Doctor, lawyer, teacher, engineer, salesperson…the list goes on. These are jobs we’ve all heard of, and may or may not have the skills or desire to be. But have you heard of food stylist, chief listening officer, futurist, computational linguist or logistician? How about Global Mobility Specialist? Digital risk officer?
Many of the jobs available today didn’t exist when you entered college – just as many will develop over the next 10 years that today we can’t even fathom. There are even many that have existed for years, but you may just never have heard of them.
Considering a job in health care, but not necessarily a nurse or doctor? There are hundreds of occupations in the industry. How about a cardiovascular perfusionist? Surgical Neurophysiologist? What about a Clinical Account Specialist? Many of these roles require additional certification and training, but are viable careers for a college graduate interested in a medical career. There are many opportunities within an operating room, from assisting the surgeon via high-tech monitors and machinery to selling the machines and training the doctors on how to use them.
Interested in helping people – but not in the medical field? A plethora of jobs in the customer care arena are vital. Chief satisfaction officer, customer service rep, disaster relief responder are all careers that will help people in various capacities. The Red Cross and many social service agencies need staff to respond to disaster zones. Similarly, the government (FEMA, in particular) needs staff to assist in times of natural disaster. And don’t discount insurance companies – they deploy hundreds of claim representatives to assist their customers at these same disaster sites.
Not interested in sales, or retail jobs? Maybe you should reconsider. Remember that every retailer is a business and there are hundreds of roles in retail that support the business – from buyers to logistics managers to community relations/corporate responsibility roles.
Like politics? Many jobs in politics are really sales jobs – from grassroots communications to lobbying, you’re selling an idea or a position instead of a product. Many other political roles are customer service-oriented – solving problems for constituents.
Of course, there are many traditional jobs that have creative titles, and cutting edge companies that have renamed or created very unique roles – check out this Fortune article for a list including Chief Executive Unicorn, Chief Evangelist, Digital Prophet and Chief Storyteller.
When looking for your next step, don’t limit yourself to jobs you’ve heard of. There are many more that you haven’t heard of than you can imagine. Explore a little and be open to a lot.
