Jobs that now exist

Advances in technology are creating jobs that didn't exist just five years ago, writes Rebecca Martin.

Growing up, Jeremy Mitchell wanted to be a film director.
 
By the time he had hit his teens, the idea of journalism stirred him into studying media at university, which landed him a job as a press secretary, followed by further study with a postgraduate degree in media relations.

Where is this leading? Well, nowhere that Mitchell expected. He is now, for want of a better name, the "editor-in-chief" of Telstra's online community.

His role is so new that it's yet to be completely defined, although in the US he would probably be called a relationship manager or online community manager. His job description didn't even exist five years ago.

"There's a lot of content that goes up [on the website] that wouldn't belong on a corporate site," Mitchell says. "We have staff that blog their own personal views and we have people making comments on those blogs. We describe it as a conversation"

"I've never really seen myself as working in PR. When the idea first came about, a lot of the executives were worried about giving a platform to people that didn't like Telstra and that we would publish their comments."

"In public relations, it's about putting the best foot forward and creating the right image. But this media has got to be real and relevant to the wants of the community. It's not one-sided at all. In our view, this is the future of media relations."

Jobs, occupations, titles and roles evolve continuously. For every job role that becomes obsolete, three shiny new ones tend to appear, fulfilling a need that could never have been predicted 20 years or even 10 years ago.

Technology is an obvious influence in shaping and creating new occupations, with Mitchell's job an example.

Futurist Ross Dawson of the Future Exploration Network says that when social networks burst onto the scene, roles as community managers or social network managers became a necessity.

Such roles are still new, he says, but companies and celebrities alike are advertising for professionals to help them manage their consumer and fan online chat.

"You can have thousands of friends on Facebook and MySpace," Dawson says. "A celebrity will have people that help them manage their MySpace site as they have a lot of people to interact with and not enough time."

Apart from our ever-increasing methods of communication, Phil Toner, from the University of Western Sydney's Centre for Industry and Innovation, says the trend towards specialisation is also bulking up job classifications.

"There has been an exponential growth in our stock of knowledge, which means you have to specialise," Toner says.

"In the old days there would just be surgeons but today there is an increasing number of specialised surgeons and therefore jobs created."

Emerging jobs tend to sound sexier than the old ones, even if the role is actually two or three longstanding roles bundled together. Logistics, a field that appeared about 20 years ago, is an example.

"Existing jobs are being remade," says Mike Rafferty of the University of Sydney's Workplace Research Centre. "If you look at a shipping clerk, that [job] is now part of [the field of] logistics.

Lots of things that used to be routine are now strategic. A shipping clerk would have had few skills. Now that person would be doing quite complex work."

Other than social network managers, what else is on the way? The fact that scientists recently created a robot girlfriend is a big hint.

Our R2-D2 friends are on their way and people who can help create the interfaces to make them more human, useable and likeable are in demand.

"Robots are becoming emotional and people are responding to them as more than just a thing," Dawson says. "People are needed to design facial expressions and voice responses. It's a rapidly growing field."

Sometimes a job emerges from the happy realms of hobbyland and turns into a career. Gaming falls into this category.
 
John Range, the head teacher of IT at TAFE's Hornsby College, says its first games development course, in 2006, was overrun with takers. "Our first graduates finished last year and they have already been snapped up by the industry."

Our love of personal services, from cleaners to nannies, trainers to personal shoppers, has seen this sector flourish. The latest additions include dog-yoga instructors and virtual assistants.
 
Dawson also predicts future work for a personal entertainment manager, who will sort your music collection, put it in the right format and sync your iPod to your home entertainment system, saving you hours of time.

"We are living busier and busier lives and many of the personal services that make life easier are rapidly becoming part of work," Dawson says.

Published: 05 July 2008