Future-Proof Jobs & Industries in Australia: Best Jobs for the Future

What will the jobs of the future look like? What careers are future-proof?

There are changes in motion that will affect your career path. New technologies were already reshaping the job market before coronavirus hit, but the pandemic has forced this trend to ramp up speed, pushing us closer to the future of work.

So what does this mean for you?

If you don’t pay attention, you might get left behind. But if you step to it, you could move into one of the best emerging jobs and future proof your career.

In this article, we’ll take you through:

According to LinkedIn data, these industries are on the rise, bouncing back strongly from the impacts of COVID-19. Within each industry, these are the most in-demand roles, making them some of the best jobs of the future across a wide range of industries.

Source: Australian Jobs on the Rise Report, LinkedIn

Over the next five years (2020-2025), the LMIP predicts that most of the new jobs created will be in these 4 Australian industries:

Source: LMIP Employment Projections

What do enterprise account executives do?

Enterprise account executives are high-level account managers. They manage relationships with larger ‘enterprise’ customers. Their key responsibilities are to drive sales by forming new relationships, developing new markets, promoting the brand, and maintaining existing relationships.

What experience will be helpful?

Enterprise account executives usually have extensive experience in sales and account management, with at least 3 years tenure in a senior role, like:

• Senior account executive
• Account manager
• Sales manager

What skills will you need to become an enterprise account executive?

A Bachelor’s Degree in Business or Marketing is the norm, but is not required. It’s more important to have experience in similar roles and mastery of these required skills:

• Salesforce
• Cloud computing
• Solution selling
• SaaS (Software as a Service)
• Sales management

What do product owners do?

A Product Owner plans and prioritizes the work of a software development team, maximising the value they provide to an organisation.

In the Agile software development method, the product owner is responsible for the backlog of tasks, making sure that developers are working on the right thing, at the right time, in the right order.

This is a leadership role involving a high level of communication between stakeholders, business strategy and project management.

What experience will be helpful?

Product owners are typically seasoned project managers and business analysts with a thorough understanding of Agile and Scrum. Previous experience in product and tech using those frameworks will help you land this job.

• Business analyst
• Project manager in tech
• Product manager
• Software engineer

What skills will you need to become a Product Owner?

A degree with a major in business or computer science is the most common qualification. 82% of Product Owners have at least a bachelor’s level, and over a third have a master’s. That being said, you may find your way into this role through relevant work experience if your degree isn’t relevant.

• Business analytics
• Agile methodologies
• Scrum
• Business process improvement
• Product strategy

What do customer success managers do?

This role is an evolution of your classic sales or account manager role for digital companies. You’ll find them primarily working with Software as a Service, particularly cloud and subscription-based services (such as cloud-based accounting tools or creative suites).

Customer success managers help customers use their products effectively. Rather than acquiring new customers, which is a cost-intensive process, they aim to keep their existing customers happy and retain them as subscribers.

What has driven demand?

This role has enjoyed massive growth over the past five years due to the rise of Software as Service (cloud and subscription-based business models)

What experience will be helpful?

Previous experience in related fields and roles will be beneficial, like:

• Account manager
• Tech support
• Project manager
• Business development manager

What skills will you need to become a customer success manager?

Even though this is a role in a tech company, it does not require a STEM-based skillset. It’s much heavier on the soft skills, as much of the role is relationship-centric. As such, it would be very suited to people who love people!

• Enterprise software management
• SaaS (Software as a Service)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Salesforce
• Customer satisfaction
• Cloud computing

What do engagement managers do?

Working for vendor companies, an engagement manager builds and maintains relationships with clients, serving as the first point of contact throughout a project. They help the clients use the company’s services effectively, solve customer problems, make sure that contract terms are met, oversee billing and invoicing, and manage project performance. They also lead the customer engagement team, managing resources like specialised consultants and reporting to senior management.

What experience will be helpful?

A background in sales and project management will be beneficial, and specialised experience in a particular industry will be very helpful.

• Consulting
• Program manager

What skills will you need to become an engagement manager?

In addition to extensive relevant work experience, bachelor’s degree in computer science or IT is usually needed. Many engagement managers also have a postgraduate degree (i.e. masters or higher).

• Program management
• Business analysis
• Business process improvement
• Analytics
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

If you haven’t been paying attention to the increasing chatter about jobs and automation, the gist of it seems to be this: artificial intelligence and robotics will replace jobs; technology is a threat to the workforce.

There’s a kernel of truth to this, but while automation will definitely replace many repetitive and mundane jobs, technological innovation has historically created many more jobs than it has destroyed.

Further, the industries which will boom in the next 5 years will be relatively untouched by automation and AI. 

So far the pace of technological change has only been accelerating, which means that the jobs affected by it change much more rapidly as time goes by. To stay relevant, it’s not enough to learn new skills one time. Job seekers need to stay up to date with changes in their industry and continually upskill with short courses and micro-credentials, so they can adapt to a completely new role or a new sector if necessary.

According to Sam Chisholm, Talent Manager at Cotton On Group, it doesn’t matter so much any more if you can’t say what you’ll be doing in five years; after all, the job you’ll be doing might not even exist yet! What’s important in the Australian labour market is staying “flexible, adaptable, agile and responsive”, just like the technology that is driving so many changes in the world of work.

If you’ve decided it’s time to change careers, hiring managers are now treating skills as more important than previous job titles.

According to research by the Department of Jobs and Small Business in the US, about 70% of employers value soft skills as much, or even more than technical skills. In a recent report, LinkedIn found that employers prized these skills above all:

The report recommended that hiring managers should try and hire for skills rather than past jobs, which means even if you don’t have the exact right experience on your resume, you may have the skill set that employers are looking for.

That’s one really good reason to constantly upskill yourself, in accordance with what jobs and industries are on the rise.

The most effective way of future-proofing your job in Australia is to always be upskilling and building new skills, since career change will be based on your transferable skills rather than experience in specific roles.