Consider how many new technologies have entered our lives in the past five years: smartphones, tablets, Google Glass, 3D printing, drones, self-driving cars, big data, cloud computing.
Some people say new tech will destroy jobs. No doubt that's true, in part. We just don't need a lot of typewriter repair people today.
But new tech will also lead to new jobs, some of them incredible to ponder. Want to be a 3D body-part printer? Or an augmented reality architect? These are the job vacancies that will be open tomorrow.
Augmented Reality Architect
Google Glass is coming, and one of the new things it does is superimpose words and graphics from the Internet onto the real world.
That's called "augmented reality." As these devices become mainstream, all kinds of apps for augmented reality become possible: everything from games to work apps.
Someone will need to design them, according to a report from the World Future Society.
Mobile Technology Administrator
The PC and smartphone have already merged into a new device: the tablet and soon all business phones will be smartphones. Next, wearable devices will invade corporate-scale enterprise tech.
Enterprises will need people who can manage these devices, from tracking and securing them, to loading software on them and repairing them, writes Daniel Burrus, CEO of technology market research and forecasting firm Burrus Research.
Robot-Assisted Field Worker
According to MIT professors Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, the workforce now employs robots and software programs to do the "middle-skilled" work that humans used to do, like answer phones and answer questions.
The professors say that this is hurting job creation. But Google chairman Eric Schmidt believes the opposite is true. That this will create new job roles where humans work collaboratively with robots to perform tasks.
So, for instance, instead of manually packing boxes, a human will operate robots that will pack five boxes at a time.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider