The US News and World Report has just released the 2008 edition of its annual list of best careers. The 31 careers chosen by the authors include some that I myself am interested in: management consultant, trainer, system analyst, usability experience specialist, and librarian. And if you ignore librarian and mix the rest together, you sort of get the kind of job that I would like to do: a strategy consultant (part technical, part business/management) who works on websites and portals, ideally in the Web 2.0 [1] and new media spaces. And this could be in the corporate, non-profit, or education sectors.
If I haven't explained that properly, here are some examples of the kinds of jobs I would like to do (along with the kinds of companies I would like to work for):
- Evangelise Web 2.0 to corporates, non-profits, and educational institutions like Laurel Papworth is doing with World Communities. Or evangelise blogging as Duncan Riley is doing. Or get into the podcasting business like Cameron Reilly has with The Podcast Network (or as Leo Laporte has with TWiT in the US).
- Help kick off the mobile computing (primarily tablet PC and ultra-mobile PC) revolution in Australia like Hugo Ortega is doing with Tegatech Australia. Or maybe do some consulting in that area like Craig Pringle.
- Work in management or strategy consulting with companies like SMS, IBM, Accenture, Fujitsu, or CapGemini. Or more technical consulting (vendor-based, vendor-specific, or vendor-neutral) with companies such as Step Two Designs, reuten, Zest Digital, OpenSoft Australia, Macroview Business Technology, Intranet DASHBOARD, and EyeMedia, to name just a few.
- Work on the technology side of portals like Yahoo!7, nineMSN, BigPond (and other Telstra/Sensis-based portals including Yellow Pages, White Pages, and the Trading Post), Optus Zoo (or Optus itself), Seek, MyCareer, CareerOne, Domain, realestate.com.au, among others.
- Get into technology journalism with ITWire, ZDNet Australia, or AustralianIT (part of NEWS.com.au) or work on the tech or content side of news portals such as The Age or AFR (both parts of Fairfax), ABC, SBS, B&T (part of RBI), Reuters, CNN, or the BBC.
- Work on web technology products and services such as PeerMint and iGrin or with companies ranging from Google to RedBubble to Faraday Media.
That's a big list, huh? It'll only get bigger as I do more research. Can you tell that my primary areas of interest are web portals and intranets, Web 2.0, and mobile computing? And that, within in those areas, I would like to work in consulting (management, strategy, or technical), management, content production, and/or training -- probably in that order?
So...
So what now? Well, next I'll be doing some more industry analysis in order to learn about the trends and major players in each of those industries. Then, I'll start to explore each of those companies in more detail. I'll want to learn about the kind of work they're doing and whether I can add value to them or not, whether they're interested in hiring someone like me (i.e. with my experience and qualifications) or not, who runs them, who works there, what their work culture is like, where they are headed strategically, and so on. Then, once I've identified the ones that fit the bill, I'll try to get hired by one of them...which, of course, is much easier said than done! But more on that in a later blog post.
I graduate in May, by the way, so expect to see a lot more about my future career and my job application process on this blog over the coming months.
Of Course...
Of course, if I had the choice -- and a great deal of money to do with as I wished -- what I'd really like to do is set up a couple of recording studios (both audio and video), a performance venue for music and theatre (along with a small cafe, probably), a small cinema, an audio/video library, and a few teaching/training rooms. I would then work with adults and young adults to help them explore and implement their creative sides. Oh, and I would run this as both a non-profit and for-profit organization: either as a for-profit that does lots of non-profit work or as a non-profit that also does some for-profit work. My work there wouldn't be limited to just music, film, and theatre, though -- it would have reading, writing, and online components as well.
Hmmm...I think I've just described the Victorian Colle
ge of the Arts.
Oh well.
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[1] I dislike the term Web 2.0 because it's been hijacked so thoroughly by bad (or would you say good?) marketers. What started off as a business concept put forth by Tim O'Reilly -- who, by the way, explains what it really means on his blog -- is now slapped on to every Internet-based product and service whether it warrants it or not. But then, that kind of abuse is true of most buzzwords isn't it? Oh well.