Will Work for Hype
Got the September issue of Business 2.0 this evening, which had perhaps the most encouraging cover story of the Fall:
"The Coming Job Boom"
Yep...I'll believe that one when I see it...5-10 years later. Unfortunately, no link to the story online since the print issue just came out. If you don't subscribe, and you're mildly interested, get thee to a newsstand, pronto.
When I read the story, my stomach started turning excitedly, as it usually does when I read really good marketing copy....it's like a content buzz that rests between total skepticism and blind buy-in. The primary argument is compelling: Demographics are driving a talent shortage the likes of which hasn't been seen since the Middle Ages. Some favorite quotes --
Winner of the Award for Best Qualifying Verbiage in a Potentially Hyperbolic Statement:
"Any kind of demographic projection with respect to people who have already been born is notoriously accurate."
Some good evidence about the effects of so-called progressive education methods on what is now the future:
"Up to this point, each generation to enter the workforce has been larger and better-educated than its predecessor. This time, however, neither will be true."
Thank you, NEA. May your successors be too stupid to carry on your toxic mission.
Anyway, the article also lists the hottest cities for jobs in the next 10 years, as well as the 10 hottest jobs to have in those cities. Dallas is among the urban hotties, but it's telling that it weighs in near the bottom of the list. Typical -- Dallas is to New York as an annoying, whiny, tag-along gradeschooler is to his eye-rolling, sigh-heaving, senior-class brother on a date. But I digress...
Technical writing, as usual, swings so far on the coattails of the listed hot jobs that it's off this magazine's radar. Nothing says "sexy" like a sleekly styled whitepaper, no? Still, there's always room at the trough for support services -- it's just those services are going to be a bit more high-level (as in skill set). Evidently, Business 2.0 wants me to believe the universe is talking to me. Not that I need celestial prodding to learn something new...
A good story all around -- one I'll be taping to the wall as I experience the next 5 years firsthand.
Comments
I've never been accused of being an optimist, but . . . BLS classifies technical writers in with Writers and Editors. However, a case could be made that what we do also falls into the Desktop Publisher classification--which is number 6 of the top ten growth occupations. Tie that with the high-tech bent of the other top occupations and there might be reason for joy in our part of the world.
I also appreciated the article's listing of high-growth cities. Short of leaving the country, Florida is already pretty high on my list of states to move to. Demographically, I fall into that group of boomers that threatens to retire, thus precipitating the job crisis described; but the likelihood of my actually retiring with small children in school is close to nil. I therefore see some reason for hope that I'll actually be able to afford to get these kids into college before I do retire (or die).
Posted by: Fred Sampson | August 20, 2003 03:34 PM