There is always a very real excitement that attends the end of one year and the beginning of the next. And especially so if you are just finishing your education and looking to start your career, or already established and wanting to drive your aspirations in a new direction. And the fact is, depending on your discipline, there are a host of choices out there whatever your career stage.

While occupations change over time, history and technology interfere and rewrite many rules, positions and work values. So while there are always changes, look for a career that has value not only in today’s terms, but will also hold firm in the future. It’s true to say that while some things change, some things stay the same. Technology can certainly affect the way we live – but our human condition, our need for interaction, engagement and care, will always remain part of what we do and how we react to a volatile world.

Established careers can carry the stamp of both permanence and fresh challenge

Teaching

This is a professional that has to be eternal. There are those who may think that digital courses are going to eliminate the teacher from the classroom or lecture hall – well, they couldn’t be more wrong. Teaching remains one of the most important careers – not only satisfying but vital for human connection, assurance, confidence building, along with tireless personal engagement with students who need support beyond a computer screen. Teaching remains one of the most challenging and fascinating careers out there.

Psychologist

This may see you take a step back in surprise – or not. We live in a world that is increasingly competitive and noisy. As a consequence, we often need guidance from an objective source, someone who can see where we are, why we are there, and how we can move forward. Because of the subtle nuanced interaction required to detangle and redirect lives, we need something called empathy, along with insight and consideration. There is no way that technology is going to do that. Those focused on a career helping others can be assured of business for decades to come.

Welfare Officer

Another tried and tested career choice that has little to do with the brilliance of computers. This essential sphere depends on good hearts, sound training, and warm communication skills. It’s a kind, gentle job in a tough industry, and therefore calls for tough people with kind hearts. Your purpose in this role is to take care of people, often children and the elderly. You have to know more than mere technical terms and numerical solutions, you need to know people as individuals, and how you can help them. This need doesn’t change no matter the wild leaps of technology.

Home Carer (nursing)

This is an industry that is just powering ahead. Whether you go into caring itself, or you prefer to make your way through administration and management, there are a host of opportunities going forwards for the foreseeable future. This profession has boomed for many reasons, but a key driver is the fact that people are living longer and there are not enough affordable facilities available. Psychologically, home caring can prove better for the sick and elderly. The pandemic saw a rise in demand; the home carer serves a basic nursing function, but also the function of a companion. These roles are not going to change anytime soon and they are finding greater purchase every year.

Chef

Well, we’ve all got to eat! Today it’s an industry that calls for amazing menus and good health. Food is becoming a fashionable way of life. You would be in an industry that is vital and exciting, and growing exponentially. People want to eat tasty food that is professionally prepared, they want to eat out more than in, and they want to remain aware of a healthy diet. It’s a tall order – but that’s exactly why it creates such a vibrant and growing career opportunity. And it’s a career that can take you anywhere in the world. Truly you can have your cake and eat it!

Animal Caretaker

Another phenomenally growing industry. A variety of options await you if you take a couple of courses, or even just open your home to caring for other people’s pets. You can work for a veterinary hospital, house-sit, open your own business from grooming to pet travel to dog-walking. Animals are much better cared for today – both legally and socially – and people will pay to make sure their beloved fur babies are treated well. If animal care is etched in your heart, make it your career.

Communications – the softer side of business

Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations remain incredibly viable options. No matter how a business runs, it will still have to advertise and make people aware. If you’re creative and astute, this is an industry that has to survive well into the future because real creativity lies in the human brain and not in the silvery connections of a computer. Get the appropriate qualifications, and take any job you can that will give you more perspective and a toe into this highly competitive sphere. Move with calculated care from job to job until you have the ammunition to make your niche. The power of a message and an agile brain is not going to disappear because a robot managed to spout a few monotone words.

Software Engineer

Let’s key this in as VIP – very important profession. It’s a career space that is moving so fast that what you learnt two years ago is already be out of date. Be prepared to learn, learn, learn – and then learn some more! But if you have the qualifications, and the head for it, this is probably the number one career in technology at the moment. Software engineers are designing programs for the future, for AI and for robotics. This is a career that will literally see you designing how people will work, interact and live in the next couple of decades.

Data Scientist, Logistics, IT and Web Development

These are new and not so new, and not going away any time soon either. All of these energies have been around for some time, but the demand just grows. So if you are thinking of moving into the wonders of numbers and creativity in the computer world, then you can’t do better than investigate these options. These are stable careers built on decades of development but which are now even more essential to the operations of many businesses. For interest, invention, and keeping up with the changes and challenges of 2023, these are the roads you may choose to follow – options that have long strengthened and expanded, and firmly entrenched their value.