With hiring freezes spreading, a recession on the horizon, and the stock market veering wildly, many individuals are now focusing on their personal career growth. A lot of industries have experienced change and disruption in recent years, with many moving away from employers and towards gig economies, and many employers moving away from employees and towards remote workers.
With all of that in mind, let’s take a look and the jobs with the most potential in 2019.
Leadership and Project Management
It may be surprising, but soft skills like project management, leadership, and public speaking, are actually at the forefront of needed labor. In fact, project management is one of the fastest growing positions. It makes sense: companies have been moving towards smaller, more agile teams, and applying independent teams to discrete projects. Further, companies are now interacting with both on-site employees and remote employees. With these many moving parts, companies are now relying more on their project managers to bring all of their projects together.
But project managers need more than just “soft skills” like communication skills. They also need to be aware of leading project management technologies — and, often, a project manager should have a cursory (or even in-depth) knowledge of the technology that is also being built. A solid awareness of the fundamentals of technology can make a project manager more effective and more competitive.
Software Engineers and Developers
Software engineering remains one of the fastest growing jobs — if not the fastest growing job. But software engineering and development is a fairly broad discipline and contains multitudes.
Among software engineers, those who specialize in cybersecurity are among the most sought after. Again, it makes sense: companies are continuously seeing themselves in increased cybersecurity risk. Other jobs within the software engineering realm include:
- Artificial intelligence specialists: Artificial intelligence and machine learning is increasingly being used throughout nearly every discipline. Automation and pattern recognition specialists aren’t just in demand — the field is also very challenging, with a higher barrier to entry than most.
- Data scientists: Big data hasn’t gone away: it’s just gotten bigger. Many companies are finding themselves with a wealth of data that they have no way of analyzing or processing.
- Full stack developers: Smaller and mid-sized companies are still looking for full stack developers, who can take projects from start to finish. This is by far the most versatile discipline.
- Java developers: Amazingly, if you know one language, that language should still be Java. Java has remained the most versatile and in demand language for three decades now and it’s not in danger of being supplanted any time soon.
In general, if you’re in the computer sciences or technology, your job outlook is quite good moving in 2019.
Realtors and Real Estate Agents
The market may be plummeting, but real estate is still doing quite well. There are a number of real estate opportunities that are going to be growing in 2019, especially as investors begin to move their investing away from stocks and towards real property. Those not in the tech industry may want to cast their eye on property as an investment — or may want to consider getting involved in the real estate industry as an agent or realtor.
A few ways to get into the real estate market include:
- Becoming a real estate agent: While the laws differ depending on state, this usually includes training, a certification, and working under a real estate company.
- Investing in a second property: Properties can be rented out by an individual or a property management company, for sustained passive income.
- Working for the real estate industry: There’s a significant cross-section between real estate and technology which may not be a bad area to be in.
When home purchasing goes down, renting goes up — and that means broader opportunities for those who are interested in investment properties. Regardless, there’s always a need for realtors and real estate agents, and property as a whole tends to grow in value over time in a more stable way than the stock market and other more volatile investments.
While America may be heading down towards a recession, that by no means indicates that everyone will be experiencing a difficult time. The above industries are going to remain relatively sought after, growing rather than remaining static. Those looking for a new career path or a new industry might do well to focus on project management, technology, real estate, and intersections thereof.
Regards,
Ethan Warrick
Editor
Wealth Authority
