READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT
Melanie Burgess reveals what workers need to be hired in the future
NEW roles are created daily thanks to changing technologies and customer expectations and workers hoping to remain employable must look ahead and prepare for what is coming.
Michael McQueen, a trend forecaster, predicts emerging roles will include 3D organ printer technicians, who specialise in printing organ tissue; neural augmentation specialists, who deal with the ways brains and technology interact; and bio-identity managers, who ensure private data is secure.
Others will be neuromarketing managers, who apply the sciences of the brain and nervous system in marketing contexts; telepresence events managers, who run virtual reality work spaces or meetings; and virtual worlds entertainment producers, who create immersive new films and games.
He also predicts chief experience officers – responsible for ensuring customers are delighted at every
point of their consumer journey – will break into the mainstream.
“This type of role is being driven by ever-increasing customer expectations and the fact that data means we can now quantify and measure key customer metrics in a way we couldn’t in the past,” he says.
McQueen, author of How to Pre
pare Now for What’s Next, says the future will require workers to constantly upskill and look for new ways to add value to their organisation.
Simply developing technical skills will not be enough and workers’ focus should be on soft skills.
“There are 12-year-olds right now who you’ll be competing with in the coming years and they’ve been coding their whole lives so you won’t necessarily get your edge by being good technically,” he says.
“Rather, it is communication, negotiation, creative and intuitive skills that will be most critical.
“These are capabilities that are not easily replicated by machines.”
McQueen advises workers to put future plans into place as soon as possible.
“Dig the well before you get thirsty,” he says.
“If you wait until change and disruption hit, you will find yourself operating in survival mode, not strategic mode.”