Getting into the High-Tech Fast Lane

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If you’re a tech grad and have been working for some time in your field, you may be getting the itch to change. In tech, as you know, nothing stands still. So if you’re not moving forward and riding the crest of the latest tech breakthroughs, you could be history in a few short years. Here’s what’s going on in the fast lane of technology these days (and where you’ll want to be in your next job).

3-D printing

It may not be as glamorous as working for Google, but this is where the action is when it comes to manufacturing. Companies, regardless of size, will be able to crank out products quickly, locally, and at a much lower cost. Known as Additive Manufacturing (AM), the process allows products to be created by depositing material (usually plastic or metal) layer upon layer. Things like iPhone cases, shoes, car dashboards, and prosthetic limbs will all be made faster and more efficiently with AM.

New Breed Robotics/Automation

This field is changing fast as networked sensors, artificial intelligence, and voice communications move assembly and virtually anything repetitive into the fast lane. Amazon’s robotic automated warehouse is where things are headed. The new jobs will be in design, programming and installation of these advanced “humanless” systems. Also needed will be tech types to service and maintenance them.

3-D web

It’s coming faster than you think. The 3-D web will dramatically re-shape today's internet. Video games, YouTube and online programming will make today’s web experience come alive. Virtual walk-in showrooms will create a whole new generation of web browsers, providing shoppers with a “you are there” sensation. To feed this technology, graphic artists, designers and programmers will be needed in droves--people with both creative and tech skillsets.

Smart e-Personal Assistants

Apple’s Seri launched this concept in a big way and now others are taking notice. As the technology matures, more professionals will have smart e-personal assistants that will support them in their daily, weekly and monthly tasks. Every specific e-personal assistant program will need tech expertise to create it and keep in working.

Cloud services and virtualization

Virtually every business sector and size will enroll in cloud services of some sort.  There’s simply too much at stake to risk the huge amounts of data and programming that’s currently kept on site. As computing capacity goes up, cloud costs will fall. IT pros will be needed to rapidly spearhead this evolution, creating jobs in a wide range of areas in support of this trend.

Connected Intelligent Devices

Microchips are already embedded in many of our appliances, and growing increasingly prolific in our vehicles. Some estimate that by 2020, over a billion machines will be talking to each other. Refrigerators will be connected to the local market and order milk and eggs when we run low. Clothing will be wired to tell us which outfits work together and which clash. Wristbands that monitor calories burned, distances travelled and diet patterns will grow increasingly sophisticated and talk to us in a “voice” of our choosing. Tech careers in these fields will flourish.

Are you ready for the brave new world of high tech? It’s where the jobs are going.

 

Image courtesy of SOMMAI/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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