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Course with employment: "Profession Methodologist from scratch to PRO»
Learn moreWhat are your inclinations and abilities?
A profession can be promising in terms of career advancement and high income. However, if it does not match your interests and abilities, this can lead to rapid emotional burnout. It is important to choose a profession that will be not only financially beneficial but also fulfilling. The match between personal hobbies and professional activities plays a key role in maintaining motivation and peace of mind.
When choosing a professional path, it is important to consider personal characteristics that can influence your career. Elena Tarasenko, head of the Step by Step career navigation laboratory, recommends paying attention to your individual work style. Think about what conditions are most comfortable for you: do you prefer to work in a team or independently, is schedule flexibility important to you, and how you handle stressful situations. Understanding these aspects will help you make a more informed choice and find a profession that will align with your personal preferences and values.
- Do you prefer working alone or in a team?
- Do you seek or avoid risk?
- Do you tend to act independently or need structure and instructions?
- Do you prefer to lead others or be a follower?
According to Elena, certain qualities are more readily apparent in different professions. For example, a psychologist often works independently, while a manager interacts with a team and other people. It's also worth considering your personal interests and values: what success means to you, what changes you want to make in the world, and what you are not willing to give up in a difficult situation. These aspects play a key role in choosing a profession and developing an individual approach to work.
What is a particular profession?
To correctly match your interests and skills with a particular field or profession, you need to clearly understand the essence of this work. It is important to form realistic ideas about the profession, rather than relying on stereotypes presented in movies and TV series. The best way to get a true understanding of the profession is to use your social connections and find an acquaintance or "friend of friends" who works in the field you are interested in. Conduct an informal interview with them: ask them to talk about their typical workday - where they work, what tasks they perform, who they interact with, and how actively they communicate with colleagues. Find out what they enjoy about their work and what irritates them, which aspects they find easy and which ones difficult. This approach will help you gain a more complete understanding of the profession and make an informed choice.
Elena Tarasenko recommends that adults deciding to change professions actively use their network of contacts to organize a professional tryout. This can be an excellent way to learn more about a new field. For example, you can contact a specialist and ask them to assign a task from real-life practice, and then discuss the completed work and receive feedback. Even if you are aiming to master a field very different from your current one, the concept of six handshakes can be effective. Elena shares her experience when she needed a jockey for an interview in France, and even this task was successfully resolved thanks to her contacts. Using a professional network can significantly facilitate the process of transitioning to a new career.
What are the prospects for this profession?
Calling is only one aspect that determines success in a profession. It is important to keep in mind that in order to earn a decent income, you need to know the value of your specialty in the labor market. When choosing a career, many people focus on current employer needs, but it's more prudent to consider the future. Learning and gaining experience take time, and it's worth considering whether your chosen profession will remain in demand in the future. Therefore, it's important not only to consider current trends but also to anticipate changes in the labor market to ensure your career is stable and successful in the long term.
When choosing a specialty with quick entry into the labor market, it is important to consider current trends and demand for professions. Many digital specialties allow you to quickly learn and start working in the coming years. If you are considering long-term education options, such as higher or vocational education, it is worth paying attention to forecasts for professions in demand in four to five years. This is no easy task, as the modern labor market is changing rapidly. During this time, demand for currently popular professions may decline, while new areas may become relevant. In addition, new specialties may emerge that do not yet exist but require basic knowledge that can be mastered now.
Forecasting trends requires careful analysis. It is important to monitor current trends, study expert opinions, and seek out reliable analytical data on the topic of interest. In the next part of the article, we will present some such data.
How to compare all three factors
Accurately assessing your own inclinations and abilities is a key step in choosing a profession. It is necessary to compare your interests with the real requirements of various specialties to find the optimal combination. You'll likely have several suitable options, and it's important to choose among them, considering the development prospects of each profession. This will not only allow you to achieve career success but also find fulfillment in your work.
Career guidance and counseling play a key role in choosing the right field. Career guidance specialists and consultants can help you identify your inclinations and match them with current professions. Their job is not only to assess your individual characteristics but also to stay abreast of current labor market trends. This will allow you to make an informed choice that aligns with your interests and market needs.
When choosing a profession, it's important to remember that relying solely on a single career guidance test or a single interview is inappropriate. As Tatyana Klyachko, Director of the Center for Continuous Education Economics at the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IAER) of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), emphasized in an interview with Skillbox Media, the career guidance process requires careful and lengthy work with each individual. Young people may respond differently to questions depending on their circumstances, so it's important to consider each person's individual needs. An optimal approach to career guidance includes not only discussions but also practical exposure to a variety of professions and working conditions, which facilitates a more informed career choice. Elena Tarasenko, head of the Step by Step Career Guidance Lab, emphasizes that teenagers often struggle to find opportunities for a full-fledged internship as part of career guidance, as not every company is willing to offer such an opportunity. However, it's possible to analyze key activities characteristic of the career the teenager is interested in and test them in practice. For example, if a student dreams of becoming an entrepreneur who organizes processes, they should try managing something now. This could be organizing their own birthday party or setting up a sales outlet at a school fair. Such practical experience can give a teenager much more insight into their management aspirations than an internship at a well-known company.
Adults who want to change their profession, They can navigate this process independently. For example, a free course from Skillbox offers the opportunity to master the basics of IT and digital professions, which will help you determine which specialty is right for you. For up-to-date information on the labor market demand for various digital specialties and salary levels, consult the guide launched by hh.ru. This resource provides valuable information on salaries and the number of vacancies for each specialty, not only currently but also over time, starting in 2020. This allows you to see which specialists are experiencing increasing demand, and which areas are experiencing stagnation or declining interest from employers.
If you're considering a long-term university education, ranging from 4 to 6 years, it's important to evaluate the prospects of your chosen field. To do this, it's worth paying attention to expert and analytical forecasts that highlight general trends in your field. The next section provides detailed information on these trends.
To assess how expert forecasts might apply to your situation, it's helpful to follow Tatyana Klyachko's recommendation and analyze your educational and career trajectory in your chosen field. You should add up all your education expenses, including the cost of living in another city if relocation is required, as well as tutoring and additional courses. These costs should then be compared with the potential income that working in your chosen field can generate. This approach will allow you to more consciously choose a career and evaluate the financial feasibility of investing in education.
An important resource for those choosing a career path is the guide available on the special applicant platform of the SuperJob recruiting service. Its main feature is "career maps," which detail paths to leadership positions in various fields. These maps indicate the required educational levels and specific skills required at different career stages, for example, to reach the position of IT director or head of the legal department. They also indicate how long career progression might take under ideal conditions, which averages between six and ten years, not including education. Most of the professions described in SuperJob's "career maps" require a relevant higher education.
Which professions experts consider promising
Every two years, the World Economic Forum (WEF) releases a report called the Future of Jobs Report, which analyzes changes in the labor market. In the latest report, published in May 2023, experts examined forecasts of changes in the employment sector through 2027. The document highlights professions for which demand will increase significantly, which emphasizes the importance of adapting to new labor market conditions.
- AI and machine learning specialists;
- sustainable development specialists;
- business analysts;
- cybersecurity engineers;
- fintech engineers;
- big data analysts and researchers;
- robotics engineers;
- big data specialists;
- agricultural machinery operators;
- digital transformation specialists.
According to the report, in recent years, the greatest growth has been observed not in the IT sector, but in HR and talent acquisition, as well as in marketing and sales, emphasizes Elena Tarasenko. This demonstrates the importance of developing human resources and effective sales strategies in today's market conditions.
According to the new personnel forecast of the consulting company McKinsey, in the USA and European countries up to By 2030, a robust demand is expected for advanced mathematical and IT skills, as well as programming and data analysis. Furthermore, highly qualified specialists in STEM and healthcare will be in demand. This underscores the importance of developing skills in these fields for a successful career in the future.
Russian experts are also expressing their opinions on the future of the labor market. Angelina Kapitonova, Director of HR Development at the Digital Economy League, noted in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta in August 2023 that in five years, specialists in big data analysis, cybersecurity, and business analysis will be in greatest demand. She also emphasized the importance of synergy between IT skills and other professions, such as linguistics and law. This combination makes it possible to create complex AI assistants, making such specialists extremely valuable in the labor market.
In 2024, the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting published a long-term forecast through 2035. In the document, the authors note that a surplus of higher-educated specialists is expected in the coming years. However, according to their calculations, a number of industries will experience a shortage of highly qualified personnel. This is particularly true in areas such as information technology, healthcare, and engineering. The forecast emphasizes the need to adapt educational programs to labor market requirements to ensure the training of specialists capable of meeting the growing demand in these key fields.
- information security;
- weapons and weapons systems;
- nanotechnology and nanomaterials;
- architecture;
- pharmacy;
- computer science and computer engineering.
Currently, there are two main trends in the field of information technology. Some may wonder: should everyone really strive for a career in IT, and will there be no other professions left? Of course, they will remain. However, it is important to understand which specializations will be most in demand. With almost all aspects of our lives becoming digital, the demand for professions related to information technology is obvious. The development of digitalization opens up new opportunities and creates a need for qualified specialists in various fields, from software development to cybersecurity.
Some are already questioning the long-term demand for programmers. For example, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang expressed the opinion that programming as a skill will become obsolete, as artificial intelligence will soon take over these tasks. However, other experts are confident that complex tasks requiring creativity and deep analysis will not be achievable by artificial intelligence in the near future. This means that IT work will remain relevant for humans, and specialists in this field will remain in demand. Dmitry Krutov, CEO of the educational platform Skillbox, in an interview with RBC Trends, expressed his opinion on the future demand for programmers. He believes that demand for programmers will peak within ten years and then begin to decline due to the increasing role of artificial intelligence, which is already partially performing their functions. In the long term, according to Krutov, product managers will be in greatest demand. These cross-functional specialists possess deep knowledge in several fields, communicate effectively, and manage teams to successfully create IT products. In a rapidly evolving technology environment, product managers will become key players in creating innovative solutions and organizing IT processes.
Dmitry Krutov and other experts identify three key areas of activity that will always be in demand. These areas ensure job stability and offer numerous opportunities for career advancement. When discussing these areas, it is important to note that they create a steady demand for professionals, which makes them attractive to those seeking long-term work.
- related to the human body (medicine, bioengineering);
- related to nutrition (from production to distribution of products);
- related to energy and mobility.
Fields such as IT, oil and gas, and construction are regularly cited as the most promising in mass surveys. These studies typically reflect current labor market trends and the preferences of authoritative experts. In a 2024 survey of employed Russians, along with IT, respondents identified oil and gas and construction as professions with high potential. These areas continue to attract attention due to the stable demand for qualified personnel and innovation in these fields.
This year, parents of school graduates note that their children intend to continue their education in information technology, medicine, teaching, and engineering. Interestingly, survey results show similar preferences among Russians over 45: many want to obtain additional education in the medical field, followed by accounting and teaching, and, with a significant lead, chefs and IT specialists. Experts are currently pointing to a shortage of skilled workers in the labor market. According to forecasts from the Ministry of Labor, over the next five years, the most in-demand professions will remain turners, milling machine operators, metalworkers, and welders. Thus, the choice of educational directions among both young people and older people demonstrates a steady interest in professions related to practical skills and required in the labor market.
