Building a career in the 21st century requires being tuned in to how tech can impact the future of your career. The tech revolution often evokes a sense of anxiety that it would mean job losses. But there is a perspective that recognises that mechanization merely requires the agility to adapt to the evolving workplace with upskilling.
Whether you have just completed matric or have years of experience, this article samples five career options, to conscientize the reader of careers that evolve or emerge from the tech revolution.
1. Data Scientist
A career in data science entails using data and machine learning tools to track business trends, to help your employer or client make business decisions. Those decision could be vital for the business to keep in tandem with a rapidly changing business environment. Data scientists help companies, for example to decide what technology to invest in to grow the business, or to identify opportunities and threats that could be crucial for the future survival or competitiveness of the business.
Ideal qualifications: degree Information Technology (IT), Statistics, Mathematics
* Average annual salary: R225 000 to R816 000
2. Machine Learning Engineer
A machine learning engineer creates algorithms and applications used to programme machines, enabling them to perform automated tasks. Machine learning engineering differs from data science in that the end-user for the former is a machine, rather than human. Companies can use these algorithms for functions for automating self-driving cars, to robots that pack customer orders in large e-commerce operations, to risk management and fraud prevention.
Ideal qualification: degree in IT, Statistics
* Average annual salary: R39 000 to R993 000
3. Digital Marketing Manager
Digital marketing skills are increasing in demand and help businesses get the word out about their products and services, using online platforms. Digital marketing tasks can be executed with the help of tools found in many of the reputable search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.
This is a good career option to transition into for journalists, copywriters, marketing, or public relations (PR) professionals. As an experienced professional, you could supplement your qualifications with a short course in digital marketing. These are available from Google Digital Garage free of charge and will equip you with online advertising skills such as search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing, and teach you about using analytical tools. Some online learning institutions such as Getsmarter also offer digital marketing short courses.
Ideal qualifications: Bachelor degree or diploma in Marketing, Journalism, Advertising.
* Average annual salary: R118 000 to R722 000
4. Change Manager
The role of a change manager is to design, develop and implement change management strategies to prepare the business and its employees for changes in the external and internal business environment. Change management is broad, so different organisation would have different change management requirements at any given time. For example, a bank might require a change management programme to ensure data security of clients to be compliant with the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act, which came into effect in July 2020. The same bank could require change management systems from both a legal perspective and IT systems security to achieve this goal.
Ideal qualifications: Change Management, Law, Industrial Psychology, Project Management
*Average annual salary R300 000 to R1-million
5. Logistics Manager
George Bezos is one of the richest people on the planet and owes much of his immense wealth to the success and his company Amazon, which he founded in the early days of e-commerce in the 90s. Amazon survived the IT bubble burst (Dot.com crash) of the early 2000s and went on to become the biggest e-commerce giant it is today.
The rise of e-commerce has certainly changed the traditional supply chain over time and requires agility professionals from manufacturing to retail and every step of the supply chain to adapt. There is also no doubt that the existence of e-commerce giants like Amazon and Alibaba has created new drop-shipping businesses to form mutualistic relationships, a topic we will explore in later blogs.
Ideal qualifications: Business degree/ diploma in Logistics, Purchasing, Transport Economics
* Average annual salary: R126 000 to R840 000
Check out online academic institutions such as Getsmarter, Udemy, and Coursera, which offer courses for professionals who want to keep up with changes or to learn new skills.
*Salary estimates from PayScale and depend on experience
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