Top Career Choices for the post-Covid World

If you’re in your senior years of high school, chances are you’re thinking about what your future career paths will look like. You’re also likely looking at the world around you – the coronavirus pandemic and an Australian economy that’s probably going to go into recession – and thinking that the future might not be too rosy.

To ensure you’re making the most stable career choices, it helps to look at the big picture. What jobs will be in highest demand in the next few years, as the economy stabilises and recovers? What are the larger industry trends and social shifts? Your career choices will be affected by new technologies, new ways of working, and new challenges like coronavirus. New jobs will be created, and new skills may be required for you to perform existing jobs.

With all that in mind, let’s take a look at the most reliable career choices for the next few years.


Healthcare

The Australian government tells us that healthcare and social assistance is not only the largest employing industry in the country – employing nearly two million people – but that it’s also the fastest growing, and set to continue that way. There are a few key reasons for this: an ageing population, government investment in hospitals, growing demands for childcare, the roll-out of the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) and increased focus on mental health.

So, as far as job prospects go, healthcare is an oldie but a goodie. There are all the usual suspects, of course: doctors and medical specialists, which are the highest paying jobs, and nurses. But if you don’t quite get the ATAR for an undergraduate medicine degree – at least 99, in addition to other requirements like a UCAT score – don’t fret: there are plenty of other options. In fact, the healthcare occupations that are most in demand are registered nurses, disabled and aged workers, and nursing support.


Business skills

If that sounds like a broad category, it is. The nature of corporate work is changing rapidly, and employers are always looking for new recruits to diversify their skill base. The good news is that, as the Australian government puts it, ‘Skills are the language of the workplace.’ Employers often value your skills over your formal qualifications, or whether you know the right person.

What skills will be most in demand over the coming years? The first is a growing interest in business strategy: collecting data (the job title is usually ‘data scientist’ or ‘data engineer’) to analyse market trends and develop new business strategies. Another is a renewed focus on the customer: using marketing skills to make businesses more responsive to customers’ demands. Again, if that sounds broad, it is. The best starting place? A good old business or commerce degree. Most require an ATAR in the 90s.


Information technology

It doesn’t take a tech whiz to figure out that computing skills will be needed in our increasingly interconnected world. The more you get into this area the more specific the skill sets become, but in 2019, the most commonly advertised roles were user interface/user experience designers, and software engineers and developers. There’s also a focus on improving IT systems for businesses: for example, back-end web developers, cloud engineers, cybersecurity specialists. Also worth noting is the growing interest in artificial intelligence – including but not limited to robotics, and functioning across many areas of business including finance and marketing. AI specialists have seen 75% annual growth in demand over the past five years.


Education and training

This is another oldie but a goodie: think teachers and educational aides. While Australia doesn’t always treat teaching with the respect or pay it deserves, education and training is the fifth largest employing industry in the country. While undergraduate education degrees have lower ATARs than other degrees on this list, often in the 70s and 80s, they’re nothing to sniff at – and the government tells us that teaching and training will be the third fastest growing employment area for the next few years.


So this is the big picture for jobs in a post-coronavirus world: a mix of old and new industries with old and new skills, and with a mix of hard skills (science, technology, engineering and maths) and soft ones (social, personal and communication skills). This means there’s something for everyone, encompassing a wide range of interests, skill levels and future ATARs – you just have to be smart with what you choose.