Second Military Careers - Military Times

Go where the jobs are growing

Way too many people walk around grumbling, “There are no jobs,” when it isn’t necessarily so.

Looking at what is “so” will help you figure out where the jobs are today. Start by asking: What are companies and consumers demanding? What do we need to address in our daily lives?

So, for example, as companies focus more on quality, cost control, standardizing tasks and getting things done quickly, the need for project managers has grown.

As privacy, terrorism and infrastructure protection in society become more prominent concerns, security issues continue to grow — and so will products such as surveillance cameras and professions such as guards, investigators and special agents.

Today, we have a great need for alternative power and increased energy efficiency. Phil Angelides, chair of the Apollo Alliance, was quoted in a recent Time magazine article as saying, “between now and 2030, 75 percent of the buildings in the U.S. will either be new or substantially rehabilitated” and “our inefficient, dangerously unstable electrical grid will need to be overhauled.”

Mechanical and electrical engineers, who “toiled in relative obscurity in the engine rooms of the digital economy,” are now in great demand, a recent New York Times article reported.

These engineers used to just keep “computing power plants humming.” But there is big growth in data centers “to keep pace with the demands of Internet-era computing.” So you’re a hot commodity if you have “the skills to design, build and run a data center that does not endanger the power grid.”

People are more health-conscious and are seeking alternative care to address what ails them. According to one study, chiropractors, practitioners of Asian medicine and naturopaths will grow by 88 percent through 2010.

The health care industry is growing — in part because people are living longer — and more workers will be needed to deliver health care and manage it. There are jobs in medical and health-services management and in health care, such as medical assistants, physical and occupational therapists, surgical technologists and nurses.

As more world markets continue to open and competition increases, advertising, marketing and promotions jobs are growing.

Where are these jobs? All over. San Jose, Calif., ranks No. 1, with positions such as reliability engineer, research scientist and psychologist, to name a few, according to Indeed.com’s list of the 50 most populous metropolitan areas with the most job postings per capita.

Washington, D.C., ranks No. 2 with jobs such as Web developer and security/vulnerability analyst. Jobs in Hartford, Conn., which ranks third, include care manager, market research director, CFO and health data specialist.

The world of work is evolving. It always has and always will. Once we were farmers, then manufacturers. What are society’s needs today? That’s where the jobs are.