Students and new graduates looking for places to apply their knowledge, skills, and abilities may want to examine “emerging occupations.”
An emerging occupation is one that has been recognized in small numbers, but continues to grow, according to Sharon Jones, career counselor at the University of North Carolina. There are many catalysts for emerging occupations, such as technological advances, new or altered laws and regulations, and changing demographics. Jones tries to identify emerging occupations by surfing the web or poring over U.S. Department of Labor reports.
“It’s not easy,” she says. “Most information is old, and by the time they’re written about, they’re established and no longer ‘emerging’ occupations. The world of work is changing so fast that it’s hard to keep up with it.”
Many emerging occupations manifest in small organizations, Jones says, meaning big companies and highly recognizable organizations usually don’t have positions in these fields from the start.
“When the field does mature, it might be blended into a job description that has a lot of other duties, such as webmaster,” she adds.
That blurring has led to unawareness of the application of skills among college students.
“A function can be a career,” Jones explains. “For example, I’m amazed at how few know about search engine optimization (SEO), which has been out there for a while. Some students have done SEO work during their internships, but either don’t understand that it can be an occupation, or don’t describe it correctly on their resumes.”
Still, Jones feels that today’s students and new graduates are uniquely qualified to enter new occupations on the ground floor, before degrees, majors, or courses even exist for these occupations.
“They just need help applying skills that have or should acquire and seeing the connection to an emerging occupation,” Jones says. “It’s important that career advisers know what’s required to be a successful job candidate in these fields so they can steer students toward critical electives and valuable experiential opportunities.”
Following are some emerging occupations that Jones identifies:
Liberal Arts
Accent reduction specialists— A specialty growing in speech pathology, sometimes people go into it as a result of English as a Second Language training. Applications for accent reduction specialists include helping someone who is unable to make a presentation because of their accent, or training customer service representatives who speak perfect English, but whose accents make them difficult to understand.
Linguistics—There are many emerging occupations within linguistics. For instance, some companies are looking for employees to name their products and services. Because of globalization, brand naming is important to make sure a name is acceptable in many languages. Globalization requires that products and services be delivered in local languages. It also has applications associated with national security, interpreting, and international business.
Federal Government
Cultural analysts/linguists—One offshoot of this profession is accompanying military forces and analyzing media content in a country to report implications of what’s reported and its influences on the local population.
Human terrain analysts—These professionals conduct primary research with local leaders in a country and translate conversations and documents from that country. They interpret the military forces’ understanding of local culture.
Leadership analysts—Professionals used by the CIA, among others, to produce assessments of foreign leaders and officials and help key U.S. national officials to deal with their foreign counterparts.
Education
Child life specialists—Professionals trained to help children and families overcome traumatic situations from the child’s point of view.
Patent analysts—These professionals help local companies determine how new concepts or products are unique and marketable.
Sciences
Creative perfumers—Creative perfumers evaluate the odors of chemicals for everything from expensive perfumes to deodorants, according to a client’s goal for its scent. Creative perfumers are trained to create fragrances during a rigorous training process that requires them to study hundreds of natural and synthetic materials.
Security engineers (federal job)—Create analytical and physical security systems that foresee and prevent future security problems.
Transportation geography researchers—These professionals apply geographic information systems in work on existing and new transportation networks. They also interact with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to conduct vulnerability assessments.
Genomics—A group of professions centered on using DNA in research. For example, clinical genomics analysts can use research in DNA to apply to clinical science to eliminate the impact of abnormal genes. Meanwhile, nutrogenomics professionals can use people’s DNA profiles to determine their perfect nutrition.
Health
Nurse anesthetists—Nurses who collaborate with surgeons, anesthesiologists, dentists, and other healthcare professionals to administer anesthesia.
Health informatics specialists—A broad range of careers in which professionals work with doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to plan, among other things, appropriate and available treatment.