One career that has definitely experienced the most change over the last twenty years is technology. There are jobs out there that never even existed in the early 1990s, like streaming movies for millions of people or online coaching in almost every discipline. Certain other jobs have appeared as well that no one could have predicted. Have a look at how some people make a living now on this planet of ours.
1. Full Time Netflix Viewer
If you get the job of a Tagger at the Netflix media company, you show up every day and watch movies and television series before they are made available to customers. It sounds ideal, spending hours getting to see the wonderful world of film in a leisurely setting. There is one drawback: you don’t decide what you get to watch – that is up to Netflix. You watch what they give you and your personal preferences are not taken into account. Your job is to “tag” the movies and television programs by assigning them to a genre. The films you get can run from children’s animation to heavy metal concerts to horror and gore to the latest action and drama, but there is no opting out of viewing whatever you’re asked to tag.
Although the Taggers rate each movie according to guidelines that explain how to determine its genre, they don’t rate them as good or bad the way a movie critic would. For example, they would assess the level of violence as part of assigning categories so Netflix can place the movie or program under the appropriate heading on its website. For most Taggers, this is a part-time job running from a few hours a week up to twenty, but they aren’t complaining.
2. App Developer
One of the most in-demand jobs now is that of the app developer, whose way of working is still the stuff of science fiction to most of us. There are over one million apps available from Apple and Android’s Google Play. All those apps have been created only within the last seven years! It is really a tsunami of profitable mobile applications and has become wildly successful. Programmers who can handle this kind of code are usually able to name their salary, and there are nowhere near enough of them available to meet the public’s desire for more apps.
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3. IMAX Screen Cleaner
Who cleans these vast, wide IMAX screens? Keep in mind, those screens are eight stories high and it can take over seven hours to do the job! It takes an expert who has to prove his or her professional skill at ensuring these enormously expensive object will be treated carefully and the job done to perfection. A very long pole with soft fiber attached (microweave or lamb’s wool) is used to sweep across the screen in even rows horizontally and vertically. No Windex, thank you.
4. Air Nanny
A number of airlines have decided to control screaming children and help distracted parents of those children – not to mention passengers aboard the flight – by arranging to have “nannies” on board. The parents hire the nannies to amuse toddlers and care for infants, keeping them calm and giving them all the attention they need to remain happy and contented for the duration of the flight. These “flying nannies” are not casual candidates. Many of them (though not all) are required to have certification and training in some child psychology and behavior, as well as training in activities that will keep children occupied and well-behaved. It is seen as a more positive alternative than the increasing trend of some airlines to remove families from flights when the children are disruptive.
5. Professional Ethical Hacker
The average salary of an ethical hacker starts around $90,000.00. They are considered to be worth their weight in gold because they find problems and vulnerabilities in a company’s computer security systems. This includes detection of illegal hackers! The Information Technology (IT) department monitors and maintains the digital technology that keeps the company running, so it has to keep ahead of would-be invaders who are constantly revising the tricks of their trade. This is where the ethical hacker, hired as a protector, will try to hack into the system repeatedly in ever-new ways to ensure its firewalls and encryption programs cannot be breached.
6. Chief Listening Officer
Perhaps no job signals the technological shift in marketing more than the rise of the Chief Listening Officer. This is someone hired by a company to actively – and avidly – follow social media and find out what people think and feel about the company. No more questionnaires or sudden stops on the street for random opinions. The CLO travels constantly around Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and the Web in general for any comments by consumers concerning interactions with the company or opinions about the product brand, good or bad. The data gathered is presented directly to whatever department it applies.
The CLO is skilled at understanding terms of market analysis and can hone in on the most crucial information. This person helps the company determine not only how to evaluate ad campaigns but how to interact with customers in a more positive way to encourage the customer base.
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Do you know of other unusual jobs that didn’t exist in 1990? Maybe your job is one of them? Whatever we can imagine, the philosophers tell us, we can do. With technology ever expanding, who knows what new and, yes, weird jobs are likely in the not-so-distant future!