The keys to successful reentry into the world of work depends on knowing yourself, and understanding where and in what fields opportunities are most likely to take place, labor economists advise those seeking work. Unemployed people can rescue themselves from their current states with commitment to some soul-searching and research.

Knowing yourself means having the mindset attitudes to think like an entrepreneur as if you were starting your own business because in today’s marketplace, you actually are. Being in the mindset means self-managing your skills and being flexible to discard the old and augment your tool chest with new skills. Most importantly, do you know what you like?

We usually excel at things we like to do. You’ll want to stand out from the crowd in whatever field you choose to pursue. Do you know exactly what you offer and how and where it can be applied? Can you transfer your project management background, for example, to IT, green, or leading a sales team? Can you adapt and apply your skills and think outside the “box” (the old world of work)? Are you afraid of competition? Can you manage your own career, know what gaps there are in your skill-set, and try to fill them? Do you read business and trade journals in your chosen field and introduce yourself to the companies who seek workers with your skills? Do you know how to use Internet social media like www.linkedin.com to network and Facebook to follow developments of individual businesses in your chosen field? Do you know the companies and organizations that need your skills? Have you familiarized yourself, if not mastered, basic computer office software needed in every profession, like MS Office Suite with WORD for reports, Excel for spreadsheets and PowerPoint for color slide presentations?

To understand the opportunities in fields that crop up everyday means going beyond the usual list of high-demand occupations that include special education teacher, personal financial advisor, forensic (fraud prevention/detection) accountant and so on, the lists of job titles that dominate the Internet articles these days and think of newer, less well-known fields and field-combinations. This is the new and improved Menu of The World of Work! It demands that individuals who assume career objectives go beyond the usual expectations of a job title as it was known at one time. The new careers are driven by outcomes and results and are actually highly creative. It’s as if each field of work has been taken to yet a new level.

It helps you to know what factors drive the economy in order to know what opportunities exist and where they are, and how those opportunities are transforming into new and challenging occupations. Economic growth factors are determined by demographic shifts in population (less newborns, more older folks over 50 and population growth in certain states (i.e.: Tennessee, Texas, etc.); growth of new immigrants (tell this to those who protest immigration!) and rising skill levels required in each field. And something called “divergent skill distributions,” which means, basically, many skills going in all different directions. Jobs requiring a combination of skills previously held by two or three workers are now required of only one worker. And there’s no limit to new skills needed by that one worker which means constant adding and upgrading throughout one’s working lifetime. Now, that’s the new world of work!

Demand for skills and job directions takes some surprising turns. Most people think manufacturing is dead in the United States because so many businesses have outsourced jobs to foreign countries for cheaper labor to save money. Yet there is enough evidence to contradict that! Just look at fields involving energy technology and conversion of things like solar and wind power. That is our future! Cyber security, homeland security and defense are very urgent, high-demand areas and necessary to a free world. The changes in healthcare will open up many jobs in the areas known as biotechnology, ambulatory healthcare as traditional office visits morph into “home” visits via medical doctors on visual screens—just one way—and the need for medical instrument and equipment makers, distributors and salespersons.

The latest technology still emerges from manufacturing industries, according to labor economists. Somebody still has to make the machines and equipment.

Trending in information technology is moving from local area analytics connecting the dots, programming, red flags, and conditions for medical interpretations in healthcare is moving to wide area analytics. This phenomenon is known as “cloud computing.”

Consumer and business products, services and solutions are already being delivered and consumed in real time via the Internet. Virtualized management makes shared services accessible to people and other services in a pay-per-use and self-service model via the Internet, explains Network World, in an article on cloud computing. It also reports that surveys show 26% of businesses using the cloud for IT management, 15% to bolster server and storage capacity, a quarter for collaboration and business applications, and 17% for application development and deployment. It’s all about saving time, money and resources! Commerce can be conducted with the click of a mouse. Just think: translated into layman’s terms, we might not need shopping malls—or maybe they will operate differently than they do now!

Analytical intelligence is driving the digital universe and will continue to permeate every aspect of our lives. Perhaps to baby boomers, it is reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the sci-fi novel-to-film masterpiece collaboration of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, back in 1968, where “Hal” the computer malfunctions out of control and knowingly murders one of the astronauts outside the spaceship by snapping his oxygen line. But in actuality, the world of technology is aiming to develop more sophisticated artificial intelligence that will make the way we do business and conduct our lives faster and stream-lined. Future sociologists and philosophers will examine if this phenomenon makes civilization happier and more—well—civilized. One thing’s for certain: it is here to stay and has profound implications for the world of work both now and in the future.

Artificial intelligence for outcome-based performance models will drive this tremendous change dynamic and compel companies to mainstream technological development, automation, information dissemination and consummation. Areas where IT is needed include waste management and inventory along with efficiencies in processing.

Information Technology or IT markets need skills that include SAP, which is business analytics; virtualization software development; healthcare IT of all U.S. patient medical records by 2011; global wireless—as per CIO Magazine—and the CLOUD concept; IT for green sustainable, eco-friendly businesses; flash memory; client computing and advanced analytics.

The green careers—those fields concerned with reducing human footprints, saving the planet, its resources and energy—will affect every industry and be skill-enhanced. Energy upgrades in residential and commercial structures will boost construction. The green jobs and areas that will require either on-the-job, job-sponsored, government-sponsored, or self-funded, are: energy auditors; field techs, data analysts, renewable and clean technologists; alternative fuels; waste management; biotechnology and conversions of substances, such as leftover restaurant cooking grease to another form of energy, for example, all union jobs; construction managers; real estate sales professionals and brokers for understanding how the green movement affects and drives property values, and also any materials workers. Opportunities for lean, green and clean will appear in new small companies, clean energy offices and current HVAC/electrical and engineering professionals in manufacturing.

It’s not our fathers’ workplaces anymore! This is your mission, should you choose to accept it….

-By The Job Enthusiast Who Won’t Rest Till Everyone Is Put To Work!

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