As cities have evolved, so have the jobs that go with them. Think for a minute about the sort of work your grandparents did. Now imagine what industry your son or daughter might be working in. Chances are it will be as foreign to you as it would be to your grandparents.
Your grandmother, if she worked outside the home at all, might have been in the typing pool or an old-fashioned secretary who made the tea and took shorthand for her male boss; your grandfather a loans clerk at a bank or a worker at a manufacturing plant.
They might have had six children, but certainly not fewer than four so they never wasted a thing; clothes were handed down; meals made out of the very basics.
Service, they will tell you, was more personal in their day. They knew their bank manager by name, their doctor regularly did house calls; if they needed anything fixed – from the radio to a car engine or office equipment – there would be a guy down the road who’d have it done in a jiffy; rare holidays would be planned with maps, brochures and trusted travel agents.
You, on the other hand, are likely to be working in mining, in IT, or be self-employed. The secretary is more likely to be a personal assistant who also has a degree and multi-skills in computers, office management and accounting.
You probably only have two children and they already have a plethora of “stuff” that you don’t understand and they certainly don’t need. If you want a loan, you apply online and hear back within a few days without ever having a conversation with anyone, let alone going into a bank; if something’s broken you’re far more likely to throw it away than have it fixed; and if you want to go on holidays you probably book the whole thing online.
So many jobs have either gone completely, are on the way out, or will undergo a complete transformation to adapt to a changing society.
In the past we bought more of life’s essentials; now we spend a lot more on things that are not necessary. With rising living standards comes increased consumption and more pressure on finite resources.
Sustainability, then, will be a big player in the workforce of your children’s future. As will the likes of genetic medicine and innovations in technology for the care of an ageing population.
Some of their job titles may sound like science fiction to you (and certainly to your grandparents) but as society’s priorities change so will the nature of their employment. Future jobs will include the likes of:
Telemedicine technician. Forget the traditional GP. These guys will act as support assistants who can diagnose conditions using state-of-the-art GPS medical systems; they won’t even need you to be in the same room.
Chief innovation officer. Someone paid to move the ideas along, to organise innovation efforts and find ways to commercialise them, to maximise entrepreneurial outcomes.
Corporate alumni director. If networks are knowledge capital, then places (ie cities) with a lot of knowledgeable alumni are very valuable resources indeed, resources that need fostering and careful managing.
Eco-relations manager. With a growing focus on green energy and sustainability there will be more and more green collar jobs, such as selling carbon credits or managing carbon allocation.
Retirement consultants. With an ageing population, jobs will change to provide greater services to cater for their needs. A wealthier, “younger” aged population will demand better services.
Whatever their jobs, your children will be adapting to changes in society, just as you, your parents and grandparents did before them. As always, developments will be about increasing efficiency, getting more output from the same input, no matter the science and technology behind those job changes.
