Just before the advent of 21st century, between 1995 and 2000, a dominant point of discussion was the Y2K bug. Also called Year 2000 bug or Millennium Bug, it referred to the problem in the coding of computerised systems around the world. The entire economy and IT research went overboard to set it right although there was no major impact. In this process a large number of related studies, careers, professions and jobs emerged.

Then came the Great Recession - the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009. It began with the housing market bubble, created by an overwhelming load of mortgage-backed securities that bundled high-risk loans. Reckless lending led to unprecedented numbers of loans in default. The losses led many financial institutions to fail and required huge governmental bailouts. The career impact of this crisis was two pronged - a renewed interest in financial risk analysis, actuarial sciences, financial valuation and analyst; and focus on the micro, small and medium enterprises and bootstrapping start-ups instead of seeking jobs in large or multi-national companies.

A decade later, we are facing another crisis that has far more impact - the worst pandemic in the last century. The world may face 4 to 5 per cent or more contracted economy from the current global volume of $80 trillion. Hence, the focus will be on ‘small is beautiful’, going digital, reducing costs, going local, less trans-border movements, focus on public health and education, technology-enabled services going forward, and lean and mean organisations, which depend on gig and circular economies.. Naturally, the career focus too is unique.

Healthcare

The biggest gainer will be the entire domain of healthcare and wellness. Careers in biotechnology, where products are engineered for better healthcare; microbiology, with focus on isolating bad microbes and using good microbes, and including areas like immunology and virology; biochemistry, where chemical products are developed for biological use; and pharmacy, where medicines and OTC and prescriptions based drugs are studied and developed, will flourish. Admissions in universities in 2020 already show this rising trend. Regular medical sciences and alternative medicines in Homeopathy and Ayurveda will also attract interest.

Digital Marketing

With restricted human movements and changing consumer behaviour, careers in digital branding, marketing and selling will go through the roof. Every organisation now, even NGOs, has started creating a digital persona, evolving an audience with regular interaction for sales, behaviour change or e-reputation enhancement. Several universities have introduced Digital Marketing specialization even at BBA levels.

Education & Edu-tech

Academic research and teaching careers, aided by educational technology and learning management systems calling for digital classes, blended education and online evaluation make another preferred domain of careers. Since work from home is being accepted even in academics, this shall be popular career choice, especially among women. Creatively engaging the learner online is by itself a major work-focus today. Research always had a blend of work from home, from labs and from the fields.

Web Media & Entertainment

With access to web journalism and entertainment having increased rapidly over 2020, the focus in media is now on web-led convergence. After print-led media in 1980s and 1990s, we moved to TV-led media from 2000. Now we are moving towards digital media through app-based services, online paid news portals, OTT-based web entertainment, digital music apps, and even regular television consumption online. Careers in these fields will see a boom, including digital filmmaking, gaming and animation.

MSME Focus

With the motto to go lean and mean, the renewed focus is on micro, small and medium enterprises, which will drive the global economy. These enterprises, a backbone of Indian economy, hire local talents, engage larger number of people, have proper resource procurement and distribution of products and services. In an economy, which is seeing rapid fall of white collar jobs, and in many cases even the blue collar ones, MSME sector will be the major focus of jobs and careers.

Startup Culture & Incubation

There is already a rising tide of small startups, in multiple sectors like agro-based, clean tech or deep tech based, learning solutions, healthcare solutions, retail based, essentials business.

The desire to go solo, get a band of dedicated team members, identify one specific pain point or need of an audience in a given geography, is already being seen.

Universities are increasingly making startup and incubation as a compulsory course and teaching all compliances and strategies to be ‘born’ as a business.

AI, ML, Block-chain & Cyber Security

While BTech Computer Science and Engineering remain the most preferred destination for technology education, measuring more than 40 per cent of all engineering students who have taken admission in engineering colleges in India in 2020, plain vanilla BTech is passe. The focus is now on one specialized areas like Artificial Intelligence-Machine Learning, Block-chain, or Cyber Security.

Data Analytics

Interestingly, a blended scenario of management learning along with Big Data Analytics of the STEM domain is also rising. We can now see BBA and MBA courses in Data Analytics, with a minor in Computer Science, or BTech education along with a minor in management, which makes the technology learning more contextual in business.

Blended Inter-Disciplinary Careers

The concept of a lifetime career is coming to an end. There is quite a large part of the work-force, which takes up multiple careers, particularly those who are in white or blue collared jobs. Hence, multi-skilling and major-minor joint education have become focal points. We find an aspirant cyber lawyer studying BSc-LLB with a minor in Computer Science, or a wannabe pharma professional studying BPharma along with a minor in management, or a marketing professional studying Brand Communication as a minor. All these are leading to blend of inter-disciplinary careers.

Communication & Emotional Intelligence

Whichever is the career choice for post pandemic professional life, no one can escape the need to muster good communication skills (verbal and written), group discussion skills, interview skills, teamwork and leadership skills, and developing emotional intelligence to handle stress at work or at home and understand emotional needs to colleagues around.

The author is Pro Vice Chancellor, Adamas University, Kolkata