<p>Smart cities will be bringing lots of new jobs. As we all know constant change can be a challenge to stay on top of. At the same time, it also brings many opportunities and if you can future proof your professional skills, as well as possible, then you can increase the likelihood of you having interesting and potentially well paid work. If you can know and understand what is coming in the near to medium future, you will greatly increase your prospects for securing the type of work that best fits your skill sets.</p>
<p>Cisco Systems created this helpful image to illustrate the jobs they believe will exist in the future.</p>
<p><img alt=”” src=“https://digitalskillsglobal.com/uploads/general/cisco_job_titles.jpg” style=“height:347px; width:620px” /></p>
<p>Some of these job descriptions sound a little dry, and possibly leave more questions unanswered than answered. What is a digital anthropologist, or a professional triber? Will you really need a 3D print technician? We will give you some tips for how to decipher them. Firstly, though whatever the titles turn out to be, the best way to be able to read the future trends coming is to become aware of what the latest digital trends are and will be. The great thing about the Digital Skills BSc is that, in 12 months, if offers you the opportunity to take a massive leap in terms of your knowledge about these trends.</p>
<p>The course has been devised to enable rapid progression and awareness about a range of topics and potential subsequent employment opportunities. In a rapidly changing digital sector it is less relevant what you were doing five to ten years ago. It is more important which technologies you have worked on in the last 12 months, and the areas that you have upskilled in. An up to date portfolio, demonstrating current tools and software packages will help to get you through the first round of selection for many current positions that companies are looking to fill.</p>
<p><img alt=”” src=“https://digitalskillsglobal.com/uploads/general/IPHONE_WITH_GLOWING_ICONS.jpg” style=“height:320px; width:500px” /></p>
<p> Digital Skills courses have also been designed to ensure that whichever strand you select, project management, digital design or coding and development, you work with members from the other topics too. This ensures you have at least a high level of awareness around what tools and programmes they are using to create the tasks required by the various assignments and industry placements. It also makes sense that whichever topic is your prime focus, to have a basic understanding of the pros and cons of the packages used by your fellow participants. In a rapidly changing sector no one is expected to know everything about every option, but it is a great asset to know how to learn more about a particular too. There are many many free tutorials out there which will give you at least the rudiments of how to use Wordpress / Google analytics / CSS / HTML5 / Java / PHP / Python etc. This will then put you in a much stronger position than others who have had no exposure at all to these technologies.</p>
<p>While it may sound simplistic to say ‘Google it’, a brief amount of time doing just that to each of the work titles listed in the Cisco graphic above will actually already mean you know a lot more about it than many other potential job applicants. From there you will be in a much stronger position to assess which areas appeal most to you. Generally, too a quick search of ‘top thought leaders to follow on twitter’ in the areas that interest you most will then take you to the best and brightest people to follow. These thought leaders in turn are generally pretty prolific at sharing useful and relevant resources for you to in turn learn even more about your chosen area of interest. Smart strategies like this will ensure you are in a healthy position when it comes to future proofing your career!</p>
<p>To read more about these ideas see this thought provoking article by <a href=“https://twitter.com/teena_maddox”>Teena Maddox</a> of Tech Republic <a href=“http://www.techrepublic.com/article/16-tech-jobs-that-will-be-needed-for-the-future-of-smart-cities/”>here</a>. </p>
