After higher studies, finding a sustainable career is a challenge before persons entering the job market. From a vast array of career filed options choosing the best one that matches skills and qualifications and aptitude requires the right knowledge of the expanding career fields.
“Follow your heart and passion” is the most heard career advice in high schools and colleges. But pursuing career options without a reality check could harm career growth in the long run.
Many career fields undergo shifts; some go up while others fall. Several new career fields also emerge depending on the demands in the market. That calls for the prudent selection of career fields a challenge and necessity in building a stable career.
If a person’s mere passion or fascination lands him in a field that is in decline, he will face big trouble ahead as opportunities shrink, job security slims, plus low wages haunt as threats to career stability.
So, the prudent step to a prosperous future is to plan for career fields where opportunities are plenty and pay is also good.
That is why career experts suggest a realistic path in career selection. The intelligent approach must be developing a passion for a job where one can do well and have a good salary. Also, the field must generate a good number of jobs and sustain for many years. That will make job opportunities chasing the candidate and not vice versa.
The Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a gold mine for choosing the best careers. It provides precise information on occupations, work profiles, roles and details on workplace settings. The search feature will filter jobs based on parameters like pay, education and training requirements for each job.
The handbook gives a clear picture of the best-paying, fastest-growing careers with the current education level.
In the choice of career fields volume of jobs has to be a serious parameter. Many sectors thrived in the past but at the present, it could be fading out. An example is factory jobs during heydays of manufacturing.
In the 2020s, more job openings are in the healthcare, technology, and food sectors. The OOH data also shows many hot fields that are growing more than 10 per cent and others an average of 4 percent.
Some career fields are showing strong growth in many regional markets which are outsourcing hubs. Many of them had the momentum to sustain for many years. They include the following.
The job markets are in transformation under new needs and skills. New professions are rising because companies need them to grow.
Many studies including the one by LinkedIn and the World Economic Forum have traced the direction of the labour market and companies.
A Spanish agency Universidad Tecmilenio had an in-depth study and came with the 10 best-paid emerging professions. It relied on data about hiring rate growth as an index of the current demand.
Artificial Intelligence: The hiring growth has been 74 per cent in the last four years, covering different specializations such as artificial intelligence engineering and machine learning.
Robotics engineering: Huge demand for careers in robotics engineering and jobs in virtual and physical bots will grow in the next few years.
Data scientist: Data science is reckoned in most surveys as the emerging job for a few years, and the trend will continue to grow across all industries for years to come.
Full-stack engineering: The pace of change in technology has made programming engineering or full-stack a valuable job within companies. Hiring growth is more than 35 per cent per annum.
Site Reliability Engineering: This profession is responsible for operational and application development processes for proper functioning. So the demand continues to increase as we use technology in our day.
Customer Care: Given the growth of technology services, jobs related to Customer Success or customer success specialists have grown 34 per cent since 2018. These professionals in the software and information technology industry are responsible for understanding technology and managing the relationship with the customer.
Sales: This rising profession has a good number of jobs and continuous growth with a surge in openings of technology services of sales specialists.
Data engineering: Data is a valuable resource within all organizations and professionals will be required to build infrastructure to make it more organized. The hiring rate has been 35 percent plus since 2015.
Behavioural health: This field specializes in providing mental health, substance abuse, autism, and behavioural disorders. It has a varied work profile and does not require a specific degree and opportunity for professionals from different disciplines.
Cybersecurity: Cybersecurity is a priority for different sectors as companies battle the theft of confidential data. Vacancies for IT security specialists increased more than 50 per cent in the past few years.
To ward off uncertainty or doubts about choosing a career consider engaging the services of a career counsellor or coach.
The coach will provide guidance on longer-term career planning for a transition to a new career or phasing into retirement.
A career counsellor helps to plan careers and achieve employment goals. Career counsellors teach strategies to find employment successfully.
They help clients assess career values, evaluate interests and skills and find relevant career options. They also use assessment tests, personality tests, serial interviews and interest inventories to identify better options.
They identify obstacles that block a viable career plan and advise on tips to broaden skills, qualifications, and interests to match up with the competitive fields. They can also connect with reputed people from targeted career fields who will add to the domain knowledge.
Interview skills will also be brushed up with tips and advisory on effective practice and ways to build more self-confidence in handling hard questions.