future. How to get started? Check out this organization, EC-Council, to be on your way as the white knight in the shining armor to save weak institutional cybersecurity defenses. 

Stay Nimble, Stay Curious

A subset of the jobs I highlighted are already in-demand for years already, while some are seen to be more in-demand as a result of the pandemic. Interestingly enough, a few of the jobs may not even require a ‘certificate/degree/credentials’ from any academic institutions.  

You might just learn it on-the-go or through the Internet. I only listed eight jobs, yet there might be a ton more out there for sure.

The bottom line is, each of us needs to learn to be agile/dynamic. Learn to unlearn and relearn. What we know today might not be relevant tomorrow.

Keep learning and stay curious. Perhaps you will create a new job category that no one imagines today. Power to you!

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Extra Reading

Me time for “Me Time”

Your lifespan in graphics and how to spend it wisely

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Until the next post,

Reez Nordin

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